“Because of course you call him GW,” he muttered, scrubbing his hand over his face. “It’s said he only essentially created the world, so why not give him a nickname.”
“Please. He liked it, even though he vehemently denied it and threatened me with a fiery death if I continued to call him that.”
“It’s good to see that your self-preservation is still remarkably intact.”
“Why thank you—hey!”
“The poem?” he asked, crossing his arms and leaning back against the door. I tried desperately not to stare at the outline of his junk through his undergarments, because we were being serious right now. But it was obvious he wasn’t wearing anything underneath them, and I didn’t think I could be blamed for cursing Ryan Foxheart in my head for posing so provocatively, especially since this was the closest I’d been to him in a long time.
I wiped the drool from my chin and said, “Blargh urgh do me.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Come again?”
“Yes, please. I mean, what?”
“The poem, Sam. The one the dragon told you? And then you decided he was full of crap and you could save the world without him and then for some reason changed your mind at the absolute worst possible moment?” Yeah, he was pissed, all right.
“Okay, so. Back up. Are you mad at me because I didn’t go with him the first time, or mad I went with him the second time? Because I can’t quite figure out what—”
“All of it! I’m angry because of everything.”
“Oh, well that’s… all-encompassing.”
“Sam,” he growled.
“Uh, yes?”
“You asshole.”
“Hey! Watch your mouth. You need to think of the children!”
“Fuck the children!” he bellowed.
“Whoa,” I whispered. “That escalated quickly.”
Ryan began to pace. “He told you to come with him. You told him no. And then everything went to hell and you went. What the fuck, Sam? What changed?”
“I didn’t want to leave you,” I said weakly. “Not with—”
“You sure as hell didn’t seem to have a problem with that after I’d been stabbed,” he retorted.
I flinched, taking a step back. “Yeah. Right. No problem whatsoever. That’s exactly right. It didn’t tear me in half at all. Good thing you know me so well.”
He laughed bitterly. “Know you? Sam, I haven’t seen you in almost a year. I don’t know who you are anymore. Before you left, I could always feel you, like there was this strange little thread that attached me to you. I thought that’s what it meant to be a cornerstone. But now? Now it’s like I’m consumed by you, and I don’t know why. Things have changed. You’ve changed. And I don’t know what that means. Or what happened to you while you—”
“I’m not an apprentice anymore,” I muttered, rubbing the back of my head. “It’s why you feel like that.”
He stopped pacing, jaw dropped. “What?”
I sighed. This wasn’t how I planned to tell him. I thought it’d come out better during pillow talk after the whole makeup sex fantasy I had going on in my head. “Uh. Yeah. Hi! I’m Sam of Dragons now. Wizard extraordinaire.” I wiggled my fingers at him, little trails of green and gold streaking around them.
“Ungh,” Ryan said, eyes slightly glazed as he watched my fingers. He shook his head as if trying to dispel whatever carnal thoughts he was having. I figured it was a good sign if he still had a magic kink. Maybe it was a little manipulative, but I would take what I could get. “What about the Trials?”
I shrugged. “I sort of… bypassed them? GW mentored Randall before the whole Myrin thing, and he did the same for me, only a little more… intensive. Randall used to be Randall of Dragons, and I guess that’s me now. GW gave me the name.”
“I don’t… holy shit.”
“Right? And I’ll let that one slide. Watch it, Foxheart. Your mouth is going to lead to such a spanking, just you wait.”