The sand mermaid roared behind us, sounding like it was right there—
I shot a look over my shoulder in time to see Tiggy land on top of the mermaid, squashing it against the hidden stone path. A great plume of sand burst up around them, swallowing them both, but not before I saw the mermaid’s face twist in pain as it screamed.
But even as I thought to cheer Tiggy for kicking ass and taking names, I heard the stone beneath our feet begin to shift and crack.
Which was not a good sound to hear when we were still far from the island.
Ryan didn’t try to pull me away from Tiggy, which was the only reason I held on to his hand still. The sand settled around Tiggy and the mermaid, enough so that I could see the creature’s arm skittering around, trying to find purchase as the crack of stone got louder. Tiggy was trying to hold down the mermaid, but the thing was strong, and it looked like the half-giant was in danger of getting bucked off.
“Tiggy, it’s going to break!” I cried at him. “You need to run!”
Tiggy looked at me, a determined look on his face. “No, Sam. You run. Get to dragon. Tiggy smash.”
My eyes widened. “No! No smash! You’ll fall in the sand.”
The mermaid shrieked and bucked up again, and Tiggy almost went over and into the sand.
“Fuck this,” I snarled. I began to pull my magic toward me, drawing it from the dry desert air, the earth, the sky, the few clouds there were, the rays of the sun, anything so that I could get to kill this bastard of a thing and—
And of course Ryan felt it, of course he knew what I was doing, because he pulled me back against him. “You can’t,” he muttered in my ear. “We don’t know if there are more of these things or what the dragon will do.”
“If you fucking think I’m just going to leave him—”
“Kevin’s coming back,” he said. “We gotta move. Kevin will help him.”
“He can’t. You heard what Ruv said. The vibrations—”
“I’m pretty sure we’re past vibrations now—”
“Then just let me do this!” I jerked out of Ryan’s grasp and was about to fucking bring it when Ryan cried out behind me. I whirled around in time to see another mermaid rising out of the sand, a clawed hand wrapped around his ankle. He’d fallen on his ass and was being pulled toward its mouth, the needle-sharp teeth so close to his boot. He was reaching for his sword, which had gotten knocked out of his hand.
“Ryan!” I ran toward him, scooping up the sword as I went by, tossing it handle first, the blade slicing shallowly into my palm, wetting the metal with my blood. Ryan caught the sword and, with a yell, turned and shoved it into the mermaid’s mouth and down its throat. The mermaid’s eyes bulged as the blade pierced its insides, and I was almost to him, I was almost—
It flailed back, hand still gripping Ryan’s ankle. Ryan was lifted up and over the mermaid, slamming back down on the other side of it.
Out in the sea of sand.
The mermaid began to sink. Ryan’s sword still stuck out of its mouth.
And it still held on to him.
His eyes were wide as he began to dip below the surface.
“No,” he said hoarsely. “Don’t you do it. Sam, don’t you do it.”
“Sam!” a voice cried out behind me.
And somehow I was able to turn away from Ryan in time to see Tiggy knocked into the sand as well, thrown off the back of the mermaid. It instantly flipped itself back into the sand and dove beneath the surface.
Tiggy began to sink immediately, his weight pulling him down. He thrashed and kicked and fought, but it was no use.
“Sam,” Ryan said, and I turned back toward him, heart in my throat. The sand was up to his armpits. “Get to the dragon.” He was scared, I could see that, gods how I could see that, but he was trying to keep himself calm for my sake. “You gotta get to the dragon.”
Everything was slowing down around me. Too much was happening at once. Ruv was too far away, on the other side of the island, the same mermaid still chasing after him, but now a second one too, both tails whipping back and forth as they surged after him.
Kevin had set Gary down on solid land and looked to be coming back, but he wouldn’t make it in time. Not for either of them.
Blood pounded in my ears.
Everything was brighter than it had ever been. Sharper.
I breathed in deeply as Tiggy slipped below the surface of the sand, raising his hand and wiggling his fingers at me, a little wave goodbye.
Ryan said, “I love you, Sam. I always have.”
And then he was gone too.
And I just—
“No,” I said. “No, no, no.”
I stood slowly.
Once upon a time I went into the Dark Woods to find something unexpected, as tasked by Morgan of Shadows. In those woods I found a hornless unicorn and a half-giant. I saved them from an evil man, and every day since then, they saved me from myself.
Once upon a time I saw a boy who’d come to the castle. I was told he was from the army. That he was to be a knight in the Castle Guard. I’d never seen such a beautiful boy before, and that day, I gave my heart away, even though I thought I’d never get his in return.
They weren’t going to be taken from me. Not now.
Not ever.
Wizard, the waking dragon whispered to me. What will you do?
Everything, I said in return.
There is an old tongue spoken by wizards. It is in these words that magic forms in those that have it in their blood. The spells and incantations and words of power that bring the magic surging forward, from out of the blood and into the real world. It draws from everything around us. It draws from everything in us.
Only a few didn’t need those words.
Morgan.
Randall.
They had centuries of experience to draw upon. They were one with the old tongue, the language of magic. They didn’t need the words aloud because they’d built it up inside of them. Their cornerstones had given them the foundation to become something stronger than the world had ever seen. They formed their words in their heads and hearts, and the thoughts alone brought the magic into the world.
I was like them, in that respect.
I didn’t need those words either.
But there was a difference.
Sometimes, I didn’t even need the thought.
So when I pulled myself to my full height, there was no clear plan in my head. There was only the thought that someone had taken from me, had taken Tiggy, my friend. Had taken Ryan, my cornerstone.
And it was enough.
The sand began to swirl at my feet. First it was just a small corona, whipping itself around me as if caught by a moderate wind.
But it grew.
Clouds began to form in the sky above us, and as I turned my face upward, I felt what little moisture there was being sucked out of the air. The clouds were black and gray, and they trembled and they shook even as the thunder began to roll.
The corona was bigger now.
Much bigger.
The path was made clear beneath my feet, an old, worn stone thing that had been rubbed smooth by the moving sand.
And it grew bigger still.
Lightning arced in the clouds above. I wasn’t ready for it yet.
And it didn’t matter that I hadn’t done this before. That I’d never used this much magic before. None of it mattered. The only thing I could think of was Tiggy. And Ryan. And getting them back.
The corona had given way to a tornado.
The sky was dark now, almost like night had fallen, though it was still midday.
There were others, I knew. Other people I cared for. But they were safe. They would let me do this.
And then I raised the entire sea of sand.
It shot up around me on either side of the stone path, rising high up toward the storm above.
And I could see them then. Through the sand.
The mermaids.
There we
re dozens of them.
Later I was told that only seconds passed when Ryan and Tiggy were pulled under the sand. That everything that happened and everything that followed was only seconds.
But it felt like ages when I stood there under a desert storm, an ocean of sand on either side of me.
And when I brought the lightning down, when it sparked down from the sky toward me, there was only one thought in my head.
You won’t take them from me.
The lightning struck me, entering through my head, snapping across my brain, down the back of my neck until it settled in my chest, wrapping itself around my heart. It was mine, and it’d always been there, but this was the first time I’d actually called it to myself, however unconsciously. Three times I’d been lightning-struck: once by Dark wizards on a dusty road on the way to a dragon’s keep, once by the wizard Randall in an attempt to make a point, and now.
It was warm. It was electric. It felt alive.
And every time a mermaid was swept toward me, the lightning would arc out of me, out of my hands, out of my chest, my eyes and mouth and throat and heart. It snapped into the sandstorm, electrifying the sand and solidifying it as the lightning traveled through it. It smashed into the heads and chests and tails of the mermaids.
Lightning had a curious effect on sand. I’d seen it once on a beach near the Port after a great storm had rolled through the coast. There were several strikes along the beach, each leaving scorched holes in the sand. When they dug around the holes, there were glass-lined hollow tubes that branched off into the ground. Petrified lightning, Morgan had said it was called.
And that was what I created now.
The mermaids screeched and rocked their heads back as they were electrocuted, clawed fingers flexed and stiff at their sides, eyes open, their gaping maws pointing up into the sandstorm around them. The swirling sand fused into their skin, hardening until it cracked into place. Electricity poured from their mouths, colliding with the sand, lining their insides with solid crystal that grew out of them in ominous shapes.
And it was as this storm raged around me, as it froze these creatures into glass, that I searched for my loves. I pushed through the sand, the lightning so hot at points that it didn’t solidify so much as it vaporized the sand away from me. There was electricity at my feet, and with every step I took, the sand became solid and supported my weight, creating a staircase through the roiling sea.
One of the mermaids caught some kind of draft and hurtled toward me, claws reaching to tear my throat out, but the moment before it touched me, the moment before hooks sank into soft skin, I pushed toward it, and it exploded in a bright flash.
I found Tiggy first, caught in the storm. He was spinning in a slow circle with the remains of several mermaids floating by, the pieces of them reflecting the lightning as it swirled around him. He reached out, a look of awe on his face as he pushed one of the pieces, watching it twist in place, electricity crawling along the surface, little sparks trailing where he had pressed against it.
His great brow furrowed when he saw me. He cocked his head. “Sam?”
I nodded, unable to speak, unable to do anything but find them, keep them safe, keep anything from hurting them.
“You do this?” he asked.
I nodded again.
He smiled at me as thunder rolled above. “Sam magic is strong magic,” he said, reaching a hand out for me. He trusted me completely. He knew I could never hurt him.
I put my hand in his and we went away, away, away.
There weren’t as many of them now. The mermaids. Most had been frozen or shattered. But now, instead of coming for us, they tried to get away. A brief thought pierced through the haze of magic, like sunlight through clouds, that I should let them go, that I should leave them be, but then the clouds took away that sunlit thought, and they too went the way of their sisters.
We found Ryan cocooned in a swirl of sand and pieces of glass, like some enchanted prince from a story of old. His eyes were closed, sword hanging loosely in his hand, which rose in front of his face. Another sunlit moment pierced the magic, and I remembered the vision my grandmother had shown me, of my beloved resting upon a stone dais, sword lying atop him, handle on his chest, blade pointed toward his feet. This moment burned, and I was filled with such an overwhelming sense of grief that I thought I would shatter from it. I would blow away, the petrified pieces of me caught in the swirling storm. I was lightning-struck, yes, but I too could break so easily.
I said, “Ryan.”
My voice broke.
He opened his eyes.
And the sunlight went away again. I reached for him, and he reached for me, and the moment our hands touched, the moment his fingers met mine, I felt a great and terrible rage that something like this could be taken from me, that they had tried to take this from me. I knew, deep down, there was a price to pay for the magic used, but all I could think about was tearing everything apart until there was nothing left but my family.
I walked through the storm.
They drifted after me.
They spoke, I heard their voices, but I didn’t hear what they said.
I was too entrenched in magic, too far underneath whatever the storm had done to me. It wasn’t until we stood upon the stone path again that I felt Ryan tugging against me. I tried to pull away, trying to find more of them, trying to get rid of them while I still had the chance, but he wouldn’t let me. And since I could never hurt him, I went. He wrapped his arms around me, holding me close. I tucked my face against his neck and held on for dear life. A moment later, I felt Tiggy gather us both against his chest, rumbling in a deep and soothing fashion, hand against the back of my head.
And then Ryan Foxheart tilted his head, his lips near my ear, and said, “Sam. Oh, Sam. It’s okay to let go now. It’s okay to let go.”
And I cried out against the skin of his neck, my magic exploding out of me. I put everything into that cry I could, the last weeks, the revelations, the sense of loss, the secrets kept, the anger I felt. The fact that I’d almost lost Tiggy and Ryan. Everything.
Lightning struck. Thunder cracked.
A moment later, everything fell quiet.
And a moment after that, I felt the sun on my skin again, burning bright and hot.
I took in a breath. And then another. And another.
“Wow,” Tiggy breathed, still holding us close. “So high.”
“Sam,” Ryan murmured. “You okay?”
But before I could speak, I was pulled again.
Wizard, the dragon spoke. Wizard. Wizard.
For now it was truly awake.
I opened my eyes.
I blinked against the sunlight.
It took a moment for my vision to clear as Ryan pulled away enough to be able to look at me. His face was the first thing I saw, slightly out of focus, edges blurred. I blinked it away and everything cleared.
“You with me?” he asked, hands on my arms.
“What happened?” I croaked out.
“Sam go boom,” Tiggy said. “Bright and shiny boom.”
I looked up at him. “I did what?”
“Boom,” Tiggy said softly, nodding his head toward the sea of sand that—
No longer existed.
Where there’d once been an ocean of sand filled with creatures that hid underneath the surface was now just empty air.
“What the fuck?” I said.
We stood on the stone path that had, for the most part, remained intact. But on either side of us now was a cavern whose bottom was so far below where we stood, I couldn’t see it. The sand was gone. The mermaids were gone as if they’d never existed at all. The path behind us was broken where Tiggy had fallen from Kevin’s grasp. The path ahead twisted just like Ruv said it would before it ended against the island, the ruins of the castle sitting atop a large rock pillar that stretched into the cavern below. Kevin and Gary stood at the edge of the island, watching us, waiting. They both looked tense, like they were get
ting ready to rush over to us at any moment.
“Where’s Ruv?” I asked, slightly panicked. He’d been surfing along on that—
“There,” Ryan said, pointing off to the other side of the cavern. Ruv stood on a sand dune, looking down into the empty space before him, scratching the back of his head. He must have felt us watching him because he looked up and waved.
“Sam go boom,” Tiggy said softly, waving back at him.
“Sam go boom,” I echoed faintly.
Chapter 17: Snake Dragon Monster Thing
IT WAS slow going to reach the island, given that my legs felt weak and I was exhausted. I scowled at Ryan as he tried to hold me up, but Tiggy wouldn’t hear any of it, and picked me up and threw me over his shoulder, grunting, “Sack of Potatoes Sam. Capitalized, motherfucker.”
It didn’t stop me from grumbling about it. When one is being held against his will by a half-giant, one must grumble. I was sure that was Veranian law.
Ryan trailed after us, and since I was cranky, I thought it best to give him a piece of my mind.
“You,” I said. “You are in so much trouble, you don’t even know.”
“Am I now.” It wasn’t even said as a question, the bastard.
“Yes, you are.” I scowled at him to show just how serious I was. He didn’t seem to be affected in the slightest. I lowered my voice in a mocking approximation. “Go after the dragon, Sam. Leave me here to die, Sam. Look at me, I’m a godsdamned martyr!”
“I don’t think that’s quite how it went.”
“It might as well have! And Tiggy, don’t think I’ve forgotten about you! You’re gonna get yours, you can bet on that, yes, sir. You think you can just wave goodbye at me and not get into trouble? Oh, you are sorely mistaken, my friend. You’re in deep shit too!”
Tiggy patted my butt and said, “Okay, Sam.”
“Stop placating me!”
“Pretty Sam. Pretty, loud, boomy Sam.”
I pointed my finger at Ryan, craning my neck to look back up at him. “So much trouble.”
“What’s he screeching about now?” I heard Gary ask.
“Martyrs!” I yelled. “I’m surrounded by martyrs!”
“Oh boy,” Gary said. “He’s getting loud. That’s never a good sign.”