“Yes. Oh boy. Your delivery was wooden. Your voice was pitchy in the musical numbers. You interrupted my soliloquy. I mean, do you even understand the fine art of acting? I know you’re a forest person now, but my word. What is wrong with you?”
“I did the best I could!”
“An elderly man missing his arms and legs and voice box would have been more believable than you!”
“Well maybe if you’d given me advance notice, I would have been able to prepare better!”
“We literally just got back to Camp HaveHeart,” he snapped at me.
I frowned. “Really? It’s still the same day? Huh. Wow. So many things have happened, it feels like it’s been a week.” I gasped. “That means my eyebrows still haven’t been plucked! How dare you let me perform like—oh. Wait. Right. Shaping magic.” I waved my hand in front of my face and plucked a few. “Ow. Ow! Fuck, women who do this regularly are the true heroes, what the hell. Okay. Better?”
“Hmmm,” Gary said, leaning close and inspecting each eyebrow individually. “If you like looking perpetually surprised, then yes. That’s better. You look like you just walked into a party you didn’t know was being thrown for you.”
I shoved his face away.
Justin was still staring at me.
“What?” I snapped at him.
“Plotting,” he said mysteriously.
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“For you? Probably not.”
“Great,” I sighed.
“I need to talk to Sam,” Ryan said gruffly, coming to stand next to me. He gripped my elbow like he was getting ready to pull me away. I knew that look on his face, and I grinned because I was about to get licked.
“Absolutely not,” Justin said, pulling me back toward the table. “I know what you’re going to do. You put your godsdamn dick away. I need him.”
“Ooh,” I said, waggling my surprise-brows back at Ryan. “Sounds like the Prince wants to fight you for me.”
Ryan began to pull out his sword.
Justin looked back at him and rolled his eyes. “Knock it off, Knight Commander. You can trust me when I say I can do far, far better than Sam.”
“That was mean,” I told him. “But I can’t wait for you to find love so I can see who is better than me. That guy must be so damn cool.” I frowned when I thought of something. “But just because you find him doesn’t mean you can’t be my best friend 5eva anymore. That’s for life. You promised.”
“I promised you nothing. You forced that upon me.”
“Same thing.”
The others followed us and stood around the table again. Justin pulled out the map of Castle Lockes, and then another, which showed the City of Lockes. Tina stood at his side, peering down at them, eyes darting from one to the other.
“First things first,” Justin said. “Gary, I’m sorry.”
We all looked up, surprised. Well. Everyone else looked surprised. If Gary was to be believed, I was still there.
“Um,” Gary said, flustered. “Thank you?”
“You’re welcome.”
“And what are we apologizing for?”
Justin sighed. “I can’t—for as long as I’ve known you, you haven’t had your horn. And to be honest, before this whole… thing with Myrin, I never gave it much thought. You were always just Sam’s sidekick who—”
“That was the wrong thing to say,” I mumbled.