A Wish Upon the Stars

  “And stuff,” Ryan said.

  I beamed at him. “See? He got it right away.”

  “This is madness,” Randall said. “Sam, do you know what will happen to you the moment he dies? He has been your cornerstone for only a short amount of time. Your bond is strong, but even you will not be able to escape the repercussions of such a devastating shock to your system. This isn’t something to be taken lightly. You’re talking about killing Ryan. I banished Myrin to the realm of shadows and lost a decade. What do you think it’ll do to you to murder the one you love?”

  “I’m not you,” I retorted. “Something you’ve reminded me of again and again. I’m not going to turn Dark.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I won’t.”

  “How do you even know that’s what Myrin will make you do?” Justin asked.

  “Because he’ll see Ryan as Sam’s last connection to the world of light,” Randall muttered. “He’ll think of it as the greatest sacrifice. If Sam is willing to kill his cornerstone, then there is nothing he won’t do to become Dark. He’ll be convinced. And then there’s the matter of the prophecy.”

  “I like being alive,” Ryan said, sounding dazed. “I don’t know if I’ve ever really told you that before. But I really do like it.”

  “I’ll bring you back,” I promised him. “Like I would ever let you get away from me. We’ve got to grow old together, remember?”

  “Sam,” the King said gently, “your magic. It will keep you young for a very long time.”

  Randall sighed. “Sam found a way to manipulate his magic. He will age as normal.”

  “You did what?” Justin asked.

  I shrugged. “No big thing.”

  The King smiled. “Of course you did. Please don’t ever stop surprising me. I would like it if we all came out of this alive. I want to see what wonders you’ll all achieve.”

  “And you did it for me,” Ryan said quietly. We all turned toward him. He watched me with something akin to awe.

  I blushed, scuffing my boot against the dirt. “I already told you that, but yeah. Mostly. Sure, part of it was me wanting to live a normal life. Well. As normal a life as is possible for someone like me. But when I wished on the stars to do something important, to be someone who matters, I didn’t mean all of this. This… destiny. I think I meant you. Because you’re my something important. You help me be that someone who matters.” I looked away. “You’re my wish, you know? I think you always have been.”

  A couple of fingers went under my chin and lifted my head. Then lips were pressed against mine, a kiss so bittersweet and tinged with desperation that it took my breath away. Everything else melted away, just for a little while.

  When he broke the kiss, he pressed his forehead against mine, his nose brushing my cheek. “You did it for me,” he said again, voice low.

  “I would do anything for you. And this country.”

  He pulled away, but only just. His gaze was searching when he said, “Including killing me.”

  I swallowed thickly. “Right.”

  “And then bringing me back.”

  “That’s the plan. Shocking the shit out of you. And Myrin. More than I’ve ever done before. Hopefully it’ll fry his brains and save yours.”

  He stared at me. “This might be the stupidest plan you’ve ever come up with.”

  I grinned at him. “I thought so too.”

  “How did you even think of this?” he asked, taking a step back, dropping his arms.

  “The Grimoires. Morgan’s. Randall’s. And Myrin’s. They were… magic is in the mind. That was something they all had written. A common thread. That’s what they believed, and… maybe they’re right.” I shook my head. “But maybe they’re wrong, because I don’t think magic comes from just the mind. I think it comes from the heart too. And I think Morgan knew that. And maybe Randall does too. But Myrin? Myrin… he doesn’t get it. He’s cold and calculating because he doesn’t understand just how extensive magic can be. He wants power. He takes that power. Ergo, he becomes more powerful. But what can he do with it? He’s covered in shadow. I think he always has been. He’s got a singular focus, wanting to prove that he is the greatest wizard the world has ever known. And it’s all in his mind. None of it comes from his heart.”

  “Morgan did see it,” Randall said softly. “And I think it was because of you.”

  I couldn’t look at him.

  “What is this going to do to you?” Ryan asked.

  “To me? I don’t—”

  “You’re talking about potentially killing people.”

  I blanched. “They’re Darks—”

  “I’m not defending them. I’m worried about what this will do to you. I’m a knight. A soldier. I know that I would take a life in order to protect the King and the Prince. To protect you. It’s my job. My oath to the Crown.”

  “I’m not a knight.”

  “I know.”

  “And I’m not a soldier.”

  He looked frustrated. “I know that too.”

  “But I have an oath.”

  “Everyone out,” Ryan snarled. He began pacing as the others fled the tent.

  I waited, because he needed to work this out.

  “You’re stupid,” he said.

  “Probably.”

  “And you’re going to get us all killed.”

  “That’s a definite possibility.”

  He pointed a finger at my face. “If you get killed, I will kill you.”

  “That doesn’t even make sense—”

  “And if you kill me and can’t bring me back, I will haunt you forever.”

  “Oooh, ghost sex. Get your ectoplasm all over my—”

  “And if you turn Dark, I will kick your ass so hard, you won’t have a choice but to turn good again.”

  “I don’t quite understand how—”

  “I don’t like this idea.”

  I sniffed delicately. “So I noticed.”

  “I think it’s ridiculous.”

  “Pretty much the story of our lives, dude. Just roll with it.”

  He suddenly looked stricken. “You need to be okay,” he said roughly. “Do you understand me? I need you to be okay. I can’t do this without you, Sam. I can’t. This life… it doesn’t make sense unless I’m by your side.”

  I hugged him tightly. “Never,” I whispered in his ear. “I will never let you go.”

  SAM

  sam

  sam

  Sam

  SAM

  My head rocked to the side, a bright flare of pain in my cheek.

  I groaned as I opened my eyes. My vision was blurry and my head was pounding.

  “Whuzzat?” I asked coherently.

  “Gods, don’t scare me like that. You weren’t breathing, you mothercracking idiot!”

  “M’lerg,” I said with extraordinary alacrity.

  “Don’t you dare go and pass out again. I will hit the other side of your face, so help me gods.”

  I blinked at the dark figure leaning over me, blocking out the sun. “Hi,” I said.

  “Hi. Hi, he says. Hi. Gods, I really hate you sometimes.”

  “Not nice.”

  “I’m allowed to not be nice to you. You just killed me, then resurrected me by shocking my heart, and then passed out like you always do just to freak me out. I’m going to give you so much shit for the rest of our lives, you have no idea—”

  And then it all came into startling focus.

  Ryan Foxheart, alive, bitching me out.

  “Gods,” I whispered. “I….”

  “Yeah?” he said, squinting at me.

  “I’m….”

  “Yeah?” he said, leaning down for what was probably going to be the most romantic moment of my life.

  “I am so awesome!” I crowed, sitting up quickly. Which was a bad idea, seeing as how I smashed my face against his.

  “What the fuck,” he groaned, falling back on his ass, armor clanking. “Did you just hea
dbutt me?”

  “Why was your face so close?” I moaned, holding my nose, sure it’d been shattered into a billion pieces and that I’d be disfigured for the rest of my days. Ryan would leave me because he was secretly shallow and couldn’t have someone with a squashed nose riding his dick, and then I’d have to go back to living in a hut in the woods and parents would tell their children about the Squashed Nose Man (capitalized, so you know it’s true) who would come out at night and steal their toes if they didn’t eat their vegetables and—

  And then I remembered there were things far more important than Squashed Nose Man.

  I opened my eyes.

  Ryan Foxheart was sitting on the ground in front of me, looking ornery and irritated, scowling prettily as he rubbed his forehead. He glared at me and opened his mouth to say—

  Well, I didn’t know what he opened his mouth to say, because I got up and tackled him, immediately regretting the decision as he was wearing a full suit of armor, but gladly accepting the pain of crushing my ribs into powder given that he was kissing me back just as frantically.

  “You’re alive, you’re alive, you’re alive,” I babbled against his mouth.

  “You’re such an idiot,” he growled, his hands going to my ass. “I hate you so much. Don’t ever scare me like that again.”

  “Scare you? You died, you dick!”

  “You killed me!”

  “That was like five minutes ago! When are you going to get over it? Gods, Ryan, your fixation on that one thing is going to tear us apart. Why don’t you ever bring up that I also brought you back to life?”

  “I don’t know why I put up with you.”

  “I don’t know why either.”

  “Stop talking. I’m trying to kiss you.”

  I grinned against his mouth. He was so warm and alive and vital that I never wanted to let him go. It was—

  A breeze blew across my face, and with it came the stench of something terribly burnt.

  I pushed away from Ryan.

  And looked around.

  “Holy shit,” I breathed.

  The road underneath our feet was covered in scorch marks, spreading out like roots of a tree around from where Ryan and I stood. The sides of the castle looked as if they’d been scarred, deep, black lines stretching up almost to the top where Zero had been perched.

  He was gone, but safe. I could feel the pulse of him in my head.

  The vermilion root holding the Darks had survived my lightning, though it looked worse for wear. Little arcs of electricity still crawled over the surface. The Darks encased inside had been spared from my onslaught.

  But—

  Where Ruv had stood was nothing but a pile of ash.

  Where Caleb had stood was nothing but a pile of ash.

  Where Myrin had stood was—

  I blinked. “What the hell?”

  It looked as if part of Castle Lockes had broken off in the explosion, the stone having crashed into the ground. A pile of rubble lay before us, dust still rising into the air.

  My magic felt like it was going haywire, something Randall had warned me about. My cornerstone had died and then come back. It would take a little while before I could calm down.

  “It worked,” Ryan whispered.

  I looked at him. He was staring out around us at the scorch marks upon the stone, eyes wide, hands shaking. “Yeah,” I said. “It worked.”

  He reached out and took my hand in his. “It’s over?”

  “I—”

  Sam

  I shouted as a pulse of infected magic burst in my head. Ryan cried out my name, but I couldn’t focus on him, my head bowed, teeth clenched as I tried to withstand the assault in my head. I was already weakened from resurrecting Ryan, and I couldn’t push the yellowed magic away as it bowled over me.

  The ground beneath us rumbled.

  I lifted my head.

  The pile of stone that had fallen from the castle began to shift.

  And as the stones moved, I saw a flash of yellow underneath.

  “No,” I breathed.

  I stood slowly.

  Ryan pushed himself up to stand at my side, sword in hand. “What is this?” he asked me.

  Sam

  My eyes watered as I bent over, hands over my ears, trying to block out the roar that began to whirl around us. It caused my skin to buzz, my bones to ache. My teeth felt loose in their sockets, and I couldn’t seem to catch my breath as I—

  The stones fell away.

  Underneath, in a swirling sphere of magic, stood Myrin.

  He wasn’t unscathed. He had lightning scars that looked like the ones on my chest on his outstretched hands and on his face. His beard had been partially seared off, the ends curled up and blackened. A cut on his cheek dripped blood onto his chin. He was breathing heavily, but he was alive.

  Ryan tried to force me behind him. “What the hell—”

  “Containment,” I whispered.

  Myrin smiled a bloody smile. “That’s right. Containment. A gift from my dearly departed brother. You thought you could beat me? Oh, Sam. Finally, you have underestimated me. And it will be the last thing you ever do.”

  “Sweet molasses,” I managed to say. “Hey, Ryan?”

  “Yeah?” he said, eyes only on Myrin.

  “Now might be a good time to run.”

  “What?”

  “Run.”

  And I grabbed his arm as Myrin’s hands moved in a complicated motion, and I pulled Ryan away, away, away. He squawked angrily, both of us sliding on the ash beneath our feet. We managed to stay upright, and as I ran, my grip on Ryan’s arm tightening, I glanced over my shoulder in time to see Myrin detonate, that pulse of infected magic overflowing, cracking the road beneath his feet.

  The chase was on.

  Chapter 19: Home Again

  IT WAS about that time—when we were running for our lives, a crazy douchebag supervillain essentially flying after us, his magic warped and so fucking angry—that I realized we were screwed.

  So naturally, I felt the need to share this with my beloved.

  “We’re gonna die!” I screamed at him.

  “What?” he shouted back.

  “We’re going to get so murdered!”

  “Fuck that,” he snarled at me. “I already died once today. I’m not going to do it again.”

  “Now is probably a really bad time to tell you that you need to watch your fucking mouth, but seriously. Ryan. Watch your fucking mouth. You’re a godsdamned knight who—oh my gods, duck!”

  And we did, just in time to have a freaking carriage hurled over our heads and smash into a storefront, glass shattering, wood breaking, the awning collapsing to the ground.

  “Okay, so he might be a little pissed!”

  “Oh really? You think?”

  “Don’t get snarky with me, Foxheart. I just gave you life.”

  “After you took it—here, this way!”

  I almost lost my footing as he pulled me down a narrow alley. There was a great crash behind us, and I looked back in time to see the building on the opposite side of the street collapse.

  “Now would be a good time to do something magical,” Ryan snapped at me. “Can’t you suck us through a hole like Randall does?”

  “Oh my gods, phrasing. Why would you say it like that? And you know I can’t do that like he can. Way to make me feel inadequate!”

  We burst out of the other side of the alley, the sky above us darkening as black clouds appeared out of nowhere. Thunder rumbled overhead as the streets dimmed. The wind was picking up like a great storm was brewing.

  We could hear the City of Lockes being torn apart behind us, but we didn’t stop to see what was happening. Ryan looked left, then right, then left before we started running again.

  “You need to do something,” he called over his shoulder as the air filled with the scent of a heavy rain.

  “Um, hello. Did I or did I not just bring you back to life? You know what happens when I use a shit-ton o
f magic. I don’t have enough strength to face him right now.”

  “I thought you were—I’m not talking about taking him head-on, Sam! We need to get out of here.”

  And then it hit me. “Kevin.”

  “What?”

  “Kevin! Dude, I am the motherfucking dragon whisperer. I’ll just get Kevin to come and—fuck me in the face!” That last part came out as a shriek as a wall of rock burst out of the ground before us. We avoided it at the last second as Ryan pulled us to the right down another alleyway. I heard a large rumble and looked back in time to see the alley behind us narrowing as the buildings on either side moved toward each other.

  “Faster!” I squeaked. “We need to run faster.”

  He glanced over his shoulder, and his eyes bulged when he saw what was happening. I heard the groan of wood and stone and plaster around us as the buildings shifted. Flowerpots from balconies rained down around us, and Ryan grunted as one hit his shoulder, the pottery breaking against his armor. He kept moving, however, and we jumped out of the alley at the last second as the buildings crashed together. I fell to my knees, grunting as the road scraped against my skin. Ryan stayed upright, though his sword was knocked from his hands. It bounced off the road and came to rest on the opposite side of the street.

  “We have to keep moving,” he snapped as he pulled me to my feet. “We need to go north. We can get to the gate and—”

  Even before he finished, another wall of rock rose from the ground, blocking the northern road.

  “Mothercracker,” he growled. “Come on. We’ll find another way.”

  We continued on. He scooped down without slowing and grabbed his sword, flourishing it as he rose, because he couldn’t not act like a douchebag, even when we were running for our lives.

  I winced at the pain in my knees, feeling blood splashing and smearing along the inside of my robes. But I pushed away the sting, gathering my magic as best I could. I tried to reach out to the pulses in my head, the black and red and blue and white, but they were faint, like they’d been muted somehow, and I wondered if it was Myrin’s doing, if he’d somehow cast a spell over the entire godsdamn City. I didn’t push too hard. I wanted to avoid giving away our location. I couldn’t hear Myrin behind us anymore, but every time we tried to head north, more often than not, the road was blocked. We were able to advance, but we were mostly moving east, and it took a few instances before I realized where we were headed. “The slums.”