A Wish Upon the Stars (Tales From Verania 4)

“The look on his face, Sam. Oh, it was planned. I can see that now. But did you see the look on the knight’s face? He tried to hide it. He really did. But there was such betrayal there. Like he couldn’t believe it was actually happening. You killed your beloved. The bond with your cornerstone broke. Even if it was for a small amount of time, it broke. And you caused that. We’re not so different after all, Sam. Because you did what you had to in order to gain the upper hand. Just as I did.”

“I am nothing like you,” I growled.

“Aren’t you? Or are you more? Sam, the loss of life since I took over has been minimal. I imprisoned the people of Verania. I didn’t slaughter them. Not like you wanted to do to the Darks. I felt it. How close it was. How you wanted to snuff the life out of all of them. You almost killed more people than I ever have. What does that make you? And

don’t even get me started on Ruv and Caleb.”

“Shut up! You don’t know what you’re—”

He coughed as he rose slowly. “You didn’t see what I did. You didn’t hear them die like I did, Sam. In those last seconds, they knew what was coming. They felt it. Sam, they screamed when your lightning rolled over them. When their bodies began to burn to nothing but ash. I watched as they died. And you did it. No one else. You did this, Sam. They took a different path than you, and you made them suffer for it. You killed Caleb’s mother, and then you killed him. And Ruv. Oh, poor, sweet little Ruv, a lost boy until I found him and gave him what he wished for more than anything in the world. To matter. Doesn’t that sound familiar? After all, you wished for the same. And my brother came for you, much like I did for Ruv.”

“No, no, no, you don’t get to say that, you don’t get to—”

“Truth hurts, doesn’t it?” he said. “To know that you’re capable of as much darkness as I am, that you—”

Sam.

No, Sam.

Don’t listen to him!

It’s not true.

You are better than this. Than him.

You are more.

The dragons. Sounding so far away.

“—and I know, Sam, I really do, that you could be so much worse than I ever was. All that magic in you. All that power. Don’t you see? It’s just easier to… let go. The darkness won’t judge you. It won’t restrict you. It won’t—”

“Shut up,” I screamed at him. “You don’t get to—”

His eyes flashed. “The gods got it wrong. You were never meant to be the hero of this story. Sam, can’t you see?” He reached for me, fingers shaking. “You were always going to be the villain.”

He looked surprised when I closed my hand around his throat, like he hadn’t expected me to move so quickly. The dragons were roaring in my head—please sam please sam stop this don’t do this you are better you are more you are good and and and—but I ignored them. Wind started to whip around us, and the stars above dimmed.

His hands came to my forearms, wrapping around them tightly. “Do you… know my… wizarding name?”

“Myrin the Bright Star,” I snapped at him, feeling the green and gold mounting furiously within me.

“Yes,” he gasped. “Do you know why?”

“It doesn’t matter. You’ve—”

“Because I flash brightly… like the stars.”

I brought his face close to mine. “Even stars burn out.”

He grimaced as his infected yellow magic pushed against mine, but it wasn’t enough. I was mired in the green and gold. It was everything. I was everything.

The dragons were barely there, buried underneath the storm.

“I told you I read your Grimoire.”

“Yes.”

“That I saw who you were. Who you became.”