“Is that all?”
Randall sighed. “I remembered what I’d been taught.”
GW looked taken aback. “Truly?”
“Yes.”
“Can the same be done for Myrin?”
Randall hesitated. Then, “No.”
The Great White nodded slowly. “And why is that?”
“Because of the corruption in his heart, the darkness that lurks beneath his skin. I became what I did because of the extent of my grief. Myrin did the same, but of his own volition. It was power he sought, and nothing more.” Randall glanced at me, and a chill ran down my spine. “And to do what he did to—to Morgan, it…. To consume another’s magic is the darkest of all the arts. He took something that did not belong to him. How it must have fractured his soul. So, no. I believe there’s no coming back from that. He has made his choice.”
“And you have made yours.”
“Yes.”
“They gonna hug?” Tiggy whispered to Gary.
“They better,” Gary whispered back. “You can’t just be old and decrepit and talk about bad things in your past and forgive each other without hugging afterward.”
I’d taught him well.
GW looked around at each of us in turn. Kevin and Zero and Pat and Leslie. Gary and Tiggy. Dimitri and his fairies. Ryan. Justin.
Me.
“He reminds me of you,” he told Randall. “Stubborn. Indignant. Mouthy. He speaks before he thinks and is more likely to ignore my orders than to actually follow them.”
I would have objected, but that was pretty much all true.
“He once turned my nose into a phallus,” Randall said, sounding resigned.
“That doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. But still, even with all his faults, his heart is resilient. It has been lightning-struck, and made stronger because of it. I’ve never met someone quite like him before.”
“Confounding, isn’t he?”
“Extraordinarily so. Do you think he’s capable?”
“Yes.”
“You believe in him.”
There was no hesitation. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because for all his bravado, for all the sass and the sarcasm, he is still the greatest wizard I’ve ever known. He’s the better part of all of us. And I am humbled to be in his presence.”
I couldn’t find my voice.
The Great White chuckled. “Maybe the gods chose wisely after all.”
“Surprising, isn’t it?”
“You’ve called us here.”