“Oh. Right. That too.” I glared at Brant and Katya. “She betrayed us. To Myrin. You expect me to believe that Ryan and Justin, both of whom she is obsessed with, forgave her for everything she’s done? I refuse to believe it, and to you I say good day.”
“Maybe you should just—”
“I said good day, Brant. What part of that do you not understand?”
He frowned. “All of it?”
“She’s changed,” Katya said.
“Snakes shed their skin but are still snakes,” I retorted.
“Oooh, burn,” Kevin said. “You all just got third-degree burns. How does it feel to have burns that destroyed your epidermis and go farther to affect deeper tissue?”
“This guy gets it,” I said.
Katya shook her head. “She regrets many things. She knows the mistakes she made and is doing everything she can to fix them. If the Knight Commander and the Prince can trust her, don’t you think you should give her a chance?”
“They don’t make the best decisions. They were probably lost without me, and she whispered her sweet poison in their ears about how Rystin is so much better than HaveHeart, and that—wait a minute. Were you part of the We-Hate-Sam-A-Lots?”
“I wasn’t,” Katya assured me.
“Um,” Brant said.
“Traitor!” Kevin gasped.
“Kevin! Make me billow!”
“Now? Are you sure this is the right time for billowing—”
“Kevin!”
He sucked in a great breath and blew it in my direction. My cloak billowed around me, my hair flopping dramatically. I squared my shoulders and held my head high. I thought about pulling my hood up, but I didn’t want to overdo it. “I am Sam of Dragons, returned to my people to save them from the darkness and defeat the evil wizard Myr—dude. Kevin. What did you eat? Your breath is terrible. God, it’s like the inside of one of those rest stop outhouses on the way to Meridian City where it’s basically a hole in the ground in which to do your business. My gods.”
“You don’t smell like sunshine and roses yourself, pretty,” Kevin snarked at me. “You’ve been living in the woods for a year. I’m pretty sure your eyebrows are starting to rival Randall’s.”
“What are we waiting for?” I demanded to Brant and Katya. “I need to pluck before I attempt to woo back my beloved! Lead the way, you cretins!”
“This is going to be a nightmare,” Brant muttered. “Are you sure we have to tell everyone we found them? Maybe we can just act like we’re arriving at the same time.”
“We might as well get this over with,” Katya said, patting her brother on the arm. “I mean, how bad could it possibly be?”
ALARMS STARTED ringing as soon we approached the gates.
Guards along the walkways on the walls around the Port began to shout and scramble, pulling their weapons.
Someone shot an arrow at us.
It bounced off Kevin’s scales and fell to the ground.
“Huh,” Kevin said, looking down at it. “I do believe someone just tried to kill me. Permission to destroy everything?”
“Permission denied. For now. Wait until we get closer to see who did it. If it was Lady Tina, then you have my permission. If it wasn’t, we’ll renegotiate depending on who it was. I have a feeling I dislike many people here already.”
“Understood. Also, you are very sexy when you take charge.”
“Fuck off.”
“Copy that.”