“Look,” he said, lowering his sword, “I don’t know how else to tell you this. But I wanted Sam even before Justin and I ever got together. My relationship with Justin was nothing but a mutually beneficial arrangement. We cared about each other, but not romantically. My heart has only ever belonged to one person, and it will stay that way for the rest of my days.”
“He’s talking about me,” I told Caleb, a rather manic smile on my face.
She took a stuttering step back, shaking her head. “No. I refuse to believe that. I refuse.” She narrowed her eyes as she looked toward me. “This is your doing. I knew I was right. And then when he told me the truth, when he told me what you were truly capable of, giving me the validation I needed, I knew there was nothing I wouldn’t do to free Ryan Foxheart from your grasp. Marching and protesting only gets you so far, after all.” She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. When she opened her eyes again, she looked as composed as she ever was. Her smile was all teeth. “I suppose it’s time to move on to phase three.”
“Phase three?” I asked, brow furrowed. “What’s phase three? And for that matter, what the hell were one and two?”
“Phase one, sow the seeds of distrust into the people of Verania against Sam of Wilds,” she said, back straight and poised as the most proper of ladies. “Phase two, capture Sam of Wilds in an unbreakable prison. Phase three, watching your eyes once you experience betrayal. And finally, phase four, the death of Sam of Wilds.”
“Bitch, I’m going to motherfucking cut you! You just wait until I get out of here. I swear to the gods, you are so dead, you don’t even know!”
“And once the phases are complete,” she said, clapping her hands together gleefully, “Ryan will be free of your enchantments and the world will go back to the way it should have been, filled with Rystin and sunshine, and nothing will ever hurt ever again.”
“Ryan! Stab her! Stab her fucking face off!”
Ryan frowned. “But she’s a girl. I can’t just stab a girl.”
“You can,” I yelled at him. “You can and you will. I would do it, except I’m fucking stuck in dragon’s blood and—wait. Just how in the hell did you get dragon’s blood? And what the fuck did you mean, betrayal? Who’s going to betray me?”
“That would be me.”
He stepped out from the far corner where he’d been hidden in shadows. He was dressed differently than he was the last time I saw him. He wore trousers and heavy boots. A long black coat hung from his shoulders and scraped the wooden floorboards that creaked beneath his feet. His hair had been shorn, and it made a startling difference. Where he’d once been strangely sweet, he was now darkly ominous.
I should have known, given the way my magic felt when I was around him.
I should have seen this coming.
“You,” I breathed.
And Ruv, the Wolf of Bari Lavuta, said, “Surprised, aren’t you? Oh, the look on your face, Sam. If only I could go back in time to do this again and again, I would be a happy man. Your expression is certainly… captivating.”
I slammed my hands against the invisible barrier that surrounded me, knowing it was futile but trying to get at him anyway. Ruv stood there, looking quietly amused in the face of my rage. I reached for my magic as hard as I could, but it was buried too far under the surface. I couldn’t see the green and gold, much less feel it coursing through me. Dragon’s blood was the most powerful deterrent to a wizard’s magic, and for all I knew, it was infallible.
That didn’t stop me from trying to break through it and launch myself at him, wanting to rip him to shreds.
“Let me out!” I bellowed at him. “You motherfucker, let me out so I can kick your fucking ass!”
“Ah, but I don’t think I will,” Ruv said. “We have… time. Before the final act. Time for a discussion about—”
Ryan was moving even as he spoke, surprisingly silent, given how much armor he wore. Lady Tina shrieked and Caleb shouted in surprise, but Ryan ignored them. He was deadly and swift, sword gripped tightly as he rushed toward Ruv.
He didn’t make it.
One moment he was running, teeth bared, and the next Ruv muttered something under his breath, raising his hands toward Ryan. There was a bright flash of sickly yellow light, and Ryan was flung back toward the wall, sword knocked from his hands. He landed with a crash, head almost at the ceiling, the wood cracking behind him. His arms and legs were spread wide as he was pinned to the wall. Before he could recover, the wood behind him snapped and broke apart, moving like it was sentient. It had a liquid quality to it, like it was flowing, and it molded itself over his hands and feet before hardening again with a dull thump. Only then did Ruv lower his hands, and Ryan sagged against the wall, effectively trapped within it.
“Ryan!” I punched the barrier again, feeling the skin of my knuckles split.
“There,” Ruv said. “That’s better.”
Ryan struggled against the grip the wall had on him. He didn’t look like he was in pain, but the sight of him trapped against the wall enraged me.
“I will kill you,” I promised Ruv. “You should know that now. When I get out of here—and you should believe me when I say that I will—I’m going to fucking kill you.”
“Wow,” Ruv said, eyes wide. “That’s rather dark coming from the great Sam of Wilds, don’t you think? You don’t kill people, Sam. That’s not your way. You get others to do it for you. Lartin the Dark Leaf. Eloise Marlowe.”
“Rystin,” Tina added from somewhere near the fireplace. “He killed Rystin. Not a person, but just as important.”
Ruv took in a very measured breath, eyes tightening just a little. “Yes. That too, I suppose. But regardless, I am surprised at you, Sam. Though I suppose once you corner an animal, it will lash out. It is the way of things. Who else has there been, Sam? How many others have fallen because of your incompetence?”