A Destiny of Dragons (Tales From Verania #2)(45)

“We are pretty stupid,” Gary agreed.

Probably. But fuck a destiny of dragons. I had a destiny of dick ahead of me. I didn’t need anything else. Especially from—

you think this but you have no idea what’s coming

I stopped. Took a staggering step.

“Sam?” Gary asked. “Are you—”

i’ve seen what lies in the future

The crowd around me was cheering even as they began to slow down, like they were moving underwater. It was like we were in a painting, the colors dripping and wet, bleeding together as it melted. I took a great gasping breath and—

i’ve seen the darkness that burns at the heart of the world

—tried to focus, but my blood was rushing in my ears, and there was green and gold and it was mine (not mine), and I took another step toward the King, because I had to protect the King, I had to keep him safe, it’s what I’d been taught, it was my duty to make sure—

it calls for you sam of wilds it calls for you because it needs you

—he was protected in case we were under attack. There was a sharp burst in my head, colors exploding like a kaleidoscope, and I’d never felt this before. Never felt this out of control, that my magic could spill forth at any moment and destroy everyone and everything in this castle, in this city, and it—

i have come because the gods have shown me the truth of all things

—couldn’t be. It couldn’t be. I didn’t want this. I didn’t need this. Things were fine the way they were, and she had come here, into my home to try and take this all away from me like it’s—

Vadoma Tshilaba whispered in my ear. She said, “The stars will fall from the sky and chaos will consume this world unless you accept what it is you are being called on to do.”

I opened my eyes.

I stood in the gym in the bowels of Castle Lockes.

Gary and Tiggy were to my right.

Morgan, Randall, and the King were off to my left. My parents were too. And Justin.

Ryan and Ruv were on the chin-up bars.

The crowd still stood around me.

But they were all frozen, stuck with smiles on their faces, shouting and jeering silently. The women were swooning. The men were laughing. But not a sound was made. Not a single movement occurred.

I croaked out, “You’ve got my attention.”

“Do I?” Vadoma asked from somewhere behind me.

I whirled around. All I could see were the faces of the crowd behind me, twisted and unmoving. There were shadows encroaching along the edges of the gym, crawling along the stone walls.

“Because your attention is not what I need,” she said, and it was like she was above me. I jerked my head up, but there was nothing there. “I need your cooperation.”

“Why are you doing this?” I asked, gathering the green and the gold, discarding the old words from my thoughts because I didn’t need them. I’d shown that before. Magic didn’t have to be recitation. It could be will alone. Vadoma thought she knew me.

But she had no idea what I was capable of.

“Because you wouldn’t listen any other way,” she said from somewhere in the crowd. They stood like flesh-covered statues, and I fought to keep from looking at those I loved. And then, like she could read my thoughts, “They are distractions, aren’t they?”

“No,” I said, taking a step into the crowd, ducking under an arm raised here, stepping over a leg raised there. “They can’t be. Not ever.”

“Oh, chava,” she said, sounding disappointed. “There is much for you to learn.”

“I’m not like you,” I told her, stepping around Pete, my old friend Pete, a small smile stuck on his lifeless face. I shuddered as his shoulder brushed mine. “I don’t just banish those I love because they don’t follow the path I lay out in front of them.”

“And yet here you are, hoping I would be banished for a path I’ve laid before you.”

“I don’t love you. I don’t know you.”

“I am your blood.”

My skin itched. “There is so much more to this world than blood.”

“Chava,” she said. “There will not be a world. The things I will show you. What is to come. You will be begging me to lead you. Because the only way to keep them safe is to leave them all behind. They will burn in the fire of a thousand suns unless you accept your destiny.”

There was a moment of tense silence, and then the world snapped back into place. The crowd erupted around me, cheering wildly. I spun in circles, trying to find Vadoma in the throngs of people. She was nowhere to be seen.

“Sam?” Gary called above the noise. “How the hell did you get all the way over there?”

The raucous jeering around me gave way to groans and sounds of confusion. I turned back toward the front to see Ryan had dropped from the bar, eyes wide as he pushed through the crowd toward me. “What happened?” he asked when he stood before me. He gripped my shoulders tightly, fingers digging in almost enough to hurt. “You’re… I felt it. Something.”

I smiled weakly at him. “Nothing,” I said. “It was nothing. Just thought I heard… it was nothing.”

He frowned like he didn’t quite believe me. “Sam, are you—”

“And what was happening in here?” I asked, deflecting as best I could. “You look like you’re showing our guest the assets of Verania.”