“Please. I will die without it,” I plead as the tremors tear through my body.
She gives absolutely zero shits. I almost feel like she’s thinking, “Well, I hope he dies, which would solve at least one of my problems.”
“Vero, please tell us you’re willing to work with us, and then we would have the resources to help your friend here,” Onyx says.
“I actually don’t care what happens to him, your great holy bitchiness. Was planning on killing him myself,” my cellmatereplies. At least I have a name to refer to him by… not that he wants me to talk to him.
“I don’t know why you try to reason with this man. Gods are not to be reasoned with. They are to be controlled,” a man with a hoarse voice says.
It makes me wonder if it’s the sickly man I’d seen in my mind earlier and if that means that my hourglass is in this very room. But if it is, I’m surprised I can’t feel it better.
The man clears his throat. “Drag him to the fountain. Chain him down and leave him there until I permit him to rise again.”
“You will regret fucking with me,” Vero yells.
“What do I have to fear from a broken god? You can’t even fight against us. You are nothing,” the man says before he laughs, but it throws him into a coughing fit.
I can hear Vero being dragged past me while he fights against them. Someone ends up slamming into me, and I fall away from them. I use the distraction to try to move forward, but someone grabs my arms and jerks me back as I hear the splash of water. They’re shouting and fighting, and I really wish I could see what’s going on.
And then suddenly, all is still.
“W-What are you doing?” I ask, not quite sure what happened to Vero. Did they just chain him beneath the water to drown him?
“No need to be frightened,” Onyx says, as if soothing me with her voice will be enough to make up for whatever is happening around me. “He is not a good man. But don’t fret, he’s a god, so he won’t die. It’s just a place for him to cool his head.”
“You’re drowning him? You think that’s a place to cool your head?” I ask incredulously.
“He is a god. It won’t bother him.”
Yes, but it seems like he’s a god drained of power like Torin is. No, it won’t kill him, but it’ll make him feel like he’sdying over and over again, especially while in the weakened, humanlike state he’s found himself in.
“Riley, was it? I’d like to introduce you to my father,” Onyx says. “This is my father Flint. He’s very excited to hear about your world.”
I’m not sure what to say. Do I tell them it’s a magnificent world with powerful people in the hope of keeping her out of it, or do I lie and tell them it’s a weak world that’s falling to ruin like theirs so they have no interest in it? Nothing good would come of it. These people are monsters and that’s blatantly clear.
Thankfully, I don’t have to think up anything or try out my acting skills, because I’m hit with another attack as I wince while feeling lightheaded.
“I really need the hourglass,” I beg.
“I’m sorry, but it was already destroyed,” Onyx says, sounding devastated. “We don’t allow any magical devices inside the capital. It was destroyed the second it left your person. I’m so sorry. We have doctors here who can help you.”
Someone reaches for me. I try to shove them back, but I can’t get them off me as I wonder where the water is that they’ve thrown Vero into. It didn’t sound too far from here, but I doubt they’d stand back and let me retrieve him.
“Take him away. Have someone reopen the Door and send five scouts through. I want to know everything about their world,” Flint orders in his raspy voice.
“You will not be welcome there,” I snap.
It looks like this realm is doing a splendid job of destroying itself without the horseman even present. But I definitely don’t want these people anywhere near my world.
“We don’t have to be welcome,” he says with a laugh. “What naive thinking.”
“Father, let me handle this,” Onyx says. “Come along, Riley. Let’s see what we can do to help you.”
I’m pulled after her and into a room where I sit, blind to my surroundings as I listen to whispered voices outside the door and wait for someone to enter. But after a long while, I begin to question if anyone is even coming back for me, and I switch to Kit’s eyes to check on what the others are doing.
I see that they’re somewhere dark, and I can’t hear what they’re saying, but Kit randomly glances over at something. It takes me a moment to realize it’s a note Torin wrote in Shaarunen.
I want to come retrieve you now but am being told that it’s unsafe and I should wait until the attack on the capital. I don’t think I can wait that long. I will play along with their demands until I figure out where you are and then I’m busting you out. I promise everything will be okay. I’ll keep you safe. You mean the world to me. And I love you with my whole heart.
