She simply says, “I see,” and with that, I’m pulled away.
I’m shoved forward and then hear something metal slam shut behind me. Disoriented, I stand for a moment before switching to Kit’s vision. Without the pendant, I can still use the magic that allows me to see through her eyes, but if there is ever a disruption in my magic, I need the pendant to reconnect us.
It looks like Torin has the Door fixed, and I get to watch while they push through it. I want to scream at them to turn around, to get away before someone takes them too, but I can’t communicate with them through Kit.
I can’t tell them that it’s likely a trap.
But the instant they step through, someone wrapped in a cloak dashes forward and grabs Mickey as Torin follows while carrying Story. The person pulls them into the darkness of an alley just as I see people in black uniforms rush forward to see how the Door they’d destroyed is active again.
Torin seems reluctant to follow the person directing them, but it doesn’t really look like he’s given much choice since the newcomer swiftly hides them from the people I have to assume are the ones who took me.
I turn my attention back to my own predicament as I move slowly around my space. With my shoulder, I can feel the bars that make up the door before turning around. Slowly, I inch forward until I slam into something I wasn’t expecting and go careening over it. I hit hard on my chest, having been unable to catch myself with the damn handcuffs.
When I land, I discover that what is beneath me is a person.
“You could have told me I was going to trip over you,” I grouse at the person who I’d tripped over.
At least it feels like a person, but when they make no reply, I hesitate. I push myself back on my ass and slowly inch forward. I have to tilt my body to the side to even use my hands to feel whatever it is I fell over. When I reach out, I feel flesh beneathmy hand and halt as I question if I’ve been tossed in the cell with a dead man.
I carefully slide my hand up the leg, checking for some semblance of life, and if there is some, maybe they can help me if I help them in return. My hand tentatively slides up higher.
“Are you just going to fucking sit there and grope me?” a deep masculine voice asks.
I freeze and slowly retract my hand. “Maybe if you’d saidanythingwhen I fell over you, I would have known you were alive! I thought you were dead!”
“So you’re into necrophilia. I see.”
“You see nothing! I’m not into necrophilia! I was going to help you—you could have said something!”
The man just grunts, but boy does that grunt tell me how disgusted he is to have to deal with me and that I’ve just become the biggest inconvenience in his life.
“Don’t fuck dead people.” He says this as though it’s some sage advice. Like I was over here eagerly hoping he was dead.
“I’m not fucking dead people!” I shout as I hear the cell door open.
“This is… most interesting,” the woman with the soothing voice who they called Onyx comments.
“I don’t… it was a misunderstanding,” I say.
“Why did you put the new arrival in the cell with him?” Onyx asks.
“Because it was either him or the guy who snapped his cellmate’s neck last week,” the guard answers. “The rest of the cells are filled with the branded.”
“I see,” she says, quite casually, I might add. I almost feel like she wishes I was in the other cell… the one with the neck cracker. “Why are you in my realm, Doorjumper?”
“Our realm was recently attacked by one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. I am a special agent with”—better not mention any magic—“the police. Our job was to stop the horseman, but after an in-depth investigation, we have concluded that there is a god working behind the four horsemen who is orchestrating the destruction of four realms. We know for sure they’ve already succeeded once and failed once. We don’t know whether your world will be the third they’ve targeted or the fourth.”
“So you knew we’d be next and came here to inform us of this?” she asks.
“I did.”
“And they sent a blind man.”
The words immediately irk me, like she thinks I’m less because of this. Even without Kit, I am capable of plenty. But I don’t want to piss her off, so I grit my teeth, pretend it doesn’t bother me, and continue. “I was planning to come with others, but when your people destroyed the Door, the rest were left behind,” I say coolly.
“I see,” she replies. “But you are mistaken. There is no horseman invading our lands. There is no monster. I’m not sure who told you these tales, but we live in harmony, and you’ve invaded our lands with a ‘curse’ and magical items that are not permitted.”
“Are you the leader?” I ask.
