“Randall’s cornerstone turned away from the light, and Randall himself did not. Morgan of Shadows lost his cornerstone to time, and yet he still stands as the right hand of the King. They have survived centuries without their cornerstones at their sides, and you don’t think you could last a year?”
“But they—”
“They have told you what they wanted you to hear. A fairy tale, Sam of Wilds, and nothing more. A cornerstone does not keep you from madness. That is something you must do yourself. I am offering you something that you should not consider lightly. The path is set in front of you. It diverges. Only you can decide which direction you take. It matters not to me.”
“How can you say that?” I snapped. “If Myrin comes for us all, he’ll eventually come for you!”
The Great White bared his teeth, and Kevin clutched me tightly to his chest. “Do you think the follies of men matter to me in the slightest? I am older than men. I watched as you crawled from the oceans, gasping for breath. I watched as you swung from the trees. I watched as you stood on two legs for the first time. I watched as your minds grew into conscious thought only to give way to greed. Humanity has been a blight upon this world. Its destruction would be no great loss. I have survived much, much worse than Myrin. Let him come. Maybe a cleansing is what is necessary to destroy the cancer.”
“You’d let that happen?” I was stunned. “You’d let the world fall?”
“It’s a course correction, apprentice. Sometimes it is necessary.”
“I won’t let that happen.”
“You will try,” the Great White said. “I have known about you, Sam of Wilds, for a very long time. I must say that I’m not impressed.
You think with your heart and not with your head. It will be your undoing. You do not know suffering. You do not know sacrifice. Everything has been handed to you. You are haughty and irresponsible. You act without thinking and somehow land on your feet. That will not always be the case. One day you will learn what sorrow is. And it will be more damning than you could possibly imagine. Come away with me, apprentice. In this forest deep. Into the dark of the wild. A year is what I require of you. Leave all the trappings of your humanity behind and I will give you the power to bring an end to the darkness.”
“Kevin,” I said flatly while glaring up at the Great White, “we’re done here.”
“Sam—”
“No. This was obviously a waste of time. He’s not going to help us. We need to find the others. They’re probably worried.”
Kevin sighed. “That’s most likely an understatement. I can already hear Gary’s… everything.”
“I told you once that you were not ready,” the Great White said, and I was so done with all his shit. “It would seem that I was right. You are just like all the others that have come before you. It will bring you nothing but ruination.”
I sputtered at him, but he was already lumbering past us, the ground shaking, the trees crashing down. “Yeah, well, screw you, pal!”
He ignored me.
But I’d gotten the last word in, so I won.
“He must be really fun at parties,” Kevin muttered. “How disappointing. You meet your idol, your idol turns out to be this weird old conspiracy theorist who wants you to follow him into the woods alone. This is why you should never look up to anyone. You always end up being let down or creeped out. Well, except for me. Everyone looks up to me and gets exactly what they are hoping for.”
“A gaping asshole and a variety of sexually transmitted diseases?”
Kevin smiled softly down at me. “You honor me, pretty.”
We watched as the Great White headed deep into the Dark Woods. Eventually he disappeared from sight.
THE FAIRIES found us first, glowing brightly in the fading light.
They swirled around the ruins of the forest, exclaiming over the fallen trees and trampled animals that still twitched, even though some of their insides were on their outsides.
Kevin sat me down as Dimitri approached, wings flapping furiously. “What have you done?” he demanded.
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t have the time or the patience for your shit right now, Dimitri. I really don’t.”
He glanced up at Kevin, then back at me, eyes narrowed. “Did you offend him?”
“Me? I don’t offend anyone.”
“You offend me!” one of the fairies screeched.
“Except for Harry,” I said, rolling my eyes. “But he doesn’t count because he’s still pissed at me that he wasn’t able to go through with the officiating of when you tried to force me to marry you. Which was forever ago, and he should get over it!” I added, raising my voice and glaring at Harry.