“Insulted?” I said. “If anyone here is insulted, it should be me! That guy was the world’s biggest asshole.”
“Oh dear,” Morgan said.
“Yes,” Randall said. “Oh dear indeed. Do you know what he’s done?”
“What I’ve done? Now you listen here, you old piece of—wait. How the hell do you know what I’ve done?”
Randall’s enormous eyebrows twitched dangerously. “I had a conversation with the king of fairies.”
I groaned. “Of course. Dimitri. You can’t believe a godsdamn word he says. He is the worst. Okay. Well. Maybe not the absolute worst. It goes Vadoma, then you, then him, then the Great White, then Myrin, then Lady Tina, because there is nothing in this world worse than her. She is my most mortal of enemies, and mark my words, there will come a day when I shall spill her blood upon the earth, and I will rejoice at the act of doing so—”
“Do you see what I mean?” Randall asked Morgan, nodding in my direction. “This is your doing. This reflects upon you.”
“Rude,” I said. “I’ll have you know that Morgan thinks I’m a joy to be around, even if I haven’t completely forgiven him for the whole lying-to-me-about-everything thing.” I looked at my mentor. “I’m getting there, though,” I reassured him.
“Lucky me,” Morgan said.
“What did Dimitri say about me?” I asked Randall. “Because I can tell you right now he’s full of shit!”
Randall glared at me. “He said that the Great White offered you his assistance by requesting something from you in return. And that you refused him. And then insulted him.”
“Oh. Okay. So maybe Dimitri isn’t exactly full of shit, because that’s mostly what happened.”
“I knew it—”
“But that’s not everything,” I said loudly. “And as a sidenote, I can totally see why he was your mentor. You guys are exactly the same.”
“You just said he was the world’s biggest asshole.”
“Oh, did I?” I asked innocently. “Huh. Imagine that.”
“Sam,” Morgan chided gently.
I sighed. “Fine. Yes, he offered to help, and yes, I told him to fuck off—don’t give me that look, I didn’t say it like that. But dude, he totally wanted up on my junk. But not like Kevin wants on my junk, but like, different on my junk. It was no less rapey, but—”
“Sam.”
“Right. Basically, he knew about the marks Myrin gave me without ever seeing them, essentially implied that Randall failed him by taking a cornerstone, said that the both of you were weak for not stopping Myrin when you had the chance, that cornerstones were a lie, and that if I wanted his help, I would have to agree to cut off all contact with everyone I know and go with him for a year to what I assume wouldn’t be a five-star hotel, and he would complete my training, make me a full-fledged wizard without having to pass the Trials, and only then would he agree to join the rest of us in fighting against the Dark wizards.”
Randall gaped at me.
“Did I cover everything?” I asked Morgan.
“I think you did.”
“He is the world’s biggest asshole,” Randall snarled.
“Told you,” I muttered.
“Who the hell does he think he is!”
“Oh, I don’t know. The Great White, your former mentor, the oldest living thing in the world, the final piece of the five-dragon puzzle—and speaking of that, do we really need five dragons? I mean, that just seems excessive. Doesn’t that seem excessive?”
Randall ignored me. “I am going to murder him. Mark my words, I will find him, and I will tear his wings off.”
“Wow,” I whispered. “That was dark. You’re dark.”
Randall whirled on me. “Don’t you dare go after Myrin. Not now. Not yet.”