Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Riley
I twirl the hourglass around and around while I stare at the sand shifting inside of it. I want to tear this cursed thing apart and draw the horse out… even though I want nothing to do with a horse.
But like this…
“You okay?” Mickey asks.
I jerk back to the present and look over to where Mickey sits on the edge of his hospital bed. Since he’s back and has been given the all-clear to go, we’re simply waiting for the nurse to return and actually allow him to leave.
“What’s the definition of ‘okay’?” I ask.
He laughs and nods. “Yeah. I feel ya.”
I push myself out of the chair and go over to help him while Vero remains seated in another chair with his eyes closed. “What do you need help with?”
“Everything. I don’t even know how to put a shirt on,” he whines.
“Do you really not know?” I ask, helping him into it as he grins at me. It’s a shirt that Kim had brought earlier, and apparently a shirt Mickey knows nothing about putting on because he even watches me button it up.
“If you keep treating him like this, he will never become a respectable human,” Vero states.
“You don’t even have your eyes open; you have no idea what we’re doing,” Mickey says.
Vero cracks an eye open and cocks his head. “I know you are treating him like a little pet dog that does everything he’s told.”
“Riley, Vero is bullying me, and it’s not as sexy when I’m sad and hurt,” Mickey complains.
“Not sure what you want me to do about it. Just look at the man. If I tried bullying him, he’d punch me into a different realm.
Not to mention that he already murdered me once,” I say as the nurse returns with a wheelchair and hesitates when she hears that.
She must decide it’s best to pretend she misheard because her smile returns while she hurries over to Mickey’s bed.
I assumed Mickey would be so thrilled by this that he’d ask to take the wheelchair home with us so he can be wheeled for the rest of eternity, but he looks almost put off by it.
“I don’t need a wheelchair because these strapping young men are going to carry me to the car,” Mickey tells her.
The nurse laughs like she thinks Mickey wouldn’t actually ask for this, while I help Mickey into the chair before I’m stuck carrying him somewhere else.
She hurries out the door as I text Kim that we’ll be right out so she can be waiting at the pickup spot.
When I look up from my phone, I freeze when I discover that neither Vero nor Mickey are in front of me. Instead, I find myself in some strange hallway I’ve never seen before, and at the end of it stands Famine.
“Brother, you need to wake up,” she says as she starts walking toward me.
The dark burgundy walls lit by candelabras make it clear that I’m no longer in the hospital.
“I don’t know what you’re hoping to do, but you need to stop before it ends in your death. We don’t want to lose you again, but you are leaving us little choice.”
“He did this to you too, didn’t he?” I ask while I grasp the hourglass tightly. “He took a piece of you and tore you apart.”
She stops walking and stares at me. “You really remember nothing? You are a shell of your former self, aren’t you? I fear your magic will kill you before any god seeking vengeance on you gets a chance again. You are not so weak, so why did you let them kill you?”
“Why do all of you speak in fucking riddles? If you want me to understand something, then talk to me. Tell me why you’re doing this. Why are you destroying so many lives? Is this all for some selfish reason?”
Famine laughs. “You are the selfish one.”
“Me? I’m selfish while saving lives and mopping up the messes from my brothers and sister who are homicidal maniacs?”
“You really wish to know?” she asks. “You want to know why we’ve been reduced to this?”
She gasps and grabs her chest then quickly turns her head before I see the god walking up the steps behind her. He sets a hand on her head, fingers digging into her white hair as I suddenly feel the desire to protect her, but why the hell would I protect that monster?
“Outsiders are not welcome here. You know that,” he says as he looks over at me. “If you don’t stop meddling, I will take everything from you.”
“If you could, I believe you already would have,” I retort. “Yet you hide behind them.”
“Do you really want to test my patience?” he snaps, lunging forward a moment before I’m slammed back, hitting down on my ass on the hospital floor. Vero stands over me, hand held high as my cheek stings.
“Ow, what the fuck?” I demand.
“I told you he didn’t need medical attention,” Vero says, looking like he’s contemplating another smack for good measure.
I feel shaky while I rise and nod at Vero. “Thank you. That was not going to be good at all. Fuck.”
“What happened?” Mickey asks. “You kind of just… stopped. You stopped moving, stopped doing anything. It was really creepy. I was like, ‘Is this actually a horror movie?’ and then Vero just rushed over like it was his time to shine and smacked you with a smile on his face. It’s the happiest I’ve seen him. ”
“Nothing good. I want to get back to Torin,” I say, feeling especially anxious, which isn’t helped by being so far from Torin.
“I don’t like leaving him in that world alone with Famine floating around.
She just… I don’t know how, but she just…
drew me over to their world… where the god was. I don’t know who I can trust—”
Vero grabs my shoulder and jerks me around to face him. “You can trust none of them.”
“I… I know I can’t—”
He looks irritated, but when doesn’t he? “See? You’re already dying to jump over to their side.”
“I’m not. I would never do that. I just… I don’t know why they’re doing this.”
“Because they’re assholes who need to die,” Vero growls.
The nurse looks confused but I wave her off. “We’re with the Magical Interference Unit. It’s fine,” I assure her.
She isn’t reassured.
The ride back to the Door is rather uneventful. I try to insist that Mickey should go to Torin’s palace to recover and I promise him that Vinny could stay with him, but he refuses. He appears very on edge and doesn’t seem interested in separating from me at all.
So when we return, I usher him right over to Lark and Story’s house and make him climb into bed.
He tries to insist on following me, but Story arrives just in time.
He drags a chair over to the bed and begins chatting with Mickey while I slip the walkie-talkie in Mickey’s hand and hurry out to find Torin.
“He’s probably off frolicking with those women who led him off to their store,” Vero says.
“Is this your ploy to seduce me and irritate Torin?” I ask. “All because he tore your blanket?”
“He also threw feathers in my face.”
“Oh nooooo! How horrible! And you killed the love of his life,” I say.
Vero hesitates before clearing his throat. “Mine is significantly worse.”
“For sure,” I agree as I press down on the button. “Torin, where are you?”
It isn’t a second later before the walkie-talkies we both hold say, “Where would you like me to be, and would you like me to be naked? Over.”
“I vote for naked. Over,” Mickey replies before I can even say anything.
“I would like to shave your ugly head,” Vero tells Torin.
Whose idea was it to give anyone these things?
“I see I have startled my mate to silence. Over,” Torin says.
“No, I just haven’t been given an opportunity to speak! Also, you’re the one who didn’t answer the question!” I grumble.
“Oh. Right. Over.” And still he doesn’t answer the question.
I sigh, thumping the walkie-talkie against my forehead in frustration, before it comes back to life.
“I don’t know but I see a mighty fine man strutting down the street. Over,” Torin says.
Vero scoffs before lifting the walkie-talkie to speak. “Riley is not even moving. He’s standing there with a foolish look on his face. Ah, he must be talking about someone else.”
For someone who wants nothing to do with us, Vero sure has joined our walkie-talkie conversations. One would think that he’d have tossed the walkie-talkie into the next block, but he holds it firmly and presses that button as much as Mickey does.
“Damn is he fine. Over,” Torin says.
“Aw, thank you. I thought maybe I looked a little ruffled after being brutally shot and maimed, but I’m glad to know that’s not the case. Over,” Mickey says.
“You look like someone ran you over with a car,” Vero helpfully tosses out. “Last I saw you, your hair was sticking every which way and your eyes were bloodshot.”
“I didn’t know you were examining me so closely. Rawr. Over.”
Vero is now staring at the walkie-talkie like it has betrayed him.
Turning around, I see Torin standing in the street and hurry over to him.
“Mickey is doing well?” he asks.
“He is. He’s pretty shaken up about Tommy and Joy, but we’ve assured him that the effects of the bullet will wear off in a couple of days.”
“Will he even know how to dress himself or put his own clothes on?”
“I’m not quite sure,” I tease. “He already made me dress him once.”
“Should I be jealous?”
I chuckle. “For sure. Any changes here?”
“Nothing worth noting. I’ve mostly just helped clean up the mess. I think both sides are a bit shaken up over it, but I haven’t really engaged with the other side.”
“The only engagement the other side needs is skull crushing,” Vero declares.
Torin stills before reaching out and touching the hourglass. His finger trails down the front of it as Kit glances down to see what he’s looking at.
“Is that a crack?” I ask as my stomach tightens.
“When did this happen?”
“I don’t know.”
“In the hospital before I smacked you. I heard it crack,” Vero says.
“Why did you smack Riley?” Torin growls, his fingers twitching to smack Vero.
“No, it’s okay. He actually helped me,” I say before telling Torin what happened.
He looks thoughtful. “That sounds like the mansion we were in that day I learned you were blind. You know, the first time we came across Conquest. It was like a blend of two worlds inside that building. I wonder if that’s where the god lives. Or if it has some significance in your mind.”
“I really don’t know,” I say, not having realized that since I wasn’t able to see at the time. “I have a… very… uh… wild question for you.”
Torin hesitates. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”
“Well, according to the book that you found on my former body, another person had been afflicted with this curse… a woman. That tells me that it had to have been Famine since the rest of the horsemen are male. The god isn’t allowing her to speak of what happened, but…
what if I find Conquest and ask him? He seemed a bit more… willing to engage with me.”
Torin looks absolutely flabbergasted that I would ask such a ridiculous thing. “I’m sorry… you want to find Conquest?”
“He… obviously had a soft spot for me,” I say as I try not to grimace at the looks Vero and Torin are giving me.
The two have found some common ground, it seems. “Torin… I feel like I’m a mess with the horse in this hourglass.
It’s better. It’s so much better, but it’s far from perfect.
I’m weaker than before all of this started.
Most of my life, my magic was so powerful, and now I feel like I’m constantly wondering whether I’ll hurt myself if I use magic.
How the hell will I ever be able to stop any of the horsemen like this?
I need to find a way to break the hourglass. ”
“We barely made it out of there last time. I have no idea how you think we’ll be able to find Conquest, and just because he didn’t want to kill you doesn’t mean he’d be willing to help you.”
“If his horse is like mine… I have a feeling he’d be willing to help,” I say.
Torin looks conflicted but ultimately shakes his head. “I don’t think we’re capable yet. Just… give me a little more time. I’ll become stronger and we’ll figure something out.”
“Okay,” I say, knowing that I can’t do this unless he’s on my side.
I join in the efforts to clean up, but there isn’t much left to do before we end up back at Story and Lark’s house. I tell Torin, “I tried taking Mickey back to your place to rest, but he didn’t want to go without us.”
“Our place, not mine,” he says. “And yeah, let’s go back for the day. If they need us here, they can send someone to us.”
Once we pick up Mickey, we head through the Door into my world where I shoot a text to Imani, asking if she knows of anyone who could help me get in contact with Conquest. She says she’s uncertain but will get back with me when she does, so we go through the Door into Torin’s realm to wait for her reply.