The Consumption of Magic (Tales From Verania 3)

I didn’t sleep that night.

“SO, FULL disclosure,” I said to Randall the next afternoon after he’d spent the morning kicking my ass. “Sometimes I hear dragons in my head.”

Randall had been scribbling in his own Grimoire, and the pen froze. For a moment he was statue-still, and then he laid the pen down, looked up at me with a furrowed brow, and said as flatly as possible, “What.”

“Inflection is a thing,” I mumbled under my breath.

“Sam.”

“Yes?”

“Say that again.”

“Inflection is a thing.”

He looked like

he was going to reach out and pimp-slap me. “Sam of Wilds.”

I sighed. “Look, it’s no big deal. I hear dragons in my head. Big whoop. Who cares. Let’s talk about something else. Have you seen the way Ryan’s thighs look when he wears that—”

“I have no interest in Ryan’s thighs—”

“You don’t?” I asked incredulously. “How can you not? I petitioned the King to make them a national treasure!” I frowned. “He said no because he thought that maybe I didn’t quite understand what a national treasure was, which, okay, that was sort of true. But then I told him that he’d understand what I was talking about the moment he felt them hooked up over his shoulders. Have you ever seen the King run away from a conversation before? Because I have.”

Randall pinched the bridge of his nose. “You are a disgrace to the Kingdom of Verania.”

“Eh,” I said. “Some people still think I’m awesome, so it all evens out. But if you really feel that way, I’m sure Lady Tina DeSilva will be your new best friend. Or you can stay here and be my new best friend and we’ll do cool stuff together like baking holiday cookies and getting into pillow fights.”

“Everything about that sounds terrible.”

“That’s because you’re old and grumpy.”

“Sam.”

“Randall.”

He was grinding his teeth. I thought I should point out that probably wasn’t healthy but decided to keep my mouth shut. “You said you hear dragons. In your head.”

“I did,” I said. “Though I don’t know why you look so shocked. I’m the only one they can speak around, so why shouldn’t I hear them in my head?”

“That… unfortunately makes sense.”

“I hear that a lot.”

He frowned. “Did the same thing happen with Kevin?”

I thought back to that first day in the training fields where Justin had been acting like a douchebag and had challenged me with a sword. Hadn’t I felt something then? I thought I had. A ripple along my magic, something that I hadn’t ever felt before.

“Not… not like Zero,” I admitted. “But it was there. Kevin didn’t speak to me, but then he’s far younger than any of the other dragons in Verania. I don’t know if that has anything to do with it. It’s become very apparent that I don’t know anything about dragons. Like, did you know they’re born from rocks?” I scrunched up my face. “Or something. I don’t remember what Kevin said because I was super tired.”

“But you heard Zero.”

“Yeah. The closer we got, the louder he became.”

“Can you hear him now?”

“No. I don’t… think so? But it’s like I can feel him, you know? He’s like this… little pulse of light. It’s warm. I know he’s safe.”