The Consumption of Magic (Tales From Verania 3)

He did not.

“Morgan?” I whispered.

Chapter 23: Stone Crumbles

I STOOD in front of the Great Doors that led to the throne room in Castle Lockes, willing myself to push them open.

I couldn’t find the strength.

I stood there for a long time.

Pete came, eventually, out a side door to my left.

“Sam?” he said quietly. “They’re waiting for you.”

“I know,” I said, still staring at the doors.

I felt his hand on my shoulder. I didn’t shrug him off. “Do you need more time?”

“I don’t deserve it.”

“What? What don’t you deserve?”

“To be here.”

I could hear the frown in his voice. “Sam, of course you do. He…. Out of everyone in the world, you deserve it the most. He would want you here, Sam. I know it.”

“Randall? Is he…?”

“No, Sam. He isn’t. We…. No one knows where he is. He hasn’t—I’m sure he’s fine. He’ll be back when he can. You’ll see.”

I nodded tightly, staring at my hands pressed flat against the doors. They were smooth and warm against my fingers.

“Do you remember that day in the alley?” Pete asked me quietly. “When you turned the boys to stone.”

I swallowed thickly. “Yeah.”

“I was walking by his side when we left. Do you know what he told me?”

I shook my head.

“I’ll never forget it. He said, ‘That boy is going to do great things, Pete. You mark my words. He is going to do great things.’ Out of all the years I’d known him, never once had I ever heard him speak about someone like that. And Sam, he was smiling when he said it, a smile that I’d never seen on his face before. But I would see it again and again and again for years to come, because that smile was meant for only you. He loved you, Sam. More than anything else in this world.”

I hung my head between my hands, staring down at the nicest robes I owned, blinking rapidly, trying to calm my aching heart.

“So you will do this,” Pete said, not unkindly. “Because even if you don’t think you deserve it, he does. For all the things he’s done for Verania, he deserves the one he loved the most being at his side.”

I nodded.

“Okay. That’s good. This isn’t the end, Sam.”

“Then why does it feel like it is?”

He shook his head. “Take another moment. But give him the respect he’s owed.”

Pete squeezed my shoulder again before he walked back toward the side door. He opened it, and I heard the murmuring of a crowd before he closed it behind himself and left me alone once again.

The star dragon whispered in my head, a memory like a knife wound.