“Yes,” I admitted. “But just think: now he’s with all the others. All in one place.”
Myrin chuckled. “Makes for an easier target.”
“Exactly.”
“See, there’s just one problem with that, Sam,” he said, coming to stand in front of Ruv. Myrin reached up and traced a finger along Ruv’s cheek. Ruv barely flinched.
“Oh? And what would that be?”
He turned to face me. “I don’t believe you.”
Well shit. “That sucks.”
He sighed. “It really does. I mean, for all your bravado, for the way you weaponized your words, I still see the scared little boy underneath it all, extraordinarily out of his depth. You are a child playing in a chess game of the gods, Sam.”
“Dude, no need to be so condescending. You could just say you don’t believe me and leave it at that. Really. My feelings are hurt.”
He was in front of me before I could even blink, a hand gripping my face, fingers digging into my skin. It took all I had to stare blandly at him, showing him just how unaffected I was. “You speak,” he whispered, breath warm on my face, “without saying anything. Your words are a jumbled mess of adolescent mockery derived from an undeserved sense of accomplishment. I truly expected more from someone who was ordained by the gods to be my equal. You are nothing to me. You are insignificant. You have dragons, yes. And an unwieldy magic. But tell me, Sam. What would stop me, right here, right now, from just… taking it from you.”
“Consuming me. My magic.”
His grip tightened. “Yes, Sam. From consuming your magic.”
“Because then you’d be missing out on the fact that I am your equal.”
His eyes narrowed. “Come again?”
“I read it.”
“What?”
“Your Grimoire.”
The grip on my face loosened as he blinked in surprise. “You what?”
“Your Grimoire. I have it. I read it. Not the whole thing, of course, because, dude, you could really use an editor. I mean, you had stuff in there that made no sense and didn’t advance the narrative at all, but you still chose to devote pages to it. Why do you do that? Don’t you know that people don’t like superfluous stuff that makes it sound like the only thing you like is the sound of your own voice? Because legit, you should really tone back that shit. And now I totally forgot what we were talking about, because you are still breathing on my mouth, and I am really uncomfortable with that.”
“The Grimoire,” he growled.
“Oh. Right. Your Grimoire. Yeah, dude, totes read the highlights. I don’t know if you’ve ever met the snake dragon monster thing, but you guys have a lot in common. Everything is Dark this and Dark that and no one understands me at all.”
“Make your point before I decide it’s not worth hearing.”
“Wow. That was… an effective threat. My point, since you’re so insistent, is that we’re not so different, you and I.”
“And how is that.”
“We’ve been betrayed by those we love.”
He let go of my face, but not before patting my cheek just this side of too hard. “You?”
I nodded. “Me.”
“Go on.”
“Morgan. Randall.”
“What about them?”