A Destiny of Dragons (Tales From Verania #2)(85)

“You think you’re funny, but you’re not funny.”

“Kind of funny.”

“Kind of stupid. With your face.”

He held a hand out toward me, and I allowed myself to be pulled back up to a sitting position. I glared at him until he moved behind me, sinking down and pulling me between his legs until I lay against his chest, his chin near my shoulder.

“Is that better?” he asked quietly.

“No. You jerk.” It was a billion times better.

“Good,” he said, because he could see right through me. “What were you saying?”

“Huh?”

“You were talking when I was coming up here. What were you saying?”

I stiffened, and I knew he could feel it. “Wizarding… things?”

He chuckled near my ear. “Really. You don’t sound too sure about it.”

“I’m sure,” I insisted. “You don’t even know how sure I am.”

“Sam.”

“I hate it when you use that tone of voice.”

“Nah. You love it. Like you love everything else about me.”

“Wow. You really are sure of yourself.”

“Yeah, I guess I am.”

And if I laid my head back on his shoulder and relaxed into him, well. That was just between the two of us.

He waited for me, like I knew he would, giving me time to parse through everything. We hadn’t yet talked about this, and I didn’t know how much I wanted to. He, like the others both with us and back at the castle, knew the extent of what I’d seen. I couldn’t justify keeping it from them, like Morgan and Randall had kept things from me. I was a lot of things. But I wasn’t a hypocrite. Mostly.

Finally, I said, “I can’t lose you.”

“You won’t.”

“I could.”

“Everyone dies, Sam.”

“Some sooner than others.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he said lightly. He kissed the skin behind my ear. “You know that. We’re together, okay? All of us. We can do this. You can do this. I know you can. I believe in you.”

“Sap,” I muttered, even though I thought I was blushing.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “Probably. Just don’t tell anyone, huh?”

“I think pretty much everyone knows.”

“There goes my street cred.”

“You never had any street cred,” I said and then shrieked with laughter as he knocked me over while tickling my sides. He came to rest atop me, hands on either side of my head, face hidden in shadow as he was backlit by a sea of stars. I don’t think I’d ever seen him look more handsome than he did at that moment, sand-swept and smiling like he didn’t have a care in the world.

I kissed him as hard as I could.

For as long as I could.

I didn’t think he realized I’d never answered his question about what I’d been saying as he approached. If anything, I was good at distracting.

And besides. Everyone knows you can’t tell others what you wish upon the stars for.

It won’t come true if you do.




“SO YOU’RE leaving,” Gary said, cocking his head at me. “To the desert. To the mountains. To the Dark Woods. To find these dragons.”

“Yes,” I said slowly.

“And you think we’re going to stay here,” Kevin said.

“Ye-es?” I said.

“Sweet Sam,” Tiggy said.

“Lovely Tiggy.”

“You an idiot.”

“Hey!”

“Well you are,” Gary said. “Did you really think we’re just going to sit here and let you go off on an adventure without us? Sam. Are you fucking high?”

“No,” I said. “Not since that one time.”

“Do I even want to know?” Ryan asked.

“Sam eat forest mushrooms,” Tiggy said. “That he found in forest.”

“Of course he did,” Ryan said.

“Way to generalize, Tiggy,” I said. “You know it was part of the ritual I needed to perform in order to escape the clutches of my captors who were convinced they could sacrifice me to an evil sprite in the Dark Woods.”

“Of course they did,” Ryan said.

“Riiiiight,” Gary said. “Which is why when Tiggy and I rescued you, you were sitting on the back of one of the bandits, singing about how you could taste colors and that the grass was alive and whispering grassy secrets.”

“Of course you—”

“Ryan! Not helping!”

“I took drugs once,” Kevin said. “At this orgy I went to. Crazy, crazy night. Long story short, it wasn’t actually drugs, and I’d somehow crushed and snorted sixteen sugar cubes and then eaten a lot of centaur ass—”

“Excuse me,” Gary trilled. “I could have sworn we were trying to stay on topic.”

“We never stay on topic,” Tiggy said, sounding confused.

“Well, yes,” Gary said. “But we don’t need to hear anything Kevin might say.”

“Oh, here we go.” Kevin rolled his eyes. “One moment we’re happy and jolly, and the next, oh look! Gary has an issue with something. Shocker.”