She raises an eyebrow, probably unsure how this has harmed him. “That does sound concerning.”
“I’ll get you a chair!” Story says before he darts off, leaving Mickey to recognize a new sucker to boss around. He appears pleased by it, but all the while, I can’t stop thinking about Riley.
I glance at Kit as an idea forms in my head. “Kit, is Riley looking through your eyes right now?”
The genet stares at me, and I wonder if she can even understand what I’m saying. But I decide to write a note to Riley anyway and hope that at some point, he’ll look to see what is written.
Chapter Twelve
Riley
I’m yanked forward with such force that I go careening into something. My knees knock into it as I hit the ground, only able to catch myself with one arm since the other is tied to the god who wants me dead.
“Start repairing the wallnow!” the guard snaps, and when the man tied to me doesn’t seem to be listening, they shock him again. It appears to be their only way to control the beast of a man.
“I don’t remember anything,” I say as I’m pulled after the man. He never gives me any warning where he’s going, so I end up being thrown forward again before he begins to drag me across the ground. I try to scramble to my feet only to be wrenched in another direction. “I don’t remember anything. I didn’t even know that I was a horseman until about a week ago.”
The man ignores me and just continues to heft something, although I can’t quite tell what he’s doing.
“Let me help you,” I say, thinking maybe an act of goodwill will get him to listen to me, but when he dumps something intomy hands and the weight of it jerks me down and nearly causes me to drop it, I quickly realize it was a horrible idea.
He yanks my arm forward, and I finally do drop the item, then proceed to trip over it and crash into the very man who wants my head. It must be his final straw since he reaches for my throat again. I had unintentionally ducked away, so when I feel his hand coming, I jerk back. But it’s not like I can go far when he’s tied to me. He tears me forward and punches me in the stomach as I’m pulled in.
“What the fuck was that for?” I choke out.
“Just for existing.”
“Stop being a dick. I don’t know what I did to you. I promise I remember nothing.”
“Knock it off!” the guard shouts, and I feel the man holding on to me begin to shake before he drops to the ground. For people who claim to have forsaken magic, it sure feels like they’re using a magic device to control him, especially since it doesn’t affect me at all.
But the man I’m chained to is relentless. “You monsters killed them!” he screams at me as he falls onto me and is shocked again. I can feel the way it makes his body convulse and tremble. “You are a monster, and I will end your miserable life and the lives of your ‘siblings.’”
His fingernails dig into my cheek where I lie beneath him as he struggles to beat my face in while they shock him again and again, and I feel like a monster. I don’t know whose death I was involved in. I don’t know who I hurt… but I know every one of them must have had a name. A life. A family.
Why was my past self such a horrible person?
They end up dragging the man back to the cell, and since I’m connected to him, I’m dragged after him. And in some cruel form of punishment, they don’t unhook me from him, keeping me bound to him, but he says and does nothing after returning.
Eventually, I quietly say, “I’m here to stop the horseman. We stopped Conquest. I… I didn’t… I didn’t know until he told me who I was. Conquest was planning on destroying my world, but I refused to let him. I don’t know what the god wants who is pulling the strings?—”
“What god?” he asks, finally showing interest in something I have to say.
“I don’t know his name. I just know that when Conquest hesitated as he was about to stab me, the god took his horse and dragged Conquest’s bloody body back through that Door.”
“Now you’re blaming your deeds on others? Are you hoping to gain my sympathy with this little act?”
I hesitate because I’m honestly not sure what I’m hoping to gain with this god. “I guess… I’m just hoping you don’t kill me.”
“Yes, because punching you is going to kill you.” He laughs.
“I don’t know what condition you think I’m in, but I’m not exactly invulnerable over here. Have any of my wounds healed?”
He’s quiet and I can’t tell whether he’s looked me over or not.
With a sigh, I slowly sink down to my knees as someone finally comes in to free me from the man. Once they’re done and I’m left with the silence of the room, I turn my body in the direction I know he’s in. “I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I really am sorry.”
“You’re sorry you were involved in their deaths?”
