“Do you?” GW asked. “Why?”
“Because I’m ready.”
“What is your plan for Myrin?”
I waved a hand dismissively at him. “I’ll figure it out on the way. I’m good at making shit up on the fly. You know how it is.”
“You’re not ready.”
“You said that to me before. And yet here I am, all magically juiced up with five different dragons floating around in my head. I’m pretty sure I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
He rumbled his displeasure. “You know the risks.”
“Yeah. You’ve drilled them into my head a billion times. Death, destruction, the end of the world. It kind of loses its urgency when you’re always doom and gloom. Are you what Zero is going to grow up to be like? Are you a grown-up emo dragon? Do you write sad poems in your diary—”
“You think you have me fooled, child. But you don’t.”
I forced a neutral expression onto my face. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He lowered his head until we were eye level. Or rather, as eye level as a puny human standing (floating?) in front of a gigantic dragon could be. “You do not take my warning seriously.”
“Uh, yeah. I do. All six thousand of them. But just for the sake of expediting this conversation, which warning specifically?”
“That you are still capable of corruption.”
I winced. “Oh. Right. That one. Look, dude. I know you’re worried that I’m so young and that Myrin will be able to play me like a fiddle and fuck with my head—”
“Sam.”
I looked away, not wanting him to see what I’d struggled to keep hidden from him. It sounded like he was on the fringes of it as it was.
“If you’re not careful, Myrin will use your magic against you and all the people of Verania. Either he will take it from you, or you will join him.”
“Doom and gloom, man.”
He scoffed. “Foolish human. You take nothing seriously.”
“Again, I can point out that I’m here, aren’t I?”
“You still believe in them. In him.”
And I was done with this. With him. “I’ve done a lot. I’ve accepted this thing, this destiny, with minimal complaint.”
He snorted.
“Okay, fine. With a normal amount of complaint, but I told you from the
beginning. You won’t take my cornerstone away from me. You’re so worried about Myrin twisting me into something Dark, well, that’s what Ryan is for. I know you don’t believe in the strength of cornerstones. There’s nothing I can do to change that. But I do believe in them, in him. No one, not you, and certainly not the gods, will convince me otherwise. They are my family. My home. I would do anything to protect them.”
“They will lead to your ruin. You will be blinded because of him.”
“I’m not Randall,” I said, because wasn’t that the crux of the matter? Wasn’t that what GW was trying to prove? “And Ryan isn’t Myrin. He’s going to be furious with me, and I’ll take it, but I know we’ll be okay. He loves me, and I love him. And if you or the gods don’t like that, you can go fuck yourselves right in your stupid faces.”
He reared back, teeth bared.
I rolled my eyes. “Not scary, dude. I’ve seen you poop. You can’t be intimidating when you poop small mountains.”
“I’ve decided to send you back.”