He snorted. It shot little comets across the sky. “Not hardly.”
“Oh. Did you drug me? Is that what’s going on? You drugged me so I’m tripping balls again and are now about to have your way with me? Dude, that is so fucked-up. What is wrong with you dragons? I do not consent for you to touch my body.”
He sighed. “And you’re the chosen one. Wonderful.”
“Can we not call me that? Or say anything about destiny? I feel like it’s creating an aura of expectation that I may not live up to.”
“Oh, I’m aware.”
“You’re mocking me, aren’t you.”
“Possibly.”
“But—but, you’re a god.”
He cocked his starry head at me. “And you don’t think gods can have a sense of humor? Of course we do. We made you, after all.”
“Hey! That’s not very nice! Stars aren’t supposed to be dicks!”
“I would have thought you believed the opposite,” he said quietly. “Most of the wishes you’ve made upon us didn’t come true.”
“Well, yeah. But they aren’t supposed to.”
“How do you figure that, Sam?”
I shrugged. “It’s not how wishing works. If we got everything we ever wished for, we wouldn’t have the capacity to be thankful for all the things we’d already been given. I’ve got so much already. I don’t ever want to lose sight of why it’s important.”
“And you wonder why you were chosen,” the star dragon said. “You wonder why, out of everyone, the light has shined down upon you. Sam, it was you because it could only be you. You were always meant to be strong and brave. You were always meant to have power unlike anyone else. But it was always up in the air what direction you would go with it. You could have chosen a path that led to the dark. But instead your heart was lightning-struck, and it split and spilled its light upon those around you. You were chosen, Sam, because there was no one else it could have been.”
“I still don’t know if I’m good enough,” I admitted. “And I don’t know what will happen if I am.”
“What do you mean?”
And I finally said the one thing that’d been weighing on me the most since I’d found out the truth. “It’s either me or Myrin, right? There’s no middle ground.”
David’s Dragon said, “Yes, Sam. That’s correct. There is no middle ground.”
“He won’t turn back?”
“Would you turn to the dark?”
“No. Never.”
“You seem sure about that.”
“I am.”
“Because of the path you’ve chosen.”
“Yes.”
“Myrin is the same way,” the star dragon said. “He has chosen his path. Yes, Sam. There is no middle ground.”
“And if I win? If I beat him? What will they think of me?” My voice was small.
“Morgan and Randall.”
I looked away.