Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Torin
When I wake this time, I feel slightly more alive, even if the ‘hole in the chest’ thing seems to be slowing me down a bit. I was quickly humbled in that fight as I discovered just how far my power had dwindled.
So then why do I feel more powerful now than before this whole ordeal?
I look down at Riley, who is tucked in my arms. His beautiful face is a peculiar shade of purple and yellow from the bruises spread over his cheek, eye, and forehead. He has stitches on his forehead, and I realize that I don’t know where else he was hurt.
All because I lacked any power to do anything about it.
When they dragged him through the Door, all I could think about was getting him back.
In a fight against an opponent like the man on the horse, one knows that you never turn your back on them.
You have to stay focused at all costs when every move made determines the outcome…
but Riley was too much of a cost. The second he was dragged through the Door, all of my focus was ripped away from the man I was fighting and onto Riley, even knowing that the man could kill me.
Why am I so focused on this human? It goes against everything I am.
Everything I believe in. I slowly reach over to push the neck of his shirt down to check for any other wounds when he opens his eyes.
The illusion makes it hard for me to tell whether he’s actually seeing me or not, but a simple glance at Kit, who is chasing mice in her dreams, tells me he isn’t.
“Good morning,” I say.
He gently reaches out to me, and I smile when his fingers brush my cheek. Yes, this is the man I can’t look away from. The very man who—
Riley wraps his hand around my neck and shakes me. “You ungrateful, selfish asshole of a man,” he snarls.
My euphoria is cut short.
“I really felt like this was going to be a cheek caress.”
“You don’t deserve any cheek caresses,” he snipes as Kit wakes up. She takes one look at her master and then seems to think this is nothing of concern and casually watches.
“Why? Do I deserve pity sex, at the very least? I saved your life,” I remind him.
He definitely doesn’t wear the expression of someone willing to have pity sex. “Yes, and when I saved yours, you squandered it!”
“I squandered it?” I ask before looking beyond him to where I can feel a familiar magic, and it hits me that it wasn’t just a dream… I really did bring Quill back. “Quill?” No… that can’t be right… can it? But I’m not wrong, I can feel him. “Quill!”
I leap from bed and rush over to the door before looking back and finding Riley sitting there looking upset about something. I hurry back to him and grab his hand. “Riley, come, you must meet Quill. You’re going to be blown away when you meet him.”
“I already met him,” Riley grumbles as I drag him after me. “Don’t you think you should be resting? You’re still not fully healed.”
“I feel fine,” I assure him, towing him downstairs to where Quill seems to have let himself into the palace.
He perks up when he hears me on the stairs and rushes up to me.
I tug Riley up to him before I wrap my arms around Quill, hands sinking into his mane.
My hand is still attached to Riley’s, so he kind of gets dragged into the reunion.
“Hello, old friend. I’m so happy to see you,” I say as I pull back so I can set my forehead against his, which is his favorite way to greet me, especially after a long separation. “I’m so sorry I left you. I don’t know how you can even forgive me.”
Quill seems to give few shits about it, like always. He’s never been stressed about the little things… or the big things.
“I’m so sorry I left you,” I whisper.
“Well, he’s fine now,” Riley says, sounding a bit sharp.
Confused, I look over at him before questioning whether he’s jealous I’m hugging Quill and not him, so I pull him in for a group hug which oddly doesn’t seem to make him happier. How could hugging Quill not immediately make someone happy? “Riley, this is Quill. Quill, this is Riley.”
“We already met when he threw me into the dirt,” Riley says sourly.
“You willingly tried to ride a mount?” I ask, thrilled that my ways are rubbing off on him. “I’m so proud of you.”
He doesn’t seem pleased by the praise. “I… thought you’d woken up and I wanted to get back to the palace quickly, but instead he threw me in the dirt. I’m going to the library,” he says before pulling from me and heading off. Quill rubs his antlers on my body while I watch Riley disappear.
“He seems a bit off… does he seem a bit off to you?” I ask Quill.
Quill just rubs with more vigor and nearly nails me in the nuts with his antlers.
“Watch those things,” I say. “My balls don’t need to be skewered. I need those things.”
I rub Quill’s face as my brain continues to struggle, strangely fixated on Riley. “Come on,” I say, and Quill follows me into the library. Riley is on a chaise looking very dramatic as he’s sprawled across it with a book open on his face.
I pluck it off his beautiful face while Quill sets to work chewing on his socks.
“If your monstrosity eats my toes, I’m going to be pissed.”
I swing my leg over his waist and sit down on him.
“You’re crushing my insides. Why?”
“What’s wrong?” I ask, quite bewildered by this whole ordeal. “Did you get hurt and you’re not telling me?” I reach for his gloves, but he pulls his arms back to his chest.
“My hands are fine,” he says, but I snatch one up and push back his sleeve to see that the curse has spread significantly up his arm after that last stunt. I’m not surprised, knowing the amount of magic I saw him use. But it worries me. What happens when it gets to his heart?
“We’ll keep you here so it doesn’t get any worse.”
“Nope. My old lieutenant told me that in order to do what I asked her to do to help you, I had to join the unit again.”
My eyebrows furrow at that. “No, you’re not going out and being forced to use more magic that’ll hurt you. Let’s fix this curse first.”
“You think that guy is just going to press pause while we figure things out? I made a promise. Go ride your precious creature around and stop pestering me.”
I stare at him while I try to think hard about this.
Human issues don’t always make sense to me.
I’d prefer everyone to just be happy and love everyone, but this human is rather complex.
And I discover that I’m quite focused on the fact that he’s not happy about something.
It’s not just interesting to me, it’s bothering me.
“Riley… what’s wrong?” I ask.
He shakes his head and then gives me a smile. “Nothing. I’m very relieved you’re back. I’m sorry if I made you think otherwise.”
That smile would have worked on the old me.
I would have decided it wasn’t my problem, but this time, I’m oddly fixated on it.
I grab him and pull him up so we’re repositioned with him sitting on my lap so I can better scrutinize him.
He’s not really committing to the position, feeling a bit like that Jell-O stuff I enjoyed, almost as though his plan is to dramatically fall back onto the chaise.
“Humans perplex me.”
“At least we’re not as strange as gods.”
“Why do you refuse to tell me what’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Yet it’s something. I’m going to keep asking until you tell me, so you might as well tell me now.”
Riley turns his head away. “Fine… I’m pissed.”
“About?”
“About the fact that I spent five—no, six days at your side, terrified you were going to die, and when you finally got enough of your power back to heal yourself, you spent it on that thing,” he says as he gestures at Quill.
I glance over at “that thing” who really wants to nibble on Kit’s tail.
Kit is annoyed by this and whaps Quill on the nose.
Then I look back at Riley as I open my mouth to tell him that I don’t see the problem since everything worked out fine, but I hesitate when I look at his bruised face.
How would I feel if our roles were reversed?
If he was hurt and put all of his energy into Kit instead of himself…
especially if Kit wasn’t actually in a dire situation?
It’s not like Quill was suffering. With the power flowing into me, I could have easily healed myself first and brought Quill back later, but that’s not what I chose.
I had no regard for how Riley felt as he stayed by my side.
I never even considered what he might be feeling.
Or that he was so concerned about me that he stayed by my side for six days.
And when he saw Quill, he felt hope that I was awake, and instead I put it all in Quill.
“I’m sorry, that was really selfish of me. I’m not used to thinking about anyone other than myself,” I admit.
Riley nods and pushes off my lap to lie back down, but I catch him before he does.
“Where are you going? I’m sorry. Are you still upset?”
He seems uncertain as he sits on my lap, the fiery anger in his eyes finally gone. “No, and I wasn’t even that upset anymore. I just knew you wouldn’t stop pestering me if I didn’t say something.”
I tip his head closer and kiss his lips softly.
“Already wanting another pity fuck?” Riley asks, but his voice has more of the teasing tone that I’ve come to expect from him, and I’m thrilled to have that back. How can this human affect my own emotions and thoughts so much?
“My favorite kind,” I joke, kissing a line down his neck until I get to another bruise. It irritates me, and I wish I could find that man again and kill him for touching what is mine.
But does Riley want to be mine? And what does it mean to be mine?
I push those difficult thoughts aside as I kiss a line back up his neck.
Riley protests, “We can’t have sex with you in this state. You were just dying like an hour ago.”
“Sex cures me,” I lie.
“If that were true, I’d have stuck a finger in your bum six days ago,” he says, making me laugh.
“Maybe it doesn’t, but I’m fine.”