Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Riley
We are escorted straight to security when we reach the airport, as Lt. Lindsey has made them aware that we’ll be traveling with a god who doesn’t have identification beyond what has been given by the Magical Interference Unit. Torin’s head is on a swivel while he looks this way and that.
We hand over our badges as well as the temporary ID that Torin has to the agent. The man scrutinizes it then stares at Torin, who stares right back. I know he’s not being purposely menacing, but when met with an adversary, he’s more than happy to glare back.
“You Magical Interference people seem to think you’re gods and get to do whatever you like,” the man mutters.
“I am a god,” Torin says. “And I will smite you if you glower at my precious.”
I raise an eyebrow. “It’s fine, Torin. It’s his job to make sure the airport is safe.”
Torin huffs as the man personally leads Torin over to the full-body scanner.
I wave Torin into the machine. “You’re going to go in, put your feet on the spots marked, and hold your hands over your head. And did you take everything out of your pockets?”
“What are my pockets going to do?” he asks.
“No, they just need to make sure you’re not carrying anything illegal through there,” I say.
“Your rules are so very strange. When I step inside this thing, what is it going to do?”
“It just scans your entire body.”
“Will it come for my testicles?”
“Probably not, but if you fail, they might have to fondle them,” I tease.
The agent’s glower shifts onto me with that one as I laugh and Torin debates this. “You are the only one who can fondle me.”
“Just stand inside, it’ll be fine,” I assure him.
He steps in and the machine immediately goes off.
“Torin, do you have any metal on you?” I ask.
“Oh, these?” Torin pulls his scythes out from where they’re often illusioned on his back so that I can never tell whether they’re there or not.
The security guy looks absolutely flabbergasted that Torin is now waving two scythes around in the security line while the people waiting behind us look equally uncertain.
Thankfully, the media has flashed his face around enough that most people seem to recognize him as a god and don’t immediately assume he’s here to decapitate a person or two.
“Torin, remember, I told you we were supposed to lock up your weapons, so you locked up a sword and a knife and like five other things. And you had all of those weapons yet still need these two?”
“Correct.”
I sigh and take them from him before handing them to a security person who looks uneasy holding such things as I question why we couldn’t just have a special god entrance where the poor security staff wouldn’t have to deal with him.
They’re now informing Torin they’re going to pat him down, and he appears perplexed.
“Only Riley is allowed to touch my goods,” he says.
The man looks horrified. “I’m not… this is…”
“Just ignore him and pat him down. He’s fine,” I say. “Torin, he’s just patting you down to make sure you’re not carrying anything illegal on you.”
The man explains again to Torin what he’s doing and then begins using the back of his hand to pat down Torin’s body while the god watches him.
“You really need to learn how to stroke a body better than that if you’re ever going to get married,” Torin decides.
“I’m not… you’re…” The man is now flustered and waves Torin through. I think he’s just given up at this point. Then he turns to me. “Your familiar must go through first.”
“Sure, sure,” I say as I send her through.
I want to get through as fast as I can, not because we’re holding up the line and causing a scene, but because my chain with the hourglass on it is calling to me and has already made it through security.
I need it and can’t stop thinking about how uneasy I feel without it.
It hasn’t even been a full day since Torin placed it around my neck, yet all I can do is think about that hourglass…
and how whole it makes me feel. And as soon as I’m away from it, I’m hit with this indescribable longing that takes hold of me.
Kit makes it through security and then watches so she can help me make it through.
It’s awkward, especially when I have to turn to face away from her and get into the correct stance, but I have no other issues since I’m not strapping killing machines to my back like Torin was.
Mickey waves away Joy and Tommy before going through security and calling them back up on the other side.
This makes the security guy rather exasperated, but I think he’s just done with us. “Your weapons will be able to be picked up after you land—”
Torin looks up, and his scythes fly out of the boxes they were being fitted into and back into his hand.
The man nearly pops a blood vessel when he watches this. Honestly, I didn’t even know Torin could summon his weapons to him, but maybe his power has only now gotten strong enough that he can. That’s when another security person sees us and her eyes light up.
“You saved my sister’s life,” she gushes as she hurries forward, giving no shits about the scythes. “Can I hug you?”
“I must ask Riley if he’ll get jealous first. He’s easily jealous. It’s very cute,” Torin says, like I’m over here limiting him from hugging others for some reason.
“You’re more than good,” I comment dryly, now wondering if there is going to be a news article about me being a monster who doesn’t let the god who saved our world hug others.
“Riley also saved everyone, so hug him too,” Torin says as he pulls me in for this bizarre three-person hug with a random stranger.
The woman is so thrilled that we saved someone in her life that she doesn’t care.
She just whisks us off and even helps Torin put his scythes in a case that she permits him to carry with him.
“I like airports,” Torin declares as soon as she leaves us. “They are very fun.”
“Oh, so much fun,” I say while I look over at Mickey who appears as exhausted as I feel, and we haven’t even found our gate yet.
Mickey sits down on his suitcase, and Tommy grabs the handle and starts wheeling Mickey after us as I question how long it will be before the suitcase breaks beneath his weight.
“We need to get on the people mover over there,” I say as I point. It must remind Torin too much of the subway, because he takes one look at the people mover, then calls Quill and leaps onto his back while people going about their day scatter in shock.
“I will meet you there.”
“No, we have to go to another terminal. This is significantly faster,” I protest. Torin ignores me and has Quill walk straight onto the moving walkway…
going in the wrong direction because Torin is a god of lacking luck instead of whatever he claims to be.
Quill is fascinated by this as he stares at the ground, which means that his antlers keep anyone from passing.
So now Quill is walking against the flow, causing the stream of people to slam to a stop and begin backing up, forcing them to collide with each other.
Tommy gives no shits and is already pulling Mickey away while I stare at the clusterfuck in horror.
“Torin, get off and put him away!” I order.
“What is this strange magic and why are we not going anywhere as we walk?” Torin asks.
“If you’re on it too long, it’ll desire a sacrifice.”
“Not my balls,” he says as he hops off, but he leaves Quill who has stopped moving and is now zooming backwards while looking perplexed.
I am just appalled by how many videos are being taken of us, so I pull out the only threat that I know will work on Torin. “Put Quill away or no sex for a week.”
Quill is unsummoned so fast that I decide I should use this threat more often.
“Now get on the people mover,” I demand, and boy does he scurry over and hop on. I follow him, dragging our luggage after me—seeing as he just ditched his when he leapt onto Quill—as I realize that I’ve found a new way to boss Torin around.
“Do you kind of feel like Lt. Lindsey is just trying to off us by sending us on a wild goose chase?” Mickey asks once we join him on the people mover.
After having watched that spectacle, I admit, “I’m not sure I blame her.”
“Why would we be chasing geese?” Torin asks. “Is this another sacrifice thing? Like we must sacrifice geese to ride on this thing you call the mile-high club? I am willing.”
“You know it’s called a plane, right? And yes, Mickey, she’s totally sacrificing us.”
“I’ll bring you back to life if you die first,” Mickey assures me.
“Uh… thanks… I guess. But if you bring me back to life to make me haul your ass around an airport, I’m going to ask that you leave me dead.”
“Fair,” Mickey says as the doors to the people mover open for us to exit.
Just as Tommy is hauling Mickey out, one of the wheels on the suitcase snaps and goes flying.
Mickey spills off the suitcase and tumbles back into the people mover while the rest of us pass through the doors and watch them shut.
The people mover takes off with Mickey locked inside.
“I think he was supposed to get out with us,” Torin comments.
“Sure was,” I say as I see his face pressed against the glass a second before the people mover zooms out of sight. “Hopefully he hurries up or he’ll miss the flight.”
“I don’t think Mickey has ever hurried to do anything in his life,” Torin says.
“He hurries to bed,” I mutter.
Our group heads off without Mickey. Tommy seems rather relieved to just pull the suitcase after him, even if it’s missing one of its wheels.
“You do know you don’t have to follow his every word, right?” I ask Tommy.
“Yes… but I don’t mind. It’s very nice to live again, and I’m happy to do anything as long as I get to keep on living. Because of Mickey, I get to see my daughter and my granddaughter. It really is a blessing.”