Chapter 16 #2
“Sir, I figured out who killed the Jane Doe,” a male voice says from the trunk. It really sounds like Tommy, but it’s a bit muffled.
“Excellent work, Tommy!” Mickey responds.
“Does… does he actually do any work?” Torin asks in Shaarunen.
“He might seem like he doesn’t, but he’s actually really smart. He’s invaluable when you can get him to work,” I say, also in Shaarunen.
“I see. I would have just tortured him into working properly if it was me.”
“We generally don’t torture people here. It’s frowned upon.”
“You tortured me last night when you wouldn’t let me enjoy you.”
“I weirdly feel like they’re talking about me from the way they’re looking at me,” Mickey says. “But I don’t have the energy to care.”
“We were talking about you,” I confirm as Torin starts pressing every button in the car.
“How many testicles did you sacrifice to run this thing?” Torin asks.
“T-Testicles?” Imani asks. “Riley, what the hell are you telling him?”
“The hidden truths of our world,” I say as Vinny pulls off to the side of the road. “Torin, did you check to make sure your testes were still in their sac?”
“I’d prefer if you checked,” he replies in Shaarunen.
I glare at him and push him out of the car.
It doesn’t take much pushing before he scrambles out, pleased to get out of the vehicle.
Once outside, I see a druid who I’ve had the dubious pleasure of working with before.
I bent one weed under her watch and ever since, she’s decided that misfortune should rain down upon me.
Her scowl is already fixed on me as I settle Kit on my shoulder.
“I see he is back,” Madelyn says. She’s around two hundred years old, but looks like she’s in her late thirties, while having the attitude of a person who is so ancient they hate everything in life—or just me.
I’ve never asked how or why she looks so young at her age, assuming that if I do, she will look into ways to bury me beneath the dirt she loves so much.
“Riley is always very helpful,” Imani says, well aware Madelyn hates me.
“Right this way,” Madelyn barks as she hurries off at a fast clip. “Do not step on any of my children.”
“Why the hell would she just leave her children lying around out here for us to step on?” Torin asks, sounding confused.
“She’s talking about her plants,” I explain.
Torin lifts his foot and looks down at the crushed plant. To me it looks like a weed, but not to Madelyn.
Torin’s eyes flicker over to me, and I grimace before sidling away from him like I don’t know him.
Madelyn abruptly stops and turns around. “Who the FUCK just stepped on one of my babies?”
Her head whips around as Torin stands there looking every bit like a god of war. He exudes a power that makes everyone—but me—step away from him. It just makes me horny… and then slightly ashamed… and maybe a tinge of embarrassment?
“Your plant moved into my path,” Torin says.
Madelyn, who has made even Imani tremble, hesitates while she eyes the situation and sees that her plant is perfectly fine. Honestly, it looks like a weed and seems as resilient as one. Then she smiles.
Hold on… am I not the only one who got a little turned on by this?
“It’s okay,” she says with a beaming smile.
It’s… it’s okay? I brushed a leaf with my pant leg, and I had to hear about how I was playing a role in the demise of plant life and dropping our very earth into global warming, yet it’s fine for Torin to do it?
She slows down to walk beside Torin. “What was your name?”
“Torin, God of War and Love.”
“Of love, you say?”
“And war,” I add.
“Someone’s jealous,” Mickey comments. I turn to him with every intention of causing him mental anguish, I’m just not yet sure how, but he gives me a wide berth as he shuffles his way after the druid who is chatting up the god.
“He’s a god of love. He loves anyone and everyone,” I say.
“Sounds like my high school boyfriend. I just didn’t know about it,” Imani mutters. “Six years! We dated for six years, and he slept with every single friend I had.”
Mickey stares at her. “I feel like… you have horrible taste in friends and boyfriends.”
She raises an eyebrow. “Is that why we’re friends?”
“Exactly,” he says.
Madelyn stops. “I feel like the unfamiliar magic is most noticeable right here. But this is where the ley lines converge that run through the city.”
Torin kneels down and touches the ground.
“Do you think this is where he’s going to make the Door?” I ask.
Torin is quiet for a minute, his brow furrowed. “I don’t know the answer to that. I can feel it. But it’s very weak.”
“Like the Door failed?” I ask.
“No… like he’s pulling magic from this world to create the Door. He’s acquired something from this world that has allowed him to create a more solid Door… possibly a permanent one.”
He looks grave, and I can’t help but wonder if he’s thinking about his own world. I hurry up to him and kneel to touch the ground, but I can’t seem to feel it the way he can. “But we know he’s coming. We can stop him before he does anything.”
His eyes watch me closely, his expression giving nothing away, though I can’t help but feel like he’s reliving what happened to him in the past. Does he already think this world is doomed like his was?
Does he think he’s going to have to watch every single person die again… and then he’ll be all alone?
“I won’t let that happen.”
Torin raises a brow as we both rise to our feet. “What are you not letting happen?”
I squeeze my gloved hands, realizing that it’s a joke because there’s absolutely nothing I can do. I really should just go home, crawl into bed, and watch the world burn around me.
Fuck.
I never used to be like this. There was a time when I would have done anything to save someone.
And now.
I close my eyes and question what I did to deserve this. Kit, sensing my unease, chews on my ear. I ruffle her ears to tell her that I’m fine.
Torin glances around at the others. “All I can tell you is that the Door is opening. I don’t know where.
I don’t know when. It’s not… close. What I feel here are remnants of its strength.
It’s sapping magic from this world to strengthen it.
But when that being comes through, we need to do everything in our power to drive him back before he destroys this world. ”
“If it’s not here, we need to find it,” Imani says.
“Yes,” Torin agrees. “I could possibly have a better feel for it if I got closer to the actual location the Door is forming. I would leave someone here just in case it opens here, but I don’t believe it will.”
Imani nods. “Okay. Let’s get the agency out and scour the city. I’ll have someone section off the city and determine where everyone should scout.”
“I have already compiled a set location for each team,” Tommy says, flipping his laptop around to face us. “I assumed you’d need to do something like this as soon as you stated you needed to find the Door’s location, so I have split the entire unit into teams of two.”
“You’re so much more useful than Mickey,” Imani praises as she examines it. Mickey just shrugs, fully agreeing with this statement. Tommy flashes it to me so I can see my assigned route that will infuriate Torin to no end once he discovers it follows a subway line.
I turn to Torin. “Okay. Let’s… see what we can do.”
“I require a mount,” he announces.
“We’ll just take the subway.”
“No, no, no. I’ll be able to sense the Door better on a mount.”
“You’ve got a mount right in front of you,” Mickey says with a grin.
“Do you want death?” I hiss. “I’ll make sure to bring you back afterward with your own necromancy power.”
Mickey holds up his hands in surrender. “No, no. I meant you have the power of necromancy. Bring him up a mount worthy of a god.”
Torin’s eyes are on me. “The bigger the better.”
“Please don’t do this to me,” I whisper.
Everyone else leaves me to it, preparing for their routes, and I’m left with a god with big pleading eyes and a huge smile.
“I don’t even know how to find a mount, and it’ll probably be all mangled and shit.”
He keeps staring at me, and when I make no move, he turns to wave Imani down before shouting to her, “Please put out a notice that the woman who can turn into a unicorn must report so Riley can touch her and become my mount.”
I sigh and set my hand on the ground, positive that I’m not going to sparkle ever again.
Not quite sure what kind of mount is around, I try to feel for something useful.
With my hand pressed against the ground, I can feel the bodies beneath it.
None are nearby, but that doesn’t seem to even matter for this powerful necromancy magic I’ve borrowed from Mickey.
It’s almost like some reach out to me, willing to help, and others turn away from me with no interest in being reanimated.
Some I can see clearly in my mind, and I can tell what they are with ease, but others are more wisps of an idea.
I don’t know whether that’s because they’re farther away or they died much longer ago.
It’s almost like the magic knows just what I’m looking for since it seems to zip through the earth until I find two large beasts.
Now that I’ve identified them, I get the impulse to mentally ask them if they’d like to help me.
All too soon, the ground in front of me begins to shake and crack.
It splits before a paw reaches out and the first of the two creatures crawls out.
It’s a massive wolf that looks completely alive, thanks to Mickey’s strong magic enhanced by my own.
The second that emerges is a large feline who comes up to me.
They both appear very interested in me as I regret how powerful my magic is.
If I sucked at it, I could have ridden the subway.
But thankfully, summoning two undead isn’t enough to hurt me like it would if I summoned a whole army.
“They are beautiful,” Torin enthuses as he starts petting them vigorously. “Which do you want?”
“You can have them both. I’ll be taking the subway,” I say with a salute, but he grabs me and sets me on the back of the feline before jumping on the wolf.
“And off we go.”
“Dammit, no!” I growl, scrambling to grab its fur before questioning whether that’s rude. The beast doesn’t seem to mind as I’m whisked away while Imani’s and Vinny’s laughter follows me.