The Lightning-Struck Heart (17 page)

Granted, that would mean he wouldn’t be in charge of my Trials, the process from moving on from an apprentice to being a full wizard. The youngest wizard to pass the Trials had been forty-two. Morgan had done so when he was sixty-seven. I wanted to take the Trials by the time I hit thirty.

But between not having finished my Grimoire and a lack of a solidified cornerstone, that dream was slipping further and further away.

I sighed. “You told him, huh? Through your secret wizarding network that you still haven’t told me about.”

“It’s called a letter in the mail,” he said.

I narrowed my eyes. “It takes a month to get to Castle Freeze Your Ass Off.”

“I’m aware. And don’t call it that when you get there. It’s Castle Freesias. You know how Randall gets when you’re mouthy. You need to try and curb some of your more natural urges.”

“I’m aware. His jaw twitches whenever I speak.”

Morgan grinned. “That’s because you let the words fall out without rhyme or reason. He’s a bit more economical that way.”

“That’s code for he hates me.”

“He’s worried about you.”

I looked up in surprise. “He is?”

“Regardless of what you think, he cares about you, Sam. And we’re… concerned.”

“Concerned,” I repeated.

“This cornerstone business can be trying on an apprentice,” Morgan said. “Especially one of your… unique caliber. He will teach you in ways that I cannot. I’m too close to you. I’m biased and might not be able to see the full picture. And in the long run, that will cause more harm than good. For the both of us.”

“Because you love me,” I said, sounding smug.

“More like you grew on me,” he said. “Like fungus.”

“How long?” Because Randall was on the other side of Verania and I highly doubted he would be coming to me.

“A month to Castle Freesias,” he said. “Four months there. One month back.”

“Six
months
? Morgan, I don’t have
time
for—”

“You do,” he said, bringing himself to his full height. “And you will. Because this isn’t a suggestion. I am the King’s Wizard. You are my apprentice. This is an order.”

“You know, that ooh-scary-look-at-me voice might work on other people, but I’ve seen you vomit pink goo after that selkie scratched you and you told me you wanted to hug me for days. It doesn’t work on me anymore when you have demanded I snuggle with you.”

“I had a
fever
,” he said. “There were hallucinations!”

“Riiiight. That’s what we’re going with. And if I go, Gary and Tiggy go too.”

“Because you’re codependent and can never do anything on your own.”

“Rude. You’re just jealous because you’re not invited on the Super Awesome Road-Trip Fun-Time Extravaganza.”

He sighed. “You capitalized that, didn’t you?”

I smiled because he knew me so well. “When do we leave?”

“Five days,” he said. “It’ll give you enough time to prepare. And I’m serious, Sam. You stay on the roads. You stay out of the Dark Woods. You stay away from Dark wizards. You avoid any and all shenanigans. You get to Castle Freesias. You learn what you need to. You get back. I want no deviations to that, you understand?”

I laughed at him. “Come on. It’s me you’re talking to. What could possibly go wrong?”

M
OM
SAID
,
“You’re going
where
? And for
how
long?”

Dad said, “I’ll make sure you have plenty of yak fur to wear because you are a wuss and can’t handle the cold.”

Gary said, “You want me to walk to Castle Freeze Your Ass Off? Are you out your damn
mind
? I just got my hooves painted!”

Tiggy said, “You gonna get captured again. I go to keep you safe, tiny human.”

Morgan said, “Just stay out of trouble. For me. For my sanity. I beg of you.”

A
ND
I
did. I tried to stay out of trouble.

Too bad trouble found me even before we’d left for the north.

Dragons are funny like that.

“W
ORD
ON
the street is that you’re leaving,” Justin said as I left the labs.

And I’d done so well in avoiding him. Goddammit. I plastered the largest fake smile on my face and turned to look at the Prince.

Of course he looked as perfect as usual, leaning nonchalantly against the stone wall, arms across a built chest, a bored look on his handsome face.

“Your Grace,” I said with a nod of my head. “I wasn’t aware you went out to the streets. Much less listened to what’s being said on them.” And I was slightly annoyed that
someone
had been talking when they shouldn’t have, which meant that Gary probably ran his big fat unicorn mouth down at the nail salon where he went to get his hooves touched back up after he’d scuffed the ground in anger. He and the owner, Ming Win, were thick as thieves, and I just
knew
they were plotting together in that language Ms. Win spoke that sounded like the fluttering of bird wings.

“When it pertains to my wizard, I tend to listen,” he said.

Man, did
those
words grate. I was not a fucking possession. “Apprentice,” I said.

He glared at me. “What’s that now?”

“Not a wizard. I’m an
apprentice
. But thank you for your concern.”

“Are you leaving?”

“You’ve never asked me that before.”

“I’ve never had a reason.”

I cocked an eyebrow at him. “And you do now?”

“Ryan,” he said.

“Ryan,” I said blandly, even though my heart was thundering in my chest.

“He’s a bit… distraught.”

“Is he?”

“Has been ever since that night.”

“And which night would that be?”

“When you two went on a date.” He smiled. It was an icy thing. “Sorry. When you went on a date with
Todd
. How
is
Todd?”

“Uh. Fine? He’s fine. He’s good.” Actually, I really had no idea how Todd was because after Morgan had said he was sending me north, I’d sent a missive to Todd explaining how his ears were awesome and I liked his freckles, but that I had to leave for months and that it wasn’t fair to him to wait for someone like me. I told him to find a nice man who could eat blueberries and ducks and maybe when I got back, I could take him out for a drink and we could be friends.

He’d responded two days later with a letter of his own.

Sam—

I figured this was coming the moment the Knight Commander got into the carriage with us. Father will be disappointed, but I understand. Your world is magic and mystery. Mine is hotels and theme nights. Those should probably not mix in any romantic capacity. The results could be disastrous.

Safe travels,

Todd

PS: So when are you going to tell the Knight Commander you’re in love with him? Because, honestly? That was PAINFUL.

I had immediately burned the letter because it was all
lies
and attempted to construct a voodoo doll of Todd. I got stuck on the ears and abandoned the whole project in favor of glaring at the ash remains of the Letter of Evil. I thought about writing again and taking back every nice thing I’d ever said about his ears, realized that was petty and untrue, because his ears were adorable.

And truthfully, I felt kind of bad.

So, no. I hadn’t heard from Todd. Nor had I expected to.

But fuck Justin in the face.

“He’s busy,” I said. “Hotel stuff.”

“That so?” Justin asked. “Good for him. Well, since you’re obviously not doing anything—”

“That’s not true, I have plenty—”

“—I think it’s a good idea for you and I to spend some time together. Just the two of us.”

I would have rather had my balls torn off. “Say what now?”

He sighed prettily. “Sam, you are to be the King’s Wizard one day. I am going to be the King. You will be my advisor, as wrong as that sounds. We should at least spend some time together before you leave for months on end. I mean, who knows if you’ll even come back? I would just feel
awful
if something happened to you out there in the big, wide world and I never had a chance to say we bonded.”

“Somehow, I get the feeling you wouldn’t be that upset.”

He grinned. “Nonsense. I would be broken to pieces.”

“I can tell. Your words are too kind, my Prince.”

“Now, what should we do? What could you and I
possibly
do together?” He tapped the side of his face, thinking malicious things. Then his eyes lit up. “I’ve just had the most
wonderful
idea.”

“Uh-oh,” I muttered under my breath. “Hold on to it. I have a feeling those are a rarity.”

“How’s that now?” he asked, stepping away from the wall.

“Nothing, Your Grace,” I said sweetly. “I’m sure whatever you’ve thought of is perfect.”

“Oh, it is. Shall we?”

I
WAS
completely and utterly fucked.

I figured as much when Justin got that glint in his eye that meant he was about to be a fucking jerk. Yes, I was not a fan of his (and I was most certainly
not
a member of his fan club—of which there were inexplicably several—though the two clubs met every other month or so to talk about “Rystin,” their favorite couple, while I would sit in the back seething that combining Ryan and Justin to make Rystin was stupid, but what if Ryan Foxheart had met a guy named Sam Haversford? It’d be HaveHeart!
It practically wrote itself.
This, by the way, being the twentieth meeting I’d attended). But I liked to think that maybe deep down in the black and murky confines of his soul, Prince Justin was an okay guy.

I was wrong.

“So, this is the sparring grounds,” I said unnecessarily. “And we’re alone.”

“Are we?” he said, sounding surprised. “I suppose we are.”

“You’re a Prince. And we’ve somehow managed to make it out of the castle and out of the city undetected to the sparring grounds. Which are empty.”

“How strange. Well, it’s Wednesday and the knights will be on the east end, going through their exercises.”

“And we’re west,” I said.

“West,” he agreed.

“You probably shouldn’t murder me,” I said out loud, even though I totally meant to keep that in my head.

He laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Wow. That was reassuring.

He walked over to a massive shed standing at the edges of the field. There was a metal padlock on the doors.

“Oh no,” I said. “It’s locked. We should go home.”

“Bah,” he said. “You have your magic. Unlock it.”

“I left my magic in my room,” I said, like that was a real thing.

“Oh. It’s good I have the key, then.”

“Super. Good. We’re going to spar, aren’t we?”

“We are,” he said easily, unlocking the doors. “It’ll be good to measure each other’s strengths with weapons. Heavy, sharp weapons.”

“Remind me, what place did you finish in your sword-handling division at the last summer celebration?”

“Hmmm?” he said, pulling the doors opened. “I didn’t think you paid attention to such things. Oh, Sam. I don’t like to brag. It’s so unbecoming.” He reached in and pulled out an estoc longsword. He spun it easily in his hand with a ridiculous flourish. “First place. Four years running.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m going to have to take a rain check. I just remembered that I made plans with someone to not be here and be wherever they are.”

“Nonsense,” Justin said. “Gary’s with Tiggy in town picking up supplies for your trip that no one is supposed to know about. Your parents are at work. My father is meeting with certain heads of state to discuss new trade routes, Morgan by his side. And Ryan is overseeing the knights’ exercises. Who else could you possibly know? Pick a sword, Sam. Your training is about to begin.”

“Training,” I said stupidly.

“Indeed. After the disaster at Antonella’s where you proved you are not in control as you’d like everyone to think, you really believe I’d let you go out into the world without knowing how to use a sword? Come, Sam. That would just be irresponsible.”

A low-level fury rolled through me, and I did my best to push it away. “That’s very kind of you, sire. I’m sure your tutelage will prove to be enlightening.”

He smiled. It was all teeth. “Undoubtedly.” He tossed me the estoc without warning. I fumbled gracelessly, narrowly avoiding grabbing the blade. It was heavier than I thought it would be.

I never understood the point of sword fighting. It felt too visceral. Too barbaric. It usually always resulted in bloodshed in close proximity. Magic wasn’t like that. There was no need to incapacitate by injury when it could be avoided.

Of course, that little dark voice inside that spoke through the magic reminded me just how close I’d come to encasing the Darks completely in rock. How I could have burst their hearts or set them on fire.

I did my best to ignore that voice. No good would come of it.

Except for setting Justin on fire.

That’d probably be good.

Just his shirt.

I’d put it out.

Eventually.

He reached back in and took out another sword, similar to the estoc he’d given me. He handled it easily. My body and arms weren’t conditioned like his and Ryan’s. I wasn’t dashing and immaculate. Yet another reason they were obviously perfect for each other.

Wow. That sounded bitter.

He left the shed doors opened and turned toward the sparring field. There were wooden dummies shaped in the approximation of a man at one end, covered in nicks and cuts from sword practice. I thought we’d start there (wondering why we were really starting at all), but Justin didn’t even glance at them. He led me to the far end of the sparring field, the grass bright and green under our feet, the sky clear and blue above. There was a breeze, and I could smell the trees and the flowers and maybe even a hint of salt from the sea at the ports ten miles away. On a hill in the distance, a large flock of sheep grazed, white among the green.