“Of no real importance,” I said with a glare because it was a family name and it was awful. So many Xs and Qs and it still sounded feminine.
“What’s his middle name?” the King asked.
“I’ll tell you later,” Morgan said.
“Bastards,” I muttered. “All of you.”
“Dark wizards and dragons,” Morgan reminded me. “All in the space of two weeks. You are becoming a pain in my ass.”
I rolled my eyes as I stretched. I had aches and pains all over, but nothing felt broken or split. My right hand was red hot from where I’d held up the ice spell, but it hadn’t blistered. It was a good thing Justin—
Ah. Crap.
I looked to the King and felt like shit. “I’m sorry,” I said miserably. “I should have done more to save him.”
He reached out and put his hand on the back of my neck, bringing our foreheads together. “The knights were returning to the sparring fields when the dragon came. Did you know that?”
I shook my head. I’d been too busy running from a giant lizard that wanted to set me on fire.
“They were. They were too far away to do anything about it, but they were running. Do you know what they saw?”
“Two guys screaming hysterically as they ran for their lives? I’ll admit. I was a screamer.”
He sighed. “They saw the dragon pulling itself back to breathe fire. They saw you raise your hand in the air. They saw a blinding flash of blue light as you covered Justin with your body. They saw your magic, Sam. They saw your magic as you protected my son. You did everything in your power to save him. I couldn’t ask for anything more from you, Sam of Wilds. And I am so very happy that you are okay.”
And I hugged him then, because even though his son was a jerk that I was extraordinarily jealous of, the King was my friend, and I didn’t like to see him upset.
“We’ll get him back,” I said.
“How’s that now?” Gary asked. “And what’s this we stuff?”
The King pulled away and stared at me.
“Dragons,” I said. “They’re hoarders. They keep the things they think are pretty. Gold and jewels. In this case, Justin. To each his own, I guess.”
Morgan smacked me upside the head. Because that felt good with all the other grievous injuries I’d sustained. “Speak,” he said. “Now.”
“Before I lost consciousness, I heard the dragon say Justin was something he wanted to hoard.”
“You heard the dragon speak to Justin,” Morgan said slowly.
“Yeah. He also spoke to me, but he was really rude. Told me that he wanted to have sex with me, but since I was a wizard, he couldn’t because wizards were gross or something. I mean, what was that about? Should I be insulted or flattered?”
The staring thing happened again.
Then:
Morgan said, “Of course you can also understand dragons.”
The King said, “Don’t take it personally, Sam. Justin takes after his mother. She was beautiful. I didn’t know you were into dragons.”
Gary said, “What would your babies look like? Little dragon Sam babies? I bet they would be cute. Or really ugly. Yeah. Probably ugly. You shouldn’t have a tail. You can’t pull it off like I can. Truth.”
Tiggy said, “We gonna go smash dragons? I smash dragons.”
Mom said, “He didn’t want to sleep with you so he knocked you through a building? That’s rude. He could have just moved on.”
Dad said, “You can do better than the dragon. You are awesome and you dress nice and I like your hair and your jokes.”