Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Riley
“We really should return. I can’t leave everyone completely defenseless while I have fun here,” I mutter as I hug the book to me and roll over on the chaise. While Torin has only been awake a full day, I’m nervous about enjoying life over here when everything could be falling to chaos over there.
He peeks at me from where he’s spooning his mount.
“You’re so weird,” I say.
Torin’s head pops up from where he’d had his face stuffed in Quill’s lionlike mane that flickers and flutters sometimes, almost like it’s made of fire. The golden-red hue adds to the effect, but Torin sure loves shoving his face in it.
“How am I weird? You wear Kit like a mask when you sleep,” he says.
I hesitate before I slowly slide Kit off my face. “That’s just where she sees best. We really should return now that you’re healed.”
“Fine, fine. Should we gather your strange friend while we’re at it?” Torin asks.
I raise an eyebrow, confused what that question even means. “My strange friend?”
“Yes. The odd one.”
“Mickey? Mickey’s here?”
“Yes, he’s been here for a couple of days. When I saw him earlier, he told me.”
“What?” I ask, shocked that Mickey’s just been living it up here and never shown his damn face! “Where is he?”
“Right now, he’s in the hot spring.”
I hurry over to the hot spring where I find Mickey floating on his back, which is… rather revealing with the whole naked thing going on. Tommy is standing on the side, dropping cut grapes and the occasional mini Snickers bar in his mouth as he floats on by.
“What the hell, Mickey?” I ask.
He cracks an eye open and looks over at me. “What seems to be the problem?”
“You’ve just been living here for days and never said anything?”
“I ran into Torin at one point. I traded his silence for a single mini Snickers bar. He’s quite an easy man to please.”
I hesitate as I realize that Torin had given me the only candy he’d procured from Mickey. Trying not to feel overly pleased by that, I put a foot on Mickey’s chest and begin sinking him.
He smacks me off and hangs on to the side. “Why? Why does my happiness cause you distress?”
“When’s the last time you went back?”
“Not since I arrived, but Joy travels back and forth to get stuff for me. Everything’s okay so far.
No one’s woken from their comas, but no more Doors have opened.
We could just stay and repopulate the world here, although it seems like you two have been trying and not getting anywhere with that.
” He winks at me, so I attempt to drown him again as he floats out of my reach while cackling.
“I didn’t know you were here!” I snap.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ll just live in misery all alone with my undead. Tommy, dry me off.”
“Yes, sir,” Tommy says as he uses a pole that was leaning against the wall to drag Mickey’s body in before pulling him out.
He sets to work drying him off, and I watch, flabbergasted, when he plugs a hair dryer into a solar-powered battery and starts blow-drying Mickey’s hair while Mickey picks up a bag of chips and eats them.
Like what the fuck? I was starving to death eating random vegetables and granola bars I brought from home, and he has a hair dryer?
And what was on that plate before he consumed it?
What kind of food setup does he have going on, and why was I never offered anything?
Better yet, why didn’t I think to bring a solar-powered battery?
Disgruntled, I leave him and find Torin in the hallway. “So… I’m well aware that riding Quill is the best thing in the world.”
“I do like riding him, but I like you riding me better—”
My glower puts an end to that. “But in order to reach the hospital in a timely manner, we’re going to take the car. Soooo, should Quill stay here?”
“No, I can summon him when I need him.”
“Like… poof, he’ll be there?”
“That is correct.”
“Can he poof us places?”
“No. It’s more like… I take him with me,” he says as he pats his chest, and now I’m confused about whether Quill has just kind of…
invaded his chest or what. But Torin is a god, so I decide that is that.
Honestly, I’m afraid that if I don’t start moving soon, Mickey’s going to wander off to some remote corner for a nap and we’ll spend all afternoon trying to find him in this huge palace.
Once all three of us are presentable, we head through the Door, much to Mickey’s dissatisfaction. He immediately deflates when he reaches our world.
“It’s just so tiring over here but so amazing over there,” he complains as he holds his hands out and one of the undead picks him up and puts him in a little wagon they appear to have been using to haul all of Mickey’s shit through the Door.
He’s jostled all the fuck around while the wagon is dragged through the rough field.
“You know that now that you’ve allowed that parasite into your home, he’s never going to leave, right?” I ask Torin, enjoying the look of displeasure on Mickey’s face when the wagon hits a particularly large bump.
“That’s okay, I want you to have friends over there when I move you in,” Torin declares.
“It’d be nice if it were normal friends,” I mutter as I watch Mickey get some air on one of the bumps.
“My ass bone! Tommy, get in the wagon with me and cradle me so we can protect my ass bone,” Mickey orders.
“Yes, sir,” Tommy says as he rushes over to do so. He pulls Mickey onto his lap and hugs him there while another undead pulls them. I’m so horrified that I want to look away, but Kit won’t stop staring and even jumps aboard so I get an up close and personal look at it.
“The people of your world are quite fascinating,” Torin comments.
“Do not think Mickey represents the people of my world. Mickey is… an alien being. I’m convinced he’s from another planet.”
Mickey looks back at me. “Nah, my friend. Born and bred right here.”
The car ride to the hospital where Imani and Lt. Lindsey agreed to meet us is rather uneventful. When we reach it, we head inside and over to the room of the man who was the first one shot with an arrow.
Imani and Lt. Lindsey are already waiting inside when we enter.
“It’s good to see you doing well,” Imani says as she smiles at Torin.
“Riley reinvigorated me thoroughly,” Torin announces, and why it sounds so X-rated, I’m not sure.
“I just like… nursed him back to health, nothing like what you’re thinking,” I say.
“What do you think I’m thinking?” Imani asks. I ignore her and turn to the situation at hand.
“Have any of them woken up?” I ask.
Lt. Lindsey shakes her head. “None of them. The closest condition we can compare it to is a coma, but there are some differences. The brain activity, for one, is vastly different. It’s almost like…”
“There’s no one inside?” I guess.
She nods. “Yes.”
“I think that man stole their souls,” I say.
From where he’s sitting in a chair, Mickey says, “I agree.”
“I… lost consciousness after my magic attacked the horseman; what exactly happened to the wolves?”
Torin looks over at me. “There was a bright flash of light and the wolves returned to the white orbs, but when the man fled through the Door, he took them with him. Whatever you did seemed to hurt him. His horse vanished, and he staggered back as the black mist was almost erased. He quickly fled through the Door before it shut and disappeared.”
“‘When four worlds are drained by death, conquest, war, and famine, a god will rise to create anew,’” Mickey mutters.
I assume he’s just rambling about something as usual, but Torin’s head snaps toward him. He rushes over and damn near hauls Mickey off the chair.
“What did you just say?” he demands.
“I’m afraid you know what I just said. This whole book?
It’s not the ravings of a madman; it’s the ravings of a god who is rising to supreme power using the darkest magic possible—magic that requires the end of four realms in order to reach absolute godhood.
With this… there’s nothing that could stop him. ”
Imani’s eyes go wide. “Death, conquest, war, and famine… those are the four horsemen of the apocalypse.”
“Yes. By controlling the horsemen, he must destroy four realms and use the sacrifice to reach a power that should never be awoken. We know they’ve destroyed one, but we have no way of knowing whether we’re the second, third, or even the fourth,” Mickey says.
Torin’s jaw clenches. “It’s been nearly two hundred years since my people were killed. Who knows what they’ve done in that time.”
“What do you mean by ‘destroy’?” Lt. Lindsey asks.
Mickey slumps back down into his seat. “It’s probable that killing all living beings gives the god the sacrifices he needs to complete this spell. In this horseman’s case, he’s taking the souls of the living.”
“If even one of those wolves were set loose on this world, it would multiply by the thousands in a day,” Torin says. “It’s similar to what happened to my world—a magic that spread until it consumed all of the living.”
“How… are we expected to stop a god who is controlling these horsemen?” Imani asks. “Are horsemen gods? What exactly are they?”
Torin responds, “They’re beings of the apocalypse, destined to exist peacefully until the end of the world. But whatever this god is doing, he’s controlling them. You’ve seen their power.”
I glance at him. “Torin, you killed the one who invaded your land, right? You can kill them!”
Everyone looks at Torin, who doesn’t appear confident about whether or not that’s an option.
“At my full power, I could. Even then, the fight was a struggle. The horseman had the power of a god himself. And… I don’t think you realize how different my power is compared to how it was back then.
I had hundreds of thousands of worshipers.
I had…” He looks down at his hands, then back up at me.
“The power I held was enough that no other god even ever challenged me. I alone ruled my lands. But now… now I can’t even heal myself. ”
“No… but you’re not alone,” I tell him. “You have us… for whatever that might be worth.”