“How are you?”
“Um. Okay? I think. Vadoma announced in front of everyone that Ruv’s my cornerstone. So. You know. There’s that.”
“Is she still alive?”
I snorted.
“I’m actually being serious,” he said.
I gaped at the crystal. “I wouldn’t murder her for that.”
I could hear the smile in his voice. “I wasn’t talking about you.”
“Ryan didn’t kill her.”
“Did he want to?”
“Yeah, but I boned him so he wouldn’t go after his sword.”
Morgan sighed. “Of course you did.”
“Sharing is caring, Morgan. Not that you would know anything about that.” I winced as soon as the words came out. “Dammit. I’m sorry. That’s not what—”
“I deserve that,” he said. “Probably.”
“Maybe.”
“Why now?”
“What?”
“Why are you calling me now?”
“Oh. Um. The star dragon sort of possessed Kevin last night? And said stuff? And now we’re going after the desert dragon today and I don’t know what’s going to happen and I just… I just—”
“I’m glad to hear your voice too.”
I deflated. “Yeah?”
“Yes, Sam. Always.”
“I’m still angry with you,” I said. “Really, really angry. And it’s probably going to take a long time for me to get over it.”
“But you will.” It wasn’t a question.
“But I will.” Because I would.
“Good. You’ll do fine.”
“But what if I don’t? Morgan, I don’t even know what I’m doing. I’m going in blind to face a dragon I’ve never seen before and to what…? Gather it somehow? What does that even mean?”
“You’ve done it once before,” he reminded me.
“And if you’ll recall, I got knocked through a building for it!”
He scoffed. “I thought it was just a shed?”
“Semantics,” I growled at him.