I rolled my eyes. “I haven’t the slightest—”
“Magic is not meant to be forced,” Moishe said. “It is a powerful thing that cannot be trifled with. Sam is vibrating with it. None of you can sense it like I can. It is overwhelming. His aura is like the sun. No man can contain that much magic for long without consequences.”
“I have control,” I said, taking a step toward Moishe.
“Do you?” he asked.
“Saved you, didn’t I?”
“Moishe,” Mama said, “either speak in specifics or stop wasting my time. I’m exhausted, and I would rather have this out now so I may sleep.”
“If Sam loses control, he could destroy us all,” Moishe said bluntly. “Or worse, he could become so consumed by magic that he turns Dark. It’d be like the bird, wouldn’t it, Sam? That dead patch in the forest that will never again know life. You could take so much away from this world in order to shape it into your own.”
Everyone but Randall turned slowly to look at me.
I really fucking hated Moishe.
“I’m not going to go Dark,” I said, trying to smile as reassuringly as I could. “For one, to become a villain, you have to monologue. And we all know how I feel about that. I think I got that from my father—”
Gary gasped. “It’s already started! He’s monologuing. Sam! Sam. Can you hear me? You can’t turn evil yet. I’ve only just gotten back my horn and need to use it for the forces of good!”
Tiggy squinted at me. “Sam a bad guy?”
“Yes!” Gary wailed. “He’s going to become a villain, and then I shall have to become the hero of the story like I was meant to be, and there will be a final climactic showdown atop a mountain, and I will rend Sam in two and he will turn good again right before he dies—”
“Gary monologuing now!”
“You shut your mouth,” Gary snarled at Tiggy. “I can’t be a villain. I am a unicorn. It’s impossible for me to be evil.” He frowned. “Wait. Right? Is that right? I can’t be evil because I’m a unicorn? Honestly, I have no idea. I mean, I don’t know that I’ve ever met an evil unicorn before. Except for Terry, but he’s an accountant, so that’s to be expected.”
“Is that true?” Ryan asked me.
“About accountants? I don’t know. I mean, it sounds right—”
“Sam. What Moishe said.”
“No,” I said, glaring at Moishe. “It’s not.”
“Sort of,” Randall said.
“Traitor!”
“But I don’t think it’s as dire as Moishe is making it out to be,” Randall said. “Sam has always defied expectations. I’m watching him closely, but I do believe with Ryan as his cornerstone, we have little to worry about. At least for now.”
“Tiggy smash if Sam be evil,” Tiggy announced.
“You better not smash me.”
“Tiggy smash,” he insisted.
“Ugh. Fine.”
Tiggy looked pleased.
“Stop looking at me like I’m going to go Dark right this second,” I snapped at Ryan.
He crossed his arms over his chest, looking put out. “How am I supposed to know what’s going to happen? I don’t even know where you were for the last year.”
“He’s mad at me,” I told Mama. “For the whole leaving thing.”