Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Riley
“He’s really fucking hot,” Mickey says.
“Oh, very hot,” Joy concurs.
I chuckle. “He’s single for life, I believe. God of love and sex or something. Oh, and war.”
“That sounds a bit… scary… but also hot,” Mickey says. “I don’t think I’d have the stamina to keep up with him. I could just lie there, though. Have you seriously stayed with him for days and not tapped that?”
“I would tap that,” Joy comments.
“I would so tap that,” Mickey agrees. “And you haven’t, Riley?”
“Nope,” I say as I watch the Door.
Why do I feel a little bit anxious? I mean…
if he doesn’t come back, what does it matter?
It’s not like a god from another realm was just going to permanently live in my apartment…
and why would I want him to? My life can finally go back to normal.
I can just go back to being boring and working at the library with nothing to do.
Kit cries and I assess her in disbelief.
“Did you even like him?” I ask.
She jumps off my shoulder and walks up to the Door as she watches, like she’s eagerly waiting for him to return.
“It’s already been five minutes,” Mickey announces.
“He’s never done anything fast; I’m not surprised he’s lollygagging around,” I say.
Mickey sits down and before long he lies down in the middle of the field. “Look… there are clouds.”
“Yeah, there generally are,” I say while I stare at that doorway, but I feel no fluctuation of magic from it as if he’s coming through.
“What do you think Torin’s world is like?” Mickey asks, still lying on the ground and watching the clouds. Glancing over, I see that Joy appears to have gotten tired of standing as well and is sitting on him like he’s a chair.
“It clearly doesn’t have technology,” I say, realizing that I never really asked him what his world is like or why he left it.
I continue to watch the Door while Mickey takes this opportunity to nap. Enough time passes that Joy gets bored and heads off on a walk for a bit before returning just to give Mickey a kick. “Work is calling.”
“Joy, noooo. I was having the best dream of my life. Pedro Pascal told me I was cute. He told me that I’m cute!” Mickey whines. “How long’s it been?”
“Over an hour,” I say. “You ever gone through a Door?”
“Hell no. I can barely make it through my front door in the morning. Riley, don’t you dare. You have no idea whether you’ll make it back.”
I lift my chin in determination. “I will.”
“Riley, come on, it can’t be healthy to never fear anything! Like what the hell is wrong with you? Don’t you dare go!”
I grab Kit, and without a second thought, I step through the Door.
I don’t really know what I was expecting, but the spacious and beautiful hallway I find myself standing in wasn’t it.
The floor is made up of something that looks like marble which glistens when the sun hits it through magnificent windows.
The ceilings are tall and the windows stretch up nearly to the top of them.
“Holy shit, Kit… I think he’s the real deal.
I’m pretty sure one tile of this flooring costs more than my whole apartment,” I say while I start down the hallway, pulling in all the sights as I go.
The room I step into is immense, with a huge table that could easily seat thirty people.
Beyond it, the room opens up into a large area where I could envision balls being held.
The ceiling has been painted in golds and silvers, showing a portrait of a god who looks very much like Torin astride a strange-looking creature that is far weirder than the subway.
“This place is stunning,” I comment, absolutely amazed.
As I walk, my footsteps echo around the beautiful room before I come to a large hallway, even grander than the one I’d found myself in when I arrived.
I push open the first door and find it filled with long chaises and chairs covered in what looks like velvet.
Hell, his reading nook is larger than my entire apartment.
Each room I peek into looks like something out of the Louvre. Everything is beautiful with rich colors and while there isn’t a lot of décor, each piece is elegant and extravagant. I’ve truly never seen anything like it.
“Kit, this place is… breathtaking,” I say before something hits me. “But why is it so quiet?”
She looks around curiously as I walk down the hall. Honestly, the idea of running into something never really occurred to me before I just threw myself through a Door and into another realm.
Like really… what the hell am I doing? What if I can’t ever get back?
What if the Door closed behind me and I’m forever locked in some realm that doesn’t have electricity or pizza?
But maybe I should be more concerned about why I was so willing to throw myself through that Door.
My life has spiraled since this curse or whatever it is descended on me… and I refuse to face that…
“Fuck.”
I hurry down the long hallway, knowing that maybe if I start shouting, someone will come and then I’ll explain that I know Torin. But what if they think I’m an enemy who has snuck into this lavish palace? I can’t fathom a place like this doesn’t have guards.
“Kit… you know how sometimes I do really foolish things without thinking? This might be one of those times,” I decide.
Kit doesn’t seem overly concerned, too busy looking around at everything.
“Torin?” I call, but I don’t hear anything. Does he live alone? I can’t imagine that chatterbox managing to live anywhere that he can’t harass people. Maybe they’re all outside.
“Torin?”
I find a massive door that looks like it’d lead outside and I grab it, nearly breaking my back with the first tug.
Why the hell would anyone make a door so heavy?
Like how does a normal person open this door?
Or does only a god live here? I put all of my weight into it and manage to open it just enough to squeeze through.
“Torin?” I call out. “Kit, it’d be my luck that he already went back through the Door and I’m wandering around his home like an idiot. And I’m going to be real honest… I have no idea how to find my way back to the Door.”
I hesitate as I discover that instead of going out the front door, like I assumed, I’ve made it out the back that opens up to a sprawling garden of flowers growing out of control, each more beautiful than the last. But there’s something beyond the horticulture that has snagged my attention.
I slowly walk down the five steps that drop me right into the garden and have the urge to reach out to a flower, but I know better than to touch something I don’t recognize.
Among the cobblestone walkway is a unique statue of a huge creature, lying on its stomach right where the sun hits it, legs folded under it.
It looks like it has the body of a horse but the head of a dragon with a long lionlike mane and tail.
Two antlers that resemble an elk’s stretch out.
I carefully hold my hand out to it and press against the stone, expecting it to be cold, but I’m surprised to find it warm.
It’s beautiful… but haunting at the same time, and I can’t quite tell why. I withdraw my hand, unsettled by the heat of the stone that I’m trying to convince myself has been warmed by the sun.
Still, I push through the garden that opens up to a beautiful fountain with the figure of a rearing horse and a woman astride its back.
When I reach out, I find the stone cold to the touch, much like a regular statue would feel, so what made that other one so different?
Water cascades down from her hand, back into the pond.
“I thought a stranger walked these halls, and yet it is a nosy human who doesn’t belong.”
Grabbing my heart, I jump and spin around to face Torin, who is watching me closely. I hadn’t even heard him walk up behind me. “Fuck. I assumed it was one of your godly guards come to murder my ass.”
He raises an eyebrow. “I hope people I keep in my service will not murder a friendly stranger the moment they see someone.”
“Me too, but I had no idea!”
“Why’d your nosy ass pass through the Door? What if you can’t get home?”
“I… just…” I pause before grimacing. “Very good question. But it’s not my fault. You said five minutes and it’s been over a damn hour.”
Torin shrugs. “I don’t actually know how long five minutes is. You say it often when you want to sleep longer and then you proceed to sleep for a very long time.”
I hesitate. “I can possibly see how you think five minutes is a longer period of time,” I mutter. “This place… I assume this is yours?”
“Of course it’s mine. Stop snooping around and come with me.”
“Can I get a tour?”
“After we find what I’m looking for,” he says as he starts back. I notice he pauses next to the statue of the creature, tracing his hand almost lovingly over its face.
“Is… Is that a statue of an animal you had?”
“Statue? No…” He looks at the “not a statue,” hand still on it. “His name is Quill.”
“He’s… alive?”
His hand falls, and I feel like I’ve said something wrong. “Not anymore.”
I hesitate, confused by what that means. “I don’t understand.”
“My power kept him alive. Without my power, he is… like this.”
“So if you get your power back, he… will come back to life?” I ask.
“Perhaps. Or perhaps not. Let’s go.”
I trail after him, but since Kit is busy staring at the beast, I don’t notice the step up, so I end up catching my foot on it. Torin catches me before I bash my face into the beautiful marble-looking stairs and bleed all over them.
“Careful. Enough blood has been shed on these steps.”
“Sounds… menacing.”
“Better than your land where balls and virgins need to be sacrificed just to run your stairs,” he says.
I grin, pleased by my tales. “Right?”
He leads me down a different hallway and through a door into the most beautiful library I’ve ever seen.
“Holy shit, our library looks like a baby compared to this,” I say.
“Yes, but my library doesn’t have as many books with porn in it as yours does in your home.”