“You can’t hide from this, Sam,” Morgan said lightly. “I know you want to, I know that your first instinct is to try and ignore it until it all goes away, but you can’t do that now.”
“How do you know that?” I asked, refusing to look up from my Grimoire. “Maybe I’m just—”
“I know you,” Morgan said. “As well as anyone does. I have watched you grow up from a little boy to the man you are today. I have seen your successes. I have witnessed your failures. So, yes. I know you. And I know how you think, Sam. And I know your first instinct is to push this away.”
He had me there, and all of us in the room knew it. I didn’t know what kind of relationship Morgan and Randall had when it was just the two of them, if it’d been any different when Randall had been Morgan’s mentor, however long ago that’d been. I didn’t know why I hadn’t worked up the courage to ask about them yet, not sure if the bond between a mentor and his charge was meant to be private. I didn’t tell Gary or Tiggy or Ryan everything that Morgan and I talked about, and they didn’t ask. They knew a wizard was meant to have his secrets and so far hadn’t yet put me in a place where I had to lie to them. Lying was different than withholding the truth, or at least that’s what I told myself. I hadn’t told anyone what the Great White had said the first time Vadoma had whammied me. I hadn’t told anyone everything that had happened the second time, either.
I really needed to stop getting whammied by my grandma.
And Dad was right. That phrasing was terrible.
“Okay,” I said begrudgingly. “Maybe there was a small chance I was considering trying to ignore the whole… destiny thing until it went away. But that doesn’t mean that we still can’t do that, right? If we all collectively agreed that it doesn’t exist, then no big deal. We’ll forget it ever happened and go on with our lives like nothing changed. Maybe start a bowling league. I don’t know.”
“Until this dark man comes,” Randall said.
I glared at him, because of course he’d have to bring that part up. “So you believe her now? What happened to her fortune-telling being a scam?”
He shrugged as if he couldn’t care less. “You believed it. The moment you came to in the field, you believed. Whatever you saw, whatever she showed you, it scared the hell out of you. That’s enough to make me believe that being cautious is better than being dismissive. You can’t hide your head in the sand without expecting your ass to get burned.”
I didn’t want to admit that he had a point, so I said nothing.
“We need to be prudent about this, Sam,” Morgan said. “If there is any truth to the matter.”
“And you don’t think that it’s just Vadoma having ulterior motives?” I asked. “She obviously made plans for me with Ruv that Ryan disrupted. How do we know this isn’t all just a ploy to bring me back to the homestead? I would make a terrible gypsy. I hate bracelets, and I don’t like the desert.”
“Anything is possible,” Morgan said slowly. “Which is why we have to tread carefully here. If there is any validity to what she’s saying, we need to be prepared.”
“Then who is this dark man?” I asked.
And they hesitated.
They didn’t wa
nt me to see it. I almost didn’t see it. It was a split-second thing, a darting glance shared between the two of them that anyone else would have missed. But I knew them. I knew Morgan. I had spent years by his side, studying under him and studying him. I knew when he would withhold the truth, for the most part. I knew that he tried not to lie to me, even if he felt it was for my own good. Secrets between a wizard and his charge were far and few between, and never if it meant one or the other would be in danger.
So I knew when he opened his mouth to respond that whatever came out would be a lie.
“We can’t be sure,” Morgan said. “He could be some nameless Dark rising through the ranks, as we’ve said.”
“Or an outsider who has somehow taken control,” Randall said.
“An outsider,” I repeated. “You think an outsider will gather the Darks and they would willingly follow.”
They looked relieved at the thought that I had swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. I was almost insulted at how naïve they thought me to be. “We need to explore every possibility,” Randall said. And then he frowned. “Isn’t there still a Dark or two in the dungeon that haven’t been sent out to the prisons yet?”
“Wan,” Morgan said thoughtfully. “Wan the Dark Hunter. He’s still here. Interrogating him didn’t get much information after the attack on Castle Lockes. He was to be transported at the end of the year. I suppose another attempt could be made. To find out what he knows.”
“I suppose I could—”
“No,” I said. “I don’t think you will.”
They paused.
“What was that, boy?” Randall asked, cocking an eyebrow.
“You’ve tried already,” I said. “Nothing came from it. Maybe it’s better to go into it with a fresh pair of eyes.”
“Really,” Randall said. “And just who do you suggest we use as a fresh pair of eyes?”