It flailed back, hand still gripping Ryan’s ankle. Ryan was lifted up and over the mermaid, slamming back down on the other side of it.
Out in the sea of sand.
The mermaid began to sink. Ryan’s sword still stuck out of its mouth.
And it still held on to him.
His eyes were wide as he began to dip below the surface.
“No,” he said hoarsely. “Don’t you do it. Sam, don’t you do it.”
“Sam!” a voice cried out behind me.
And somehow I was able to turn away from Ryan in time to see Tiggy knocked into the sand as well, thrown off the back of the mermaid. It instantly flipped itself back into the sand and dove beneath the surface.
Tiggy began to sink immediately, his weight pulling him down. He thrashed and kicked and fought, but it was no use.
“Sam,” Ryan said, and I turned back toward him, heart in my throat. The sand was up to his armpits. “Get to the dragon.” He was scared, I could see that, gods how I could see that, but he was trying to keep himself calm for my sake. “You gotta get to the dragon.”
Everything was slowing down around me. Too much was happening at once. Ruv was too far away, on the other side of the island, the same mermaid still chasing after him, but now a second one too, both tails whipping back and forth as they surged after him.
Kevin had set Gary down on solid land and looked to be coming back, but he wouldn’t make it in time. Not for either of them.
Blood pounded in my ears.
Everything was brighter than it had ever been. Sharper.
I breathed in deeply as Tiggy slipped below the surface of the sand, raising his hand and wiggling his fingers at me, a little wave goodbye.
Ryan said, “I love you, Sam. I always have.”
And then he was gone too.
And I just—
“No,” I said. “No, no, no.”
I stood slowly.
Once upon a time I went into the Dark Woods to find something unexpected, as tasked by Morgan of Shadows. In those woods I found a hornless unicorn and a half-giant. I saved them from an evil man, and every day since then, they saved me from myself.
Once upon a time I saw a boy who’d come to the castle. I was told he was from the army. That he was to be a knight in the Castle Guard. I’d never seen such a beautiful boy before, and that day, I gave my heart away, even though I thought I’d never get his in return.
They weren’t going to be taken from me. Not now.
Not ever.
Wizard, the waking dragon whispered to me. What will you do?
Everything, I said in return.
There is an old tongue spoken by wizards. It is in these words that magic forms in those that have it in their blood. The spells and incantations and words of power that bring the magic surging forward, from out of the blood and into the real world. It draws from everything around us. It draws from everything in us.
Only a few didn’t need those words.
Morgan.
Randall.