“Is he okay?” Imani asks.
“I don’t know,” I admit as I lower to the ground so I can rest him on my legs. “I just… I really don’t know.”
And I honestly don’t… I don’t know anything about what just happened. I know that we didn’t save Riley’s horse… because how could he be saved if he’s in here?
I glance down at the hourglass, the sand settled at the bottom. There’s a loop on the top of it, so I unhook the chain on Riley’s pendant and slide the hourglass onto it. I have my doubts the horse will be able to fix him from inside the hourglass… but it’s better than nothing.
Chapter Six
Riley
I groan as I wake up, feeling a bit like I was run over by a truck. But when I roll, I end up sliding into Torin’s arms where I feel extremely comfortable. It really is so nice in his arms. His grip tightens on me when I slowly open my eyes, expecting Kit to be asleep, but instead, she’s staring at me like I’m the most interesting thing to have come from Earth.
And that’s not all. Beyond my face that she’s scrutinizing in detail, I see that Torin is staring at me, and behind him, Mickey is also staring at me.
“Did we have a threesome last night that I don’t remember?” I ask, highly confused.
“I wish,” Mickey mutters. “Instead, you slept like a baby all night long—hell, it’s nearly lunchtime—while the two of us fretted over you.”
Torin raises an eyebrow at Mickey. “Every time I looked at you, you were asleep.”
Mickey shrugs. “Fret sleeping.”
“I had the strangest dream,” I whisper. “You foolishly went through that Door and hauled me across the…”
I trail off. Torin’s and Mickey’s expressions when Kit looks at them are enough to tell me that maybe it wasn’t a dream at all.
“Please tell me it was a dream.”
“Which part? Because if anything seemed to go well in your dream,thatpart was definitely a dream,” Torin says as he sits up. I begin to sit as well, but before I can do anything, he pulls me close to him, like he’s afraid to let me stray too far from him.
Mickey looks annoyed by this and kind of tries to crawl over Torin’s other leg so he can get in on hugging me. “I need to be comforted too.”
“Not withthaton your chest. Make that creepy thing stop staring at me,” Torin says.
“What creepy thing?” Mickey asks, shocked by the accusation. “Are you talking about Toast?”
I look down at the animal attached to his shirt. “Oh my god.”
Torin nods knowingly. “It’s horrifying. I bet he pulled it from the depths of hell,” he says with a shudder.
I hesitate, unsure whether we’re seeing the same thing. “It’s just a little bat, Torin.”
“Bats are long items used to beat things… sometimes asses and sometimes during sex. That is not a bat. You might still be disoriented.”
“No, bat as in an animal. It’s not some… bizarre creature. It’s a literal bat. And it’s adorable. It’s so tiny and cute.”
Torin still looks absolutely disgusted by the cute little thing, but Mickey appears pleased. “Thank you! I think he was someone’s familiar or something because he’s really smart. But he’s mine now that I brought him back from the dead. Well, now that you’re alive and Torin’s done letting me join your spooning to reassure me, I’m headed to bed. Yay for being alive.” He gives me a half-hearted wave of his hands, which is rather confusing, before heading out.
Now I’m worried Mickey’s just going to fall asleep and forget that the small creature is on his shirt, but I guess it’s good that it’s already dead and he can easily bring it back to life if he does.
I turn to Torin, who reaches out and rotates me so my back is to him.
“What are you doing?”
“Not wanting to face you.”
I fight against him for a bit before he eventually loses, and I manage to face him while holding Kit in my arms so we can both glower at him. It’s evidently quite a powerful look since the god seems to deflate in front of me. “Torin, that was so reckless. What if you’d gotten hurt or killed?”
