Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Riley
There’s a hammering on my apartment door right before it flies open.
“Sorry, we have no time to waste on knocking,” Imani says as I jerk awake and wave my arms around like I’m prepared to fireball her ass into next year. I don’t even have a fucking fireball spell in my arsenal, but my half-asleep brain seems to think I do.
I realize I’m wrapped around the god again, and even though we’re both fully clothed and did nothing, it doesn’t quite look like that with the way I’m spooning him.
Getting Torin to understand we weren’t doing anything was a bit of a pain to get through that thick skull of his when I climbed into my bed and then he rolled into me, pressing that taunting dick against my side where I had to pull willpower from deep, deep in my soul to resist ordering him to suck my dick and fuck me into oblivion.
I press a hand on Torin’s face and shove myself out of bed before noticing I don’t have my gloves on. I discreetly grab them and pull them on while pretending I’m messing with my phone. “We did nothing!” I insist.
“From that video I saw of him riding on your back, you did something, alright,” Vinny says as he hurries in.
I reach for my pendant like I’m prepared to obliterate both of them so they’ll never speak of this again, and they both wave flags of surrender. “That’s what I thought. What’s going on?”
“A Door is opening,” Torin states, sitting up and looking around with his brow furrowed.
“It is, and we can’t find the location. This is really bad,” Imani says, as if I don’t already know that.
“The Door is drawing magic from our world, and we’ve been alerted of the tendrils of it deep in the ley lines.
We’ve also been informed by druids that the earth is suffering…
this isn’t like the fractured Doors the person fought to open before.
Riley, I know you’re into this whole retirement shit, but we can’t do this without you. We need your magic.”
And that’s just it. That’s what they need. Not me. My magic. And without my magic, what use am I? I’ll just get someone hurt again. I might even get someone killed because they’re going to expect me to do great things, and instead, I can’t even tell which way I’m going without Kit.
“You can’t tell me you don’t have someone else,” I say.
“We need you.”
“Well, you don’t have me,” I snap. “Torin, go with them and see if you can figure out where the Door is opening like you did last time.”
And I storm off into the bathroom like a teenager who’s just been told I can’t go hang out with the cool kids.
Kit rears up on my leg and bumps her head against my knee in an attempt to comfort me.
I slide my fingers into her furry sides while I pick her up a moment before the door opens and Torin comes in.
Since I’m standing at the sink, he steps up behind me and slides his fingers into my hair for some reason.
Then he jerks my head back and glowers at me.
“What the hell is that for?” I demand as I prepare to sic my genet on him.
“I thought they were your friends.”
“They are.”
“So why lie to them?”
“I’m just… avoiding the truth. That’s not lying.”
“You told me the reason you refused to tell them is because you wouldn’t be able to rejoin the unit, but you claim you don’t want to anyway, so what does it hurt to tell them? Why do you fight so hard to keep it a secret from them?”
“We don’t have time for this. We need to find where the Door is opening and stop it.”
“Yeah? Well, I’m shy and don’t like being around new people, so I can’t go alone.”
“You’re a pain in my ass.”
“So I’ve heard,” he says, giving me a wink.
I growl at him as I smack his hand off my head and then quickly get ready.
I stomp out so that everyone is well aware that I’m not pleased, and head out of the apartment.
“Let’s go. But I’m putting this out there right now.
You will not be relying on me to use my magic to save any of you, understand that?
So don’t assume I’m going to save anyone’s ass. ”
They stare at me in a way that very clearly shows that they don’t believe me.
“I’m being serious. Please just… don’t rely on me. I’m doing you a favor by guiding Torin around so he doesn’t get lost.”
“Alright,” Imani says. “Let us take you to the area we first noticed it.”
We head out to the car where Torin balks.
“Let us ride horses into battle. Or really anything else,” Torin declares.
“We already saw that you’re willing to ride anything,” Vinny says as he slowly looks over at me.
“I’m going back to bed,” I snap.
Torin grabs me, looking far too excited. “Do you still have the power of a unicorn? Because if you do, we could meet them there.”
I dive toward Vinny with every intention of smacking him and borrowing his magic to get rid of Sparkle Equus, but Torin is fast and blocks me with his body. How could he possibly want more glitter? He’s still wearing some on his face, even after a shower!
“We’re wasting time,” I grumble once I accept that he’s not going to let me touch Vinny, so I’ll have to touch someone else.
Climbing into the car, I see that it’s not empty.
No, Mickey’s inside and currently playing dead as I slide in next to him.
Torin growls at the vehicle, like that’ll help him overcome the torment he feels at being locked in a car, but it does distract him from the fact that I’ve found someone else to touch.
“I see you were quite concerned about me,” I say while I smoosh Mickey’s face against the window.
It gets rid of this godforsaken unicorn bullshit, and I feel the tingle of magic as the power of necromancy rushes through me.
While I’ve known Mickey for a long time, I’ve never used his magic in a fight, and the most I’ve brought back to life was a bird out of curiosity.
But it’s such an odd magic that I don’t always know how to feel about it when I use it.
Mickey, whose head is still smooshed against the window, slowly opens his eyes. “Oh, Riley. There you are. I’ve looked everywhere for you. I’ve spent many sleepless nights afraid and eager for your return.”
“Everywhere, my ass! Tell me what really happened.”
“He fell asleep and then woke up and went, ‘Wow, I’m hungry,’ and got in the car and drove off,” a voice from the trunk says.
I point behind us. “Is there a dead body in the trunk?”
“There are two dead bodies in the trunk,” Mickey responds. I think he’s hoping that will make me forget that he forgot all about me because he was hungry.
“Were you worried?”
“I only worry about having to do work,” Mickey admits.
“And worrying about you would have been work, so I just assumed if you were dumb enough to run through a Door after a god you barely know into a realm you know nothing about with absolutely no plans, then you would at least die happy. The video I saw of you two tells me that I was right.”
“Do not ever speak of that video again,” I warn.
“He took a screenshot of it and saved it as the background of your messages as well as your picture for when you call,” Joy shouts from the trunk.
Mickey discreetly tries to hide his phone. “Joy, do not make me unalive you.”
“I’m not scared. You’ll bring me back in two minutes when you realize that you’d have to do everything yourself.”
He seems to deflate a little. “You’re right. So, Riley. Were you in peril?”
I think back to the beautiful palace, the amazing library, the gorgeous waterfall, the addicting sex… then cough. “I was. Very much… in peril.”
Mickey’s face has a blatant “were you?” expression on it. I’m just glad no one in this car has the magic to read minds.
“He very much enjoyed the sex part,” Torin announces to everyone.
“Why the hell did you learn English?” I grumble as I clap a hand over his mouth.
Mickey cocks his head. “You… you threaten me, try to make me feel guilty, and you’re just over there having sex?”
“Multiple times,” Torin says through my hand clamp.
“No. No to all of this,” I growl. “Torin is confused and doesn’t understand the English word for sex.”
“I put my dick in Riley’s—”
I grab him by the collar before leaning in to whisper into his ear. “Oh, God of Love. You might be used to bragging about your sexcapades, but if you speak one more word about it, you will never get within ten feet of my hole again. Understand?”
“That would be very devastating,” he says before leaning in to whisper back. “So if I’m a good boy and don’t say a single word, will you let me slide my thick cock right into your tight hole and make a mess of you when we get home?”
My body betrays me as my dick is over here going, “Nothing could sound better,” but the real question is why is my brain joining my dick? I push him away and sit properly in my seat, deciding that silence is what I’m going for.
“Glad we got that all settled so I don’t have to feel guilty any longer,” Mickey says. “Riley went on a vacation where he finally got laid and then came back looking refreshed and hopefully acting less ‘Riley.’ I need a vacation.”
“You don’t do anything,” Imani informs him.
Mickey gasps, but no one in the vehicle really comes to his defense. Vinny is ridiculously sweet, though, so he turns in his seat and smiles at Mickey. “You need to go to one of those all-inclusive resorts. I think you’d flourish there.”
“I think I would. Who would like to take me?” he asks, as though one of us is just going to volunteer to pay his way. “Being poor sucks.”
“How can you possibly be poor?” I ask. “You get paid well.”
“Well, Joy needs her book ‘fix’ and it’s not just one book, it’s like a tower of books, and Tommy will only do my work if I get him the best computer.
And Scott will only fix me three meals a day if I buy him a PS5, and Paisley will only clean my house if I get her a gaming PC because she can’t play the PS5 since she’s a PC person.
” He sighs like he hasn’t created this issue.