“Ah, but I don’t think I will,” Ruv said. “We have… time. Before the final act. Time for a discussion about—”
Ryan was moving even as he spoke, surprisingly silent, given how much armor he wore. Lady Tina shrieked and Caleb shouted in surprise, but Ryan ignored them. He was deadly and swift, sword gripped tightly as he rushed toward Ruv.
He didn’t make it.
One moment he was running, teeth bared, and the next Ruv muttered something under his breath, raising his hands toward Ryan. There was a bright flash of sickly yellow light, and Ryan was flung back toward the wall, sword knocked from his hands. He landed with a crash, head almost at the ceiling, the wood cracking behind him. His arms and legs were spread wide as he was pinned to the wall. Before he could recover, the wood behind him snapped and broke apart, moving like it was sentient. It had a liquid quality to it, like it was flowing, and it molded itself over his hands and feet before hardening again with a dull thump. Only then did Ruv lower his hands, and Ryan sagged against the wall, effectively trapped within it.
“Ryan!” I punched the barrier again, feeling the skin of my knuckles split.
“There,” Ruv said. “That’s better.”
Ryan struggled against the grip the wall had on him. He didn’t look like he was in pain, but the sight of him trapped against the wall enraged me.
“I will kill you,” I promised Ruv. “You should know that now. When I get out of here—and you should believe me when I say that I will—I’m going to fucking kill you.”
“Wow,” Ruv said, eyes wide. “That’s rather dark coming from the great Sam of Wilds, don’t you think? You don’t kill people, Sam. That’s not your way. You get others to do it for you. Lartin the Dark Leaf. Eloise Marlowe.”
“Rystin,” Tina added from somewhere near the fireplace. “He killed Rystin. Not a person, but just as important.”
Ruv took in a very measured breath, eyes tightening just a little. “Yes. That too, I suppose. But regardless, I am surprised at you, Sam. Though I suppose once you corner an animal, it will lash out. It is the way of things. Who else has there been, Sam? How many others have fallen because of your incompetence?”
“I trusted you,” I snapped at him.
He arched an eyebrow at me. “Did you? I don’t remember that part.”
“Well. Okay. I sort of trusted you. Obviously I was right not to put my complete trust in you, since you turned out to be a villain.”
Ruv snorted. “It’s really that black and white with you, isn’t it? Even after everything you’ve been through, you see things as divided between good and evil.”
“Uh, yeah, dude. That’s pretty much what this is, in case you haven’t noticed. We’re the good guys, you’re the bad guys. And in case you hadn’t noticed, the bad guys always lose.”
“Tell that to these two,” Ruv said, nodding toward Lady Tina and Caleb. “See if they agree that you’re the good guy here.”
“Maybe not the best pool to draw opinions from,” I said. “One’s mother tried to sacrifice me after making me eat corn and admit to wanting to lovingly butt-fuck the knight you have there against the wall. The other is a psychotic superfan whose vagina I’m going to kick the shit out of just as soon as I get out of here.”
“You will stay away from my vagina,” Lady Tina said shrilly.
I turned slowly to glare at her.
She took a step back, bumping into Caleb, who had come to stand beside her.
I drew my finger along my neck. And then across my crotch.
“Really, Sam?” Ryan sighed.
“Hey! I’m trying to show that I’m a man of my word!”
“It’s funny that you think there’s still a way out of this,” Ruv said. “There’s not, of course. Not even you can get out of a trap constructed of dragon’s blood.”
“How did you even get dragon’s—Zero. You got it from Zero.”
“Smarter than you look,” Ruv said. “I’m impressed.”
“If you hurt him—”
He waved a hand at me. “I didn’t touch your precious dragon. I merely went back after you left Mashallaha and convinced him you needed a couple of vials of his blood in order to complete the bond between the two of you. He was suspicious, but in the end, his faith in you outweighed his mistrust in me. He was already growing more trees by the time I left.” Ruv grimaced. “And really, Sam, that whole your beauty is on the inside rather than the outside speech you gave to him was misplaced, don’t you think? I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anything more disgusting than him.”
“I don’t understand. How are you doing this? Why are you doing this?” Another thought crossed my mind, and it made my stomach churn. “Is she a part of this?”
“She?”
“Vadoma.”
He laughed. “Oh. Her. No. She’s… useful, in her own way. She has a connection to you in blood, but also by the gods. They came to her long before my birth. I had no part in that, nor would I want it. Though honestly, if they never told her about me, doesn’t it make you wonder just what sort of games they play? You have to know that you’re nothing but a pawn to them, Sam, merely being shuffled across the board for their amusement. Do you understand that? The gods don’t care about you. If they did, do you think you’d be here right now? And if you think about it, if you really parse it out, is it possible that you were meant to be here, right at this moment? That everything you’ve done to get to this point mattered not, and nothing you could have done could have changed that?”
“Nothing is set in stone,” I retorted.
“Ah, yes. Because stone crumbles. Isn’t that right? Isn’t that what Zero told you? I had to keep enough distance away so that thing wouldn’t smell me, but I was close enough to hear him tell you that. Stone crumbles. Do you know what else crumbles, Sam?” He took a step forward until he was within reach, but given Zero’s blood, there was nothing else I could do. He smiled as his eyes searched my face. “Iron and steel.”
“What? What the hell are you—”
His hands snapped up, fingers bent awkwardly, and I heard him mutter dis and tae and cos, and I knew what those words meant, I knew what he was going to do even before that rotten yellow light flashed again. His magic, which was stronger than I’d ever thought it’d be, still pulled at me, even though my own was dampened by the dragon’s blood. It was invasive in a way it’d never been before, like it was the anticornerstone. I ground my teeth against the weight of it as his magic did what he’d intended it to do.
Ryan’s armor began to break apart.
Ryan shouted in anger, struggling against the bindings that held him as his armor broke off in chunks like it were cracking right down the middle. His breastplate fell first, then the gardbraces and vambraces from his arms, followed by the greaves and the cuisses from his legs. They landed with loud thunks on the ground, hissing and crackling as they crumbled. The padding he wore between the armor and the thin clothing underneath fell off to the side. He was left barefoot, wearing a tunic and trousers, both made of wool to keep the sweat from dripping down his body under the armor.