I started to shake my head but stopped myself. “Morgan.”
“Yes. Morgan. He stopped me. He told me that the world needed me, and I it. That one day I would find my way again. Maybe it wouldn’t be with Myrin. Maybe there would be no cure. Maybe we would never see him again. But if I stopped, Morgan said, if I just gave up, then he would have won. And that, no matter what, could not happen.”
He looked down at his hands. “It took a few years. To piece myself back together. For him. But I did, at least temporarily. He passed the Trials. He became Morgan of Shadows by his own choice. He thought it was a way of… honoring his brother. And after, I… let myself fall.”
“What happened then?”
He shook his head. “That’s a story for another day.”
“I’m glad that you didn’t give up,” I said quietly.
He laughed dryly. “Even after everything?”
“Even after everything.”
“You’re a good man, Sam. I know that I—I know that I don’t say it often. Or ever. But I am proud of you and the man you’ve become.”
I grinned at him. “Should we hug?”
He glared at me. “I will tell you the name if you don’t.”
“Oh my gods,” I said. “That is the hardest choice ever.”
“That’s just sad.”
“I mean, your wizarding name is probably something amazing. But everyone knows that hugs are just as amazing. If not more. Argh. Curse you, Randall! How dare you put me in such a position!”
“You have two seconds to decide.”
“What! So unfair!”
“One second.”
“Gaaah, okay, okay. The name. Give me the name.”
“Done, but for one thing.”
“Caveat. Of course there’s a caveat. There’s no caveats in hugs. Should have chosen that. Wicked lame, dude. You suck.”
“You can’t ask anything more about it.”
I arched an eyebrow. “About the name? Uh. Okay. That’s… I don’t know what that is. But this is the path I chose, so lay it on me.”
He stood, knees popping, standing taller than I’d ever seen him before. I felt the magic curling around our little alcove, and it was bright and sharp. I was in awe at the strength of it.
He looked down at me and said, “When I was an apprentice, I was Randall the Golden Leaf. When I passed the Trials, I became Randall of Dragons. Come now. We have rested long enough.”
Then he disappeared out into the snow, leaving me gaping after him.
HOURS LATER:
“You can’t just—”
“No.”
“But you have to—”
“No.”
“But what about—”
“No.”
“Oh my fucking gods,” I groused. “You are the worst. You are the absolute fucking worst. I can’t even with you right now.”
“Good. Maybe you’ll shut up for a little while, then.”
“Oh really, Randall of Dragons? You want me to shut up? Please, come at me, bro. Let’s do this right now!”
“Right now?” he asked, looking over his shoulder.
We stood on a winding path that was barely the width of my shoulders. On the left was a sheer rock face that rose into the clouds. On my right was a drop that went directly down the side of the mountain. “Okay,” I said, backtracking a little. “Maybe not right now, but when we get to a place I don’t feel like vomiting at the sight of, you come at me, bro. Bring it.”
“I doubt you would like what I would bring.” He turned back around and continued forward.
“You’re enjoying this far too much,” I grumbled. “Should have gone with the damn hug. At least that way, I could have—”
Wizard wizard wizardwizardWIZARD
I stumbled, pitching to the right, head spinning as I was assaulted by the sheer pull of it, and I was falling— A hand clasped tightly around my bicep, jerking me back. I hit the rock face, breathing heavily. That was too close.
“What the hell are you doing?” Randall demanded.
“Felt them,” I gasped, staring wide-eyed at the expanse of nothing before me. “In my head. They’re calling me.”
His eyes narrowed as he looked up. “We’re close. It would be prudent if you watched your step from this point forward.”
“Yeah, good idea. Watching my step. Watching all my steps. You don’t even know how many of my steps I’m going to watch.”
“All of them?”
I smiled weakly. “Maybe next time, wait until we’re not scaling the side of a mountain to develop a sense of humor.”
We continued upward, the path steep and narrowing even further. I could feel them at the back of my mind, tugging me forward. I gritted my teeth together to keep as much control as I could, but it was a difficult battle. It hadn’t been like this with Zero. I didn’t know if it was because there were two of them, or if it was because they were mated, but it hadn’t been like this in the desert. I just needed to get to them, let them see that I was a twink, and then the lesbian dragons and I would be best friends forever and that would be that.
However, when one decides on using the idea of being a twink as the main focal point of a plan, one should expect the plan to go awry. When seen from the outside, it should be plainly obvious. From the outside, one would never agree that being a twink is the best and only way to tame lesbian dragons.
But seeing as how I was on the side of a mountain, out of breath, trailing a man named Randall of Dragons, for fuck’s sake, I wasn’t necessarily thinking things through.
Which, of course, sums up most of my plans.
So when we crested a sharp hill and came to a gigantic flat surface, I was sure of myself.
Mostly sure.
Fifty percent.
Let’s try that again.
So when we crested a sharp hill and came to a gigantic flat surface, I was partially sure of myself. But it was a good partially sure.
At least until I saw the large opening carved into the side of the mountain.
“Please tell me we don’t have to go inside the dark, scary cave.”
“We have to go inside the dark, scary cave,” Randall said, barely containing his glee.
“I hate you so much right now. You don’t even know.”
“You’ll never know how much that pains me.”
“Ugh. Stop having a mouth full of sass. Let’s just get this over with.”
I tried to take a step forward, but he put an arm against my chest to stop me.
“What are you doing?” I asked, annoyed.
“What are you doing?”
“Going to get the dragons!”
“How do you plan on doing that?”
“Same way I got Zero. By showing my face, letting them get all snarly. The difference here is that they’re not fourteen-year-old little shits. They’ll see I’m a twink, and since they’re lesbians, they’ll love me and… wow. I really didn’t think that plan through, oh my gods. Why were you going to let me go through with this?”
“If only you’d had that realization years ago, one wonders where you might be. And I wasn’t letting you do anything. You were the one who was trying to sneak out of the castle!”
“You’re my elder,” I insisted. “You should know better than to enable me. Good job on that one. Just… let me think. For a moment.”