Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Riley
It’s been two days with very little change in Torin.
He still hasn’t woken up, and his wounds are healing as slowly as a human’s.
In that time, Mickey had me transcribe the entire book in English, which I did at Torin’s bedside before Mickey took both the book and document and ran off… well… got carried off.
Imani peeks in and walks over to me. “Hey.”
“I’ve been thinking,” I say.
“Which is a scary thing.”
“The doctor said that he’s healing so slowly because his magic is going toward keeping himself alive.
Torin told me his magic revolves around people believing in him.
I know you’re trying to keep what happened at the fair quiet, but there has to be a video of Torin fighting that man.
If we release it… no, he’s not going to have people praying at some…
shrine for him, but that would still cause people to believe in him, right?
Maybe that’s all the belief he needs for his power to help him recover. ”
Imani watches me for a second before shaking her head. “We’ve been strictly ordered to keep all recordings of it under wraps.”
I ignore her and grab my phone to call Lt. Lindsey myself.
“She’s here,” Imani says. “If you want to fight her in person, because you know it’s going to be a fight.”
“I will happily fight her in person,” I declare, well aware that she’s already chewed out Imani and Vinny for going to the fair alone.
Imani grabs my face in her hands. “I pray for your well-being.”
“Oh shut it, I will win this fight,” I say as I follow her out into the hallway.
She leads me up a floor and over to a room where she knocks once before stepping inside.
It houses two of the people who haven’t shown any sign of waking up.
Lieutenant Lindsey is standing at the foot of their beds discussing things with a doctor.
There is no family present, making me wonder if the families of the affected are in the same state.
While waiting for the doctor to finish, I find myself walking up to the man who was the very first victim. It’s as though I can still see the way the arrow went right through him, tearing the white orb out of him.
I set my hand against his chest and immediately feel this strange sense of emptiness from him.
My brow furrows while I question whether I really am feeling something as strange as that. It’s not like I have healer magic or any type of magic that would allow me to feel things.
“Strand,” Lt. Lindsey says, using my last name by way of greeting.
“I wanted to talk to you about something,” I say as I watch the doctor leave. “I need a video of Torin fighting that man to be sent to the news. I need it to get out there.”
She gives me a harsh laugh. “We are not releasing any footage from the fight.”
“He is a god who needs followers in order to heal and gain his power back. If we send a video out, he probably isn’t going to have people praying to him at a shrine, but maybe just believing in him is enough.
And right now, people are terrified; they’re unsure when another Door is going to open or what’s going to happen to those who haven’t woken up. They need someone to believe in—”
“Absolutely not. We wouldn’t have had this many casualties if we’d gone as a team,” Lt. Lindsey says, inflicting her cold eyes on Imani who had informed me that she was nearly fired after this stunt.
“There’s absolutely no way you’d have sent the entire unit there on a theory,” I argue.
“Are you listening to yourself? We had no way of knowing where the Door was opening. That’s why everyone was moving out in pairs to cover more ground and find it faster.
There would’ve been absolutely no reason for you to send the entire unit to the fair when we had no way of knowing if the Door was opening there.
And their city doesn’t have a Magical Interference Unit, so it’s not like we could have called ahead and sent anyone there.
You know that if others had felt the Door opening there, it would have been called in, but it requires someone with high-level magic to even feel it. ”
Lt. Lindsey’s narrowed eyes make me hold up a hand before she can even start.
“You know what? I’m not fighting you on this,” I say.
“Go ahead and degrade the heroes who risked their lives to save as many people as they could. I’m not here for that.
I just need you to realize that Torin is the only reason we held that man back.
I know you’ve reviewed the footage. I know you’re aware that if it weren’t for Torin, many of us would have died.
He’s weak without his power. He might not even make it.
If another Door were to open right now… I’m not quite sure who you think would be able to stop them. ”
“You,” she replies. “You’re the reason he left through that Door, not the god.”
I shake my head, firmly believing that she’s wrong.
“Oh no, I would have been dead or left on the other side of that Door if it weren’t for Torin.
Just because my magic had the final say doesn’t mean that Torin isn’t the reason.
What does giving people a bit of hope hurt?
You saw how fast that man was tearing through people.
For every soul or whatever it is he takes, he gains another fighter.
It was a matter of minutes before he’d taken down over a hundred that would have multiplied to take even more. ”
Lt. Lindsey stares at me for a long moment. “I will only do it if you rejoin the unit.”
I hesitate, genuinely confused why she’d even want me to join, but she likely knows that I might be the only way she’s keeping that man from getting through the Door.
But at what cost?
She’s going to send me out to every fight she thinks I’ll be able to demolish in seconds like I used to. But if it means getting Torin back, I’ll do it.
“Fine. Release something about Torin to the public. I will return once Torin is healed,” I say.
“That wasn’t the deal.”
“It’s the deal I’m giving you.”
Lt. Lindsey knows that she has little choice, so she gives me a curt nod.
I turn, questioning what I’ve gotten myself into as Imani catches up to me.
“Are you okay with that? I know you chose to quit for… some reason,” she says. “A reason you prefer to keep to yourself.”
“I’ll have to be. We can’t stop this without Torin. And the stronger he is, the better.”
She nods. “Okay.”
True to her word, Lt. Lindsey allows a video of Torin to release, and word spreads of the god who is our only hope. Whoever prepared the clip did a fantastic job to make it appear like Torin is the one who drove the man back through the Door without any help from me at all.
But even after another day, he still doesn’t wake.
“What exactly are we doing?” Mickey asks me.
“We’re taking him to his home. Maybe… maybe he needs the magic from his realm…
or something,” I say. “I’ve talked to the doctor, who said that nothing they’ve given him has seemed to change his state and agreed that maybe being surrounded by his magic will help him better than a place like this that has no connection to magic at all. ”
He shrugs. “Alright. Sure. Whatever you want. If he dies, I promise I’ll bring him back to life for you.”
I scowl at him. “He’s not dying.”
“I was just trying to be reassuring,” Mickey says as he throws up his hands, as though using necromancy to bring the dead back is the way to go when things get tough.
“Was that reassuring?”
“I don’t know! I assume it is. I bring my dad back from the dead every time I want to say ‘I told you so’ to him.
It’s fun,” he informs me while Torin is escorted by a nurse out to Mickey’s car.
It’s all rather unorthodox, but they’re short-staffed with all of the people from the fair.
Though nothing is as unorthodox as Mickey summoning some undead to cram the god into the back seat.
The nurse looks horrified, but we get into the car and take off before she can report the abuse to some god protective services hotline.
“I really thought the video would work,” I say, feeling disappointed.
“It was a good idea, but maybe he needs like… worshipers, not just like… clicks on the web,” Mickey replies as he’s forced to drive since the god takes up all of the back seat.
“Did you finish reading the book?” I ask, really feeling like he should have started with that if he had.
“I have.”
“And?”
“And I’m sorting my thoughts,” he says.
“That’s all I get?” I ask.
“For now.”
“You’re a pain in my ass.”
“Hey, you read the whole thing and couldn’t figure anything out. Give a very sleepy man a minute to sort his thoughts. Actually, why don’t you drive so I can sleep?” he asks, throwing the car into park at a red light and just diving into my seat.
“What the hell are you doing?” I demand as I’m trampled and crushed while forced to switch seats. The car behind us begins laying on its horn while I’m left scrambling into the driver’s seat. By the time I’m seated, Mickey’s already asleep.
“You’re an ass,” I mutter as I drive all the way to the Door Torin came through in silence.
I don’t love driving since I lost my eyesight.
Kit is dependable but easily distracted.
It’s fine if she randomly looks at a leaf blowing in the wind when I’m walking down the street, but not so much when I’m driving.
She tries her best, though, and I only have to fight for her attention once when she sees a dog she thinks she might mess up through the window.
I pull off on the side of the road and smack Mickey awake before gathering my bags.
“What was that for?” he cries.
“We’re here. It was just a love tap.”
“Love tap, my ass,” he growls as he gets out and summons some undead to carry Torin to the Door.
“Are you coming through?” I ask.
“I’ll deliver him, but then I have to head back,” Mickey says, trudging after us before reaching for me like he thinks I should carry him because his undead are busy carrying Torin—not very successfully, I might add, since one drops him and then they all go stumbling.
Mickey kind of just… falls against my back, and when I reach back to steady him after thinking he tripped, he merely hops on as though it was an invite.
“Just don’t watch them carry him,” Mickey says, cupping my eyes like his hands are blinders before hesitating and doing it to Kit instead. I try to smack him off but he’s like a parasite that’s attached to me.
When we reach the Door, I head through first, and then Mickey and his chaotic crew follow.
“Oh daaaaaaamn. No wonder you want in this man’s pants. I’d be in his pants too for this place,” Mickey says as he eagerly looks around. “Tell him my pants are always open.”
“Just shut up and help me get him to his bedroom. It’s on the second floor.”
“It’s so shiny,” he enthuses, immediately distracted. I decide dealing with the undead is better for my well-being. So the group of us get Torin to his bed before we leave him to find Mickey who has gotten himself happily lost.
“I changed my mind, I want to stay here,” Mickey says, eyeing a rather cushiony chaise.
“I thought you had things to do, like decipher that book.”
“Yeah, but we could just live here instead,” he suggests as his undead pick him up and start carrying him toward the Door. “No! Stop! There’d be no obligations here! Please!”
I watch him go and then head back up to stare at Torin for a while. When that doesn’t seem to be fruitful, I head outside for some fresh air and freeze when I discover that half of his beautiful garden is dead. My stomach tightens as I fear what this means.
No… things are supposed to be getting better. His power is supposed to be returning to him…
I touch a leaf and it crumbles in my fingers. I back away from the dying garden and bump into the inanimate creature. I press my hand against the stone and find that the warmth it usually held is almost completely gone.
Anxiety washes through me as I turn around and race back into the palace where I can hide from the reality of what’s happening. I hurry back to Torin’s room and stare down at him while I question what to do.
“Dammit. Dammit. FUCK,” I shout, able to scream and yell about whatever the hell I want with no one here to listen. No one at all.
I slowly sink down to my knees as I realize how oppressing the loneliness is. Of course I have Kit and I love her, and I don’t know how I’d live without her, but…
Why was this place a paradise when I was here before, but now… How did Torin live like this, all alone for nearly two hundred years? And I’ve just been alone for mere hours.
My mind drifts back to the group homes I grew up in. The academy.
Alone for a couple of decades of my thirty-six years of life… still nothing compared to Torin.
I have Kit, Mickey, Imani, and Vinny. I’m not alone… yet why did I feel so alone before this man dropped right into my life and inflicted chaos upon it?
Have I really never faced the fact that I felt so much loneliness until I discovered what it felt like to wake up every morning and have someone to talk to, someone to notice whether you came home at night?
But Torin’s a god of love. He’s not mine. He’s made it quite clear how proud he is of loving anyone and everyone. And maybe I’d suffer through that to keep from being alone… no matter how much I hated it.
I kick my shoes off, grab Kit, and curl up against Torin with Kit tucked against my chest and my arms thrown over Torin’s body. My fingers press into his side while I question whether I made a mistake bringing him here.
“Torin, I can’t do this without you, so you better wake the fuck up,” I whisper. I squeeze Kit closer as I close my eyes and drift off to sleep with the feel of his broad chest beneath my hand.