Chapter 19 #2
I twist hard before throwing the earth magic I’d borrowed toward my feet, but I can’t even get up before they start dragging me again.
I can see what Kit is seeing, but she’s so far from me that it’s disorienting and doesn’t make it easy to fight.
She tries to dash over to me, but the wolves are keeping her back.
Kit looks over to where Torin is fighting hard against the horseman.
Without his power, he appears to be struggling, yet he’s the only one of us who is even engaging the horseman without immediate failure.
I want to help him, but when I send the earth magic to where I believe he is, I see through Kit’s eyes that I miss by at least fifteen feet.
“Fuck,” I growl as I kick and scramble, fighting against the wolves.
And that’s when Kit looks right at the horse, allowing me to see it escape the confines I’d left it in.
It rushes for the rider, who grabs onto the saddle and swings up onto its back before flinging an arrow without his bow.
It tears right through Torin’s chest and out his back.
He staggers back and my stomach tightens.
“No! No, no, no!” I shout.
Rage, fear, and pain race through my body while the horseman jerks his horse hard, yanking it to the right before he charges Torin who refuses to back down, but it’s clear that he’s grown weaker as the fight has progressed. He’s struggling, and what am I even doing to help him in this state?
I lunge up and am immediately barreled down by another wolf.
I attempt to use the earth magic I’d borrowed, but it does nothing as the wolves pass through it with ease.
I dig my nails into the ground, trying to cling to the earth I’d lifted to keep from being dragged.
The wolves are relentless, grabbing me, sinking teeth into my arms and pulling me toward the Door.
And with my arms trapped in their jaws, I can’t even access the earth magic.
Kit’s eyes shift between me and Torin, and it’s disorienting being so far from what she’s seeing.
I’m defenseless as I feel my foot catch the edge of the Door before Torin turns and looks at me and realizes what’s happening.
He jerks away from the horseman and rushes toward me, giving the horseman the opportunity to drive a sword right into Torin’s back.
I’m left with the sight of the blade piercing through his chest, blood splattering me while I’m pulled through the Door where my ability to see through Kit’s eyes is torn away from me.
The grip on me immediately releases once I feel cold hard ground beneath me.
The magic that invades me every time I near one of the horseman’s Doors hits me shockingly hard, to the point that I’m left gasping on the ground while my body feels like it’s burning from the inside out.
I feel like I need to dig the magic out before it consumes me and kills me.
I can hear footsteps behind me, but I’m lost in this darkness and the pain of the magic.
“And what is this?” a man toyingly asks.
I lunge to my feet and rush straight forward, knowing the Door is directly in front of me.
“Don’t you dare run from me,” he snarls, but I slam into the Door. My hand slides down it, feeling all over it for the fucking handle. He’s getting closer; I can hear the sound of his footsteps echoing around me. My hand pats the cold Door as I question where the hell the handle is.
“You cannot hide from me. I will find you,” he says when my hand bumps against the handle.
My fingers are shaking so badly that I struggle to even clasp it before I feel cold fingers touch my back, causing chills to creep through me.
“You’re not going anywhere.” He jerks me back from the Door that will lead me back to my realm.
“You will not take another being from me,” I hear Torin growl as strong arms wrap around me and I’m torn through the Door and back into my own world.
I stagger through and immediately feel something on me. I jerk back, expecting it to be another wolf before realizing it’s Kit. When my vision clears, I see Torin hit the ground behind me, the sword that’d been driven through his body clutched in his hand.
“Riley, run,” he begs while he uses the sword to try to push himself to his feet, but he’s struggling to rise. “Please.”
The strange magic wells up inside me, shoving me to my knees as I feel absolutely overcome by it.
“Riley, RUN,” Torin yells, finally forcing himself to his feet before he grabs my arm and drags me up.
The horseman swings around and rushes us, and Torin throws me back as he barely manages to block the hit before another arrow strikes him right in the stomach. Torin staggers back yet continues to stand, as though he’s going to do everything he can to protect me from this monster.
Even die for me.
“This is a joke. It’s like playing with defenseless mice.” The horseman chuckles.
Pain shoots up my arms when the magic wells up inside me before it rips out of my body in a white blast and tears through the wolves crowding around me.
They dissipate as the horse is thrown off its feet and slams down onto the ground.
I hear the horseman growl out something before darkness invades my mind and I hit the ground.