“Please don’t!” I wailed. “I won’t survive. Your insults are so much more emotionally devastating!”
“Of course they are! I am a unicorn. Emotionally devastating insults are something we naturally excel at! You better be prepared, Sam of Wilds, because by the time I’m done with you, you’re going to be mentally incapacitated for at least five days.”
“Five days?” I said, somewhat in awe. “I’ll admit, I’m actually quite curious as to what you’re going to say that could mentally incapacitate me for that long. Gods, that’s got to be something so terrible, I probably won’t even be able to move from the bed. Are you sure about this?”
“Deadly.”
“Ooh,” Tiggy said.
“Are you ready?” Gary said, leaning in close.
“I don’t know that anyone can be ready,” I admitted. “But I suppose now is as good a time as any.”
Gary nodded. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for what I’m about to do to you.”
“You say that, but I just inhaled your glitter up my nose. It kind of negates your apology.”
“Oh! I’m truly sorry about that. You know this stuff just gets everywhere.”
“Odd, right? I really wish we knew where it came from.”
Gary frowned. “What do you mean? It comes from inside me.”
“Right,” I said, “but how? Are your insides full of it? Does it come from your diet? Like, when you eat chicken or grass or something. Does it go to a special bladder inside of you that fills with chicken or grass and then it converts to glitter which is then pushed out of you when you’re angry?”
“Huh,” Gary said. “I’ve never really thought about that. I don’t think I have a special chicken grass glitter bladder. I always thought it was just part of my inherent magic.”
I nodded. “That makes sense. But, like, why is that a thing? And why is it only unicorns that can do it?”
“We’re amazing creatures.”
I smiled at him. “You really are.”
He kissed my cheek. “Thank you, kitten. It’s always nice to get validation. This has just been lovely catching up with you. Let’s never be separated for that long again. Now, who’s hungry?”
“Me!” Tiggy cried. “So hungry. I dying.”
“Poor baby,” Gary said. “We certainly can’t have that. To the kitchens, where we will feast upon—wait a godsdamn minute.”
“Shit,” I muttered.
Gary whirled on me, eyes blazing. “You thought you could pull that trick on me?”
“What? No! Oh, crap. I just lied again. Yes. That’s exactly what I thought.”
“Oh, honey, I am about to destroy every good feeling you’ve ever—”
“Didn’t you think I had the right to know?” Ryan asked, and the room fell silent.
I sighed. “It’s not about rights. I mean, what rights do we even have in all of this? It’s not as if I have rights to—”
“Stop it,” he barked harshly, taking a step forward.
“But—”
“No,” he said. “You aren’t going to talk your way out of this one. You wield words like I wield my sword, and I’ve had enough.”
I stiffened at that, trying to ignore the bright flare of anger.
“Give us the room, please,” Ryan said without looking away from me.
Gary and Tiggy hesitated, glancing back and forth between us. In the end, though, they didn’t say another word before they turned and walked out the door, Tiggy hunching over so he didn’t hit his head.
Justin made to follow, but not before he stopped behind Ryan and put his hand on his shoulder again. I watched his fingers squeeze down on Ryan, like the Prince was trying to offer him comfort. I really needed to have a word with my best friend 5eva about getting his filthy fucking hands off my man.
“You sure about this?” Justin asked him.
Ryan turned his head toward Justin, and his face softened slightly. “Yes.”
Justin nodded and looked as if he was going to say more. But then he shook his head and left the room, closing the door behind him.
This wasn’t the reunion I had in mind.
But what did I think was really going to happen? It was always going to come out at some point. I just thought I was going to be able to control it better.
My shoulder twinged again, and I must have shown it on my face, because Ryan said, “It hurts?”
“Nothing I can’t handle,” I mumbled, trying to fix the sling that was sliding off my shoulder.
Ryan was there before I could finish, pushing my hand away none too gently, fixing the sling for me. His knees bumped against mine, and I spread my legs just a little, hoping he would step closer so I could put my head on his stomach and just lie there for a little while. He didn’t. In fact, when he finished, he stepped away again. It hurt more than I would have expected.
“You had no right,” he said finally, after what felt like ages. “Especially those things that had to do with me. You had no right to keep that from me.”
“I just wanted to keep you safe. I thought if I could figure it out on my own, you wouldn’t have to worry about yet another thing too.”
He scoffed. “Of course you can spin the narrative like that. It makes you out to be the selfless one here.”
“What other reason would there be?” I snapped at him.
“You didn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth.”
I gaped at him. “Trust you enough? I trust you more than anyone.”
“Just not enough to tell me this.”
“This being the fact that Vadoma showed me your death?” I said, trying desperately to control my anger but failing miserably. “Or the fact that it was substantiated by the star dragon? Forgive me if you dying isn’t something I want to talk about.”
“Everything dies, Sam,” he growled at me. “I’m not afraid of death. I am a knight of Verania, the commander of the Castle Guard. I swore an oath to the King. I would protect him with my life. I do not fear it.”
“That’s good,” I said, annoyed at the way my eyes burned. “I’m glad you’re so quick to die. It’s nice to know you have no qualms about it.”
“And you don’t?” he said, hands fisted at his sides. “Sam, you court death like it’s nothing. How you’ve survived this long has always been a mystery to me, but now I know why. The gods needed you to get this far so that they could use you as their pawn to—”
“Hey! I’m not a pawn. And I don’t court death. It’s not my fault that so many things want to kill me. I just have one of those faces!”
His eyebrows did that little twitch they did when he was unsure of whether he wanted to strangle me or hug me. I thought maybe that was a good sign until they dropped back into their angry position. “You court death,” he said through gritted teeth. “You put yourself in these positions and seem surprised at how you got there. Yes, Sam, there are people out there who want to do you harm, but you do nothing to avoid them. It’s like you’re always out to prove to yourself that you’re capable of more than you are.”
I laughed hollowly. “Like you haven’t spent your entire life doing the exact same thing.”
“Don’t you turn this around on me, Sam. I’m not the one who—”
“Because you’ve never kept anything from me, right, Nox?”
He blanched at that. “Not because—”
“Exactly. Where was the trust then?”