“I am. I know everything that happens in my realm. I guarantee that I would know if there was a horseman frolicking about destroying my world. Do not cause unrest. If you do, we will be forced to remove you.”
“She means execute,” the man I’d tripped over says. “She tries to use flowery words to cover up her malicious deeds.”
“Don’t listen to his prattle. You are safe here until you prove yourself unworthy to be kept safe. Do you understand?”
“I do,” I mutter.
“Good,” she says, and the cell door slams shut, locking me inside.
I call out, “Can I please have the handcuffs removed? It’s really hard to walk when I can’t feel my way.” I hate that I have to share my vulnerabilities with these people, but I know that I need every advantage I can get.
She’s quiet and I wonder if she’s already left and I missed it, but then I hear the door reopen and the handcuffs are removed before they leave me alone again.
For a long moment, long after their footsteps fade, I stand still while my mind runs away without me. Luck really joined me this time.
I’m struggling to decide what to do, since I don’t feel like I can do much in this state.
“Why are you in here?” I eventually ask.
The man is silent, and I have no way to know whether he’s deliberately ignoring me or there’s a reason he can’t hear me.
“Why are you in here?” I repeat.
“The better question is why are you here, Mr. Horseman?”
I still, dread washing through me as his words hit me.
I hear the sound of chains when the man rises up, telling me he’s bound for some reason. His footsteps draw closer to me while I stand here, not quite sure I want this man anywhere near me now that I’m aware he knows who I am, but if I back up, he’ll think he has the upper hand.
A hand suddenly wraps around my throat before I’m lifted right off my feet and slammed into the wall where he pins me, unable to even touch the floor. I guess those chains aren’t keeping his hands bound since he seems to be able to freely choke me as he wishes.
“I might be stripped of my godly powers in this wretched place, but I will happily die if it means killing you,” he growls. “I will kill you again and again, no matter how many timesyou come back into my life. I will rip you apart and make you regret ever setting foot anywhere near me with your wretched ‘siblings.’”
I grab his arm, but the man seems to be as strong as Torin or maybe stronger, and I can feel his muscles bunch beneath my hand. He’s cut off my ability to speak, so I can’t even deny his allegations, but who knows what I did to this man—who’s apparently a god—in the past. Who knows if he’s innocent and I’m the monster. While my lightheadedness increases, I reach out for his eyes, hoping that would at least make him release me. Before I can dig into them, he throws me hard and I slam against the floor on my shoulder as I hear him coming for me. A quick intake of air leaves me coughing, but I know I have no time to recover. I scramble up to my feet and try to put some distance between us before I crash into the far wall, making me realize my prison with a madman who wants to kill me is much smaller than I anticipated.
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I choke out. “I don’t remember anything?—”
He’s on me again, and this time, he punches me right in the face so hard it makes my head spin. I kick him in what I believe is his abdomen, hoping to push him back, but he doesn’t even flinch.
“Knock it off!” someone yells, and then suddenly my attacker starts shaking before he lets out a low growl and falls away from me. I can’t see what happened to him to cause him to react that way. I can only stand here, breathing heavily as I hear him collapse to the floor.
“If you two have so much fucking energy, you can clean up the newest fucking mess those parasites made,” the guard snarls. “Up against the bars!”
My cellmate curses at me while he stands, but he must make his way over to the bars because the next thing I know, I’m being dragged over to join him.
Another voice says, “They said this one is blind. Just leave him in here.”
“Nah, he could use some fresh air. His buddy here can guide him,” the first man responds as I feel something snap around my wrist before I’m jerked forward, making me realize that they’ve tied me to the man who wants to kill me.
How fun is this?
Chapter Eleven
Torin
“Please calm down,” Story says, having awoken as soon as we returned to his world. His color has returned, and his breathing and heartbeat seem to have steadied as well.
“I’m not going to fucking calm down until someone tells me where Riley is,” I growl.
