And in that, he was right: they did not have it in their hearts to kill him. They couldn’t find it in themselves to destroy the one thing they both loved most in the world. Call it a weakness. Call it their undoing, but they could not kill Myrin.
Myrin, for all that he’d become, underestimated the one thing he should not have: Randall’s and Morgan’s love for the man he once had been.
It was this love that tore a hole between the worlds. That opened the gateway to a realm steeped in shadows. Magic such as this hadn’t been seen in the real world before. And it took a piece of their soul to do it. But as the gateway widened, as the shadows whipped out and curled themselves around Myrin’s legs, knocking him to the ground, they knew in their soul-struck hearts that they had made their choice, just as Myrin had made his.
He screamed at them to save him. He told them he could change. Don’t do this, he begged them. And when he saw they were not coming to his aid, he stopped his pleadings and snarled at them both. I will return. I will have my revenge. And this time, you won’t see me coming. I will take everything precious from you. Everything you hold dear will be torn away. This I promise you.
And then shadows enveloped his body and pulled him from this world to the next.
The gateway closed with a furious crash.
The clearing in the Dark Woods fell quiet, the only sound being the great heaving sobs of the younger brother.
Eventually, they left.
Eventually, Randall pulled the King of Sorrows from madness by the sheer force of his will alone.
Eventually, the name Myrin was wiped from the memory of Verania.
As if he had never been at all.
“YES,” MYRIN said, sounding amused. “Quite the sad story, I know. It’s just so… melodramatic, isn’t it? If it hadn’t actually happened to me, it would be one of those things that’s hard to believe. Alas, I don’t have problems with belief. Do you, Sam? Do you have problems believing?”
“You’re standing on water after having broken your way out of the shadow realm,” I said. “I’m really not having a problem believing right now.”
He tossed his head back and laughed. It sounded so much like Morgan, and the dissonance caused blood to rush in my ears. “Oh, Sam,” he said, chuckling. “I know now what he sees in you. Honestly, it took me a while. I mean, hearing from a god that a child would rise against me? Can you imagine what that must have felt like?”
“Um. No? Wait. Yes. Because a god told me that another villain would come here and blah, blah, blah and then I would have to kick his ass and then all would be right with the world. So I guess I could imagine that after all.”
He cocked his head at me. “That easy, is it?”
“Yes.”
“Really. Well. I hate to break it to you, kiddo, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Would you like me to tell you why?”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh gods. This is it, isn’t it?”
“What?”
“This is where you monologue. For fuck’s sake. We already had that moment. I thought we were past this. What the fuck, man? Don’t you remember? You were all like, hey, you, I’m your opposite, and, oh, look at me, gods and partiality and death and destruction and what the fuck ever. I am so sick of villains like you. What the fuck is your deal?”
He looked taken aback, but he covered it up quickly. “Sam,” he said. “Believe me when I say you have never faced someone like me. It will be an education like you’ve never before experienced. But first, a chance for you. To end this all now.”
“Let me guess,” I said, trying to sift through the green and the gold. My magic was running through me, thrumming just underneath my skin. They had to feel it. Ryan. Gary. Tiggy. Kevin. Maybe even Zero. They had to. And if they did, we could end this now. We could. “You’re gonna give me the chance to join you—again, by the way—to be by your side, to learn how to be a Dark douchebag. Sound about right?”
“Yes,” he said slowly. “That sounds about right.”
“Because—oh, whaddya know—there’s never been someone like you, but oh look, there’s never been someone like me either. Sound about right?”
“Quite.”
“And if I don’t join you, you’re going to kill everyone and everything I love. And if I do join you, you’ll spare the others and you and me will live happily ever after in some cave in the Dark Woods while you continue my wizard training to make me into a fucking dickbag who monologues with the best of them.”
“I wouldn’t say it’s a cave. I mean, there’s a house and everything. And you’re sort of monologuing right now. I don’t know how much more training in that you would need.”
“Okay, let me stop you right there. No.”
“No?”