Ryan’s eyes were glazed over as he pressed his forehead against mine. I gave a practiced twist of my wrist and Ryan came with a drawn-out moan, warmth spreading underneath my hand.
“No,” Justin said, sounding horrified. “I did not need to hear that. What the hell is wrong with the both of you! I live there. I’m going to get your parents, I swear to the gods!”
“Shit,” I muttered. “He probably means that. We have to hurry. I want to jerk off on your face. Get on your knees.”
He didn’t even hesitate. He dropped to the floor, face turned toward me. I unfastened my trousers, sighing at the relief in pressure. He looked up at me with a dazed expression, and I grunted, “Close your eyes” as I began to fuck my fist. He did just as I asked. It took only a few pulls before I came, striping his face. My hand was sticky and wet, and he looked so damn good doing what he was told, tongue flicking out, tasting me on his lips.
“Fuck,” I breathed as I slumped down in front of him, dick still hanging out. There was a wet spot on the front of his undergarments and his face was dripping with my spunk, but I leaned in and kissed him for all I was worth.
It was pretty gross, and possibly the best thing in the entire world.
I was well and truly home.
Chapter 6: A Meeting of the Minds
RYAN LOOKED rather smug seeing me dressed in his clothes as we left the house, like some primal part of him now saw me as marked. Given the fact that I’d just come all over his face in a house he lived in with Justin, I didn’t give him too much shit, even though I wanted to. We were still on uneven ground, but I thought it’d be something we could overcome.
But I wasn’t under any illusion that things were back to the way they were. We’d both become different people in the last year, both by choices we’d made and things beyond our control. I placed blame directly on Myrin for most of it, though I knew some of it fell on me. Because no matter what I wanted to believe, there was some truth to what Ryan had said. I’d run. Morgan had lain on a slab of stone, Ryan had been hovering between this life and the next, and Randall had disappeared. The King had turned to me to be his wizard, and I’d felt all of that on top of me, and I’d run. Sure, I’d told myself it was the right thing to do, that it was what the gods wanted, and maybe that was partially correct.
Ryan didn’t take my hand as we left the house, but he kept close to me as we walked through Camp HaveHeart, shoulders brushing. The people brightened at the sight of him, nodding at him or calling out in greeting. He responded to each and every one of them with a small smile.
They were warier of me. I didn’t blame them. While they acknowledged Ryan, the smiles on their faces fell a little when they saw me at his side, and they nervously averted their gazes as if they were intimidated. A year ago, I would have been weirdly thrilled.
I didn’t feel like that now.
Mostly.
It was after a small child ran screaming in the opposite direction as we neared, hands flailing above her head, that I said, “Okay, legit, what is going on? It’s like they think I’m going to make their nipples explode or something.”
Ryan frowned after the little girl, her wails fading into the distance. “That’s probably correct.”
“What? I’m not going to make their nipples explode. I would never do such a thing. Well, not to someone who didn’t deserve it.”
“No, not that you would—wait. You can do that now?”
I shrugged. “Maybe. I think I can pretty much do a lot of things with—and now you’ve got that Sam Is So Fine Because Magic look on your face again. I can’t believe that talking about me magically exploding nipples makes you horny.”
He scowled at me. “I’m not horny at the idea of you making nipples explode.”
“Yeah. Okay. Tell that to your penis.”
“I’m not going to tell anything to my penis.”
“Come on. Just tell it. Just tell your penis that—”
“Sam.”
“Right. So, why the weirdness?”
“They feel guilty.”
“About?”
“How they treated you before you left.”
I stopped in the middle of the busy street, people scurrying around me. “Come again?”
“I already did once. You need to give me a little more time before we try.”
I gaped at him. “Did you just—”
He was flushing brightly. “I didn’t mean to say that. Ignore it.”
“I don’t know if I can now. You just said a sex pun.”
“Do you—do you understand what a pun actually is? Because I don’t think you—”
“Ryan. Stop focusing on your dirty, sexy thoughts you’re having about me, regardless of how flattering it is. We’re trying to be serious now. The fate of our country is hanging in the balance, and you’re being perverted.”
He sighed as if I was the most ridiculous thing in the world. “There was a lot of anger toward you. Before. The We-Hate-Sam-A-Lots tapped into that. And maybe people would have let it go, but then it was given a name and a focus, and they decided it was easier to be angry than to not.”
“Still didn’t stop you from putting their leader in your back pocket,” I muttered.
“Lady Tina is—”
“If you’re going to say she’s sorry, I don’t want to hear it. You’ve forgiven her. Great. I haven’t, and I doubt I ever will.”
“She’s—”
“And don’t tell me she’s changed either. Because evil will always be evil, especially when it’s a teenage girl.”
“I trust her.”
I stared at him.
He shrugged.
I stared some more.
He fidgeted. It was adorable. I was so angry.
“You do remember she was there in that house with Myrin and Ruv, don’t you?” I asked slowly. “Because if you’ve forgotten, I can remind you.”
“I know. But she says she didn’t know about Ruv’s ties to Myrin.”
“And you believe her? Ryan, she could be lying—”
“Of course I didn’t,” he said. “But she has proven herself time and time again over the past year, and she—”
“She could be a spy. For all we know, she’s reporting back to Myrin as we speak! No, it’s probably best that we banish her for all time. I’ll go take care of that right now—”
“Do you trust me?”
That stopped me. “What?”
“It’s a simple question, Sam. Do you trust me?”
I squinted at him. “This seems like a trick. Like, I’ll say yes, and you’ll be all then you need to trust her. Or if I say no, then you’ll say well, now we need to get a divorce.”
“We’re not married.”
“Well, not yet. Once you get over being mad at me, and after we vanquish all the villains, we’ll talk. Seriously, Ryan, proposing right now is really bad timing—”
“I didn’t propose. And besides, didn’t you already propose to me back in the Dark Woods when we were going after the Great White? I distinctly remember you—”
“Wow,” I breathed. “You want to get married to me so bad. You’re arguing with me about it even though I’m trying to talk to you about your betrayal. This is epic.”
He glared at me. “I’m not arguing with you—”
“Do you trust me?”
And he didn’t hesitate when he said, “Yes.”
“Then I need you to believe me about—”
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
“And I trust her. I’m not asking you to. But I am telling you to trust me about her.”
“That was… devious. Well played, Knight Delicious Face. But what the hell does this have to do with everyone staring at me weird?”
“They think you’re angry with them,” he said. He waved his hand at the camp. “These are the people who thought you left them because of what they did to you. They turned their backs on you, and they thought you’d done the same to them. They’re scare
d, Sam. They have been for a long time. And then you come back and it’s….” He shook his head tiredly. “They want to have hope. The whole… destiny thing is well-known now. It’s grown. They speak of it like a legend.”
“Katya and Brant.”
“What about them?”
“When they were trapped on the cliff’s edge by Caleb and the Darks, Katya said… she said that she believed in me, that I would come and save them. That I’d return one day.”
“And then you happened to pop out and do just that.”
“Right? So badass.”
“Yeah, I’m sure it did wonders for your fragile ego.”
“Sarcasm. Nice. I approve. I couldn’t disappoint my fans.”
Ryan rolled his eyes, and I wanted to watch his face for the rest of my days, taking in everything I’d missed. “They’re in awe of you, Sam. They know of the dragons. What the gods have put upon your shoulders. What you’re tasked with. They need you. And they worry you won’t care.”
“How do you know all this?”
He shrugged. “I’ve been living with it for months now. Look, Sam. When we’re children, we hear stories of heroes and villains, of knights and wizards fighting against rogues and scoundrels. Good always triumphs over evil. Then we grow up and we pass them on to the next generation, even if we don’t quite believe in them anymore. But that’s changed now. Because they want to believe. They need you, Sam. They need you to be their hero. And they’re scared you won’t want to be.”
I looked at the people around us, the way they hunched their shoulders as they passed us by, looking at the ground as they shuffled their feet in the grass and dirt. A few of them would look up at me, eyes widening when they saw me looking back, and then move quickly away. Children openly gawked as their parents struggled to pull them down the dirt road. Only the knights standing at their posts throughout the camp seemed to meet my gaze for any length of time, but they’d always had my back.
“I’m not some kind of savior,” I said quietly, beginning to feel the weight of expectation pressing down upon my shoulders.
“Aren’t you?” Ryan asked, arching an eyebrow. “Because that’s what they need you to do. Save them. That’s what they’ve been waiting for.”
“They scoffed at me. They turned their backs on me. They hated me. They did everything in their power to have me removed as Morgan’s apprentice.”
“They did.”
“And now that they don’t have any other choice, they need me.”
“They do.”
“You think it’s that simple.”
He shrugged. “Probably.”
“Huh. I’ll be honest. I’m probably going to lord this over them so much that even Kevin will be impressed. I’m going to be so insufferable, you are going to regret this whole guilt trip pep talk whatever. Okay. I’ll do it.”
Ryan blinked. “That’s it?”
I squinted at him. “Should I have said no?”
“You….” He shook his head. “Just when I think you can’t surprise me anymore, you do it anyway.”
I grinned rakishly. “Damn right I do. I’m Sam of Dragons.”
“Ungh.”
“Ryan, please. Not in front of my adoring public.”
He took my hand and squeezed it tightly. “We’re gonna be okay.”
“We as in everyone? Or we as in you and me?”
“Both.”
“You’re gonna be mad, though, huh?”
“You better believe it. You fucked up, Sam. And you’re gonna owe me for the rest of our lives.”
I kissed him. I figured we both deserved it.
THEY WERE waiting for us in a large tent near the entrance to the docks. The smell of salt on the air and the sound of seagulls calling out overhead reminded me of the way the Port used to be before Verania fell, and I promised myself it would be that way again.
Two knights stood outside the tent, snapping to attention and saluting Ryan and me as we approached. One of them winked at me as we passed by and commented how nice the mark on my neck looked. Ryan glared at him, but the knights just laughed.
“He doesn’t know how to control himself around me,” I told them. “He gets one look at this hot bod and can’t help but do things to it.”
“Would you stop undermining my authority,” Ryan muttered, his cheeks red as he pulled me into the tent.
“I’ll let you undermine my authority if you get under my—and those are my parents standing there with their judgmental faces. Mom. Dad. Ignore what I just said. My virtue is intact.”
“I thought Knight Delicious Face eat your flower,” Tiggy said, face scrunched up. “Sam go in woods and become virgin again?”
“I’ve missed these cringeworthy moments,” Dad told Mom. “It feels like things are finally getting back to normal. Well, as normal as things can be in a makeshift camp after being forced from our homes by hordes of Darks.”
“It’s good to know that even as a wizard now, he can still make an entire room feel uncomfortable with just a few words,” Mom said. “Do you remember when he was little and would get scared of the dust monster he thought lived under his bed? He would come crying in our room and demand to sleep with us. It was easier to say no when he turned fifteen.”
“Ha ha,” I laughed awkwardly. “She’s joking, everyone. I never did that. Ha ha ha. So funny, she is.”
“Glad you both could join us,” Justin said coolly, standing in front of a large table littered with parchments and scrolls, including what looked to be a detailed schematic of Castle Lockes. “Maybe next time, take the hour that I gave you and use it wisely without wasting my time. Do we understand each other?”
“So kingly,” I whispered to Ryan. “Gives me chills.”
Ryan nudged my shoulder and shook his head.
“Are we good?” Justin asked, glancing at Ryan.
I waited, fearing what answer he would give, or that it would be a lie.
“Getting there,” Ryan said, and I believed him. His hand was still in mine, and he didn’t seem as if he wanted to let go.
The interior of the tent was spacious but cluttered. There were boards set up on wooden stands that looked to be covered in strategies meant for battle, lines showing movement and direction against an opposing force. Several of them showed various methods of attack, and while I thought they seemed well planned, I couldn’t help but wonder what they expected to happen, sending their brawn and swords against waves of Dark magic. I didn’t see it ending well, even if I was impressed that they seemed to be preparing to fight back.
Standing near the Prince was Lady Tina, her sword in its scabbard at her side, her hair pulled back in a ponytail. If I didn’t know that in her chest beat a cold thing of malice, I would have thought she looked like she belonged next to him. I didn’t like it one bit. If she thought she could come in and steal my best friend 5eva, then she was going to have a fight on her hands. She stared at me unnervingly, as if daring me to say something about her presence. I would have, too, and probably said something so witty and demoralizing that she’d run crying from Camp HaveHeart, never to be seen again, but I was distracted by another person standing in the room next to my parents.
Vadoma. Why she would need to be here with the others was beyond me. She could leave with Lady Tina.
And next to her was Terry, a sight I didn’t know if I was ever going to get used to. He had an expression of disdain on his face, looking so much like his brother that I did a double take, especially when I saw it was directed at me. He sneered a little before looking at the knight at my side. “Ryan, are you all right? That miserable little thing seems to be clutching on to you as if it were some kind of malevolent barnacle. If you’d like, I can remove it for you and you can stand by me and feel comforted by the fact that I have saved you.”
“That’s how they are,” Lady Tina told him. “It’s a sort of affliction for which I have yet to find a cure.”
“How terrible,” Terry said. He eyed Lady Tina up and down.
“I have decided I like you. You should feel blessed, as I don’t like most people.” He glanced back at Ryan. “I also like Ryan. A lot.”
Lady Tina preened.
Ryan blushed.
I decided I hated Terry.
“Hi, Terry,” Ryan said, a dopey smile on his face. “I hope you’re settling in well at Camp HaveHeart.
Little rays of light began to shoot from Terry’s horn as he batted his eyes at Ryan.
I decided I really hated Terry.
“So,” I said. “This is just a gathering of all my favorite people in the entire world. Neat. I’m just thrilled that some of you are with some others. Thrilled.”
“I had a vision you would say that,” Vadoma said, the bangles on her wrists knocking together. “I have many visions about everything you say. None of them are good.”
“Well that’s not surprising,” Terry said.
“It really isn’t,” Lady Tina agreed.
Yeah, this wasn’t going to fly. “I think we should take a vote about certain people being kicked out of the Cool Club, because certain people are not being cool—”
“Sorry, sorry,” Gary said, bursting into the tent, panting wildly. “I was unavoidably detained doing… charity work.”
“Charity work,” I repeated. “Your mane and tail look like they’ve been wind-raped.”
He gasped. “How dare you tell a unicorn such a thing? Why, I am offended that those words could possibly even come out of your—”
“What charity?”
“What?”
“You said you were busy doing charity. What charity?”
His eyes shifted side to side. “You know. The one with. The albino… children.”
“And what do you do for the albino children?”
“Protect them? From… the sun. The sun’s rays. Yes, I shield them from the sun with my mane and tail, which explains why I look as disheveled as I do.”
“What’s the name of the charity?”
“Gary’s House for the Pigmentally Challenged Youth Where I Pretend To Be Chivalrous, But Do It So I Feel Better About Myself.”
“What the fu—”
The ground shook as the tent flaps parted and Kevin stuck his head inside. He grinned when he saw me. “Look at that,” he said. “Right on time as always. You know what they say, a dragon is never late, and that’s what makes them so great.”