Noah didn't move.
"I said get up." One's voice cracked into something harsher, louder than anything he'd said yet. "Look at yourself. Look at what you're doing!"
"You told me to..."
"I never imagined you'd do it!" One threw a hand out at him. "You unmake things! You crossed the stars on the back of a dragon! And you would put your knee in the dirt before me for a boy who's already half a corpse?"
Slowly, Noah straightened back up.
"Yeah," he said. "I would. Without thinking twice."
"Why?"
"Because he's my friend."
"That isn't a reason."
"It's the best one there is." Noah brushed his palm on his pants. "That's the part you'll never get. Nobody ever went down on a knee for you because they wanted to. Arthur didn't. Those thousands before you didn't. And you'll go to every planet in this galaxy and take whatever you want, and nobody, anywhere, is ever going to do that for you."
