“Look,” Robert said, “I hate to be a pain in the ass…”

“No, you don’t,” Jaime muttered.

”...but I have to ask: So what?”

Alex gripped the arm of his chair so tight, I heard the wood creak. “So what?” he hissed.

“Yeah.” Robert looked at us. “So what? This is an RPG world. A role-playing game world. It’s not real! It doesn’t matter!”

Before anyone knew what was happening, Alex had grabbed Will’s dagger off the table before him. He flung it at Robert so hard, it sank almost three inches into the chair he sat in. I thin line of blood marked Robert’s cheek.

“You son of a bitch!” Robert jumped onto the table and pulled his remaining axe from his back.

“It’s not real,” Alex said. “It doesn’t matter.” His voice had gone so cold, it gave me chills. One look in his eyes, and Robert knew Alex could have killed him before he even knew what had happened.

Robert sat back down. “I’m sorry, Alex. I see your point.” He tugged the dagger from his chair.

“Quite literally!”