“Why are you so weak?” he asks. “You need air. You feel human. How have you been reduced so far to this? And can we do it to the others? Fascinating. If I didn’t recognize your magic, I never would have even realized you were a horseman with this fragile body of yours.”
And then he grabs my wrist anddragsme up the stairs for a while. I wouldn’t say it’s helpful, but at least I have some momentum pulling me up.
“I will tear them apart piece by piece and weaken them to this state, and then I will peel their skin from their flesh.”
“Oh, that’s fun. What are you planning on doing with their flesh then?”
“I will hang their flesh as a warning to the other horsemen so they’ll know I’m coming for them,” he declares.
“Gruesome. Bet that’ll start to smell quickly.”
“I’m going to test it out on you if you don’t shut up.”
“Fun,” I say as I finally see the top. I’m dying by now, but the god is pulling me along without a care in the world. I’m like eighty percent sure he intends to toss me off and see if I’ll splat, but the other twenty percent has me hoping Vero has a plan when we reach the top. He sees a ladder and I discover that this isn’t the end of it, nope. We’re going up to the roof of the clock tower, so up the ladder we go until we reach the hatch which he opens and climbs out. I barely manage to drag my exhausted and trembling body through the hatch before I collapse.
“Are you throwing me off now?” I ask.
“Do you want me to throw you off? Because I’d be happy to oblige.”
“Not really,” I say as I push my wobbly body up onto my even wobblier legs. Then I walk over and grab his shirt, not really wanting to fuck up the one I’m wearing, and try to tear it. I manage to do absolutely nothing but wrinkle and stretch out the side of his shirt.
“What the fuck are you doing? What is this move?”
“I’m trying to rip your shirt.”
“You are trying to have sex with me? We are mortal enemies! I will not have hate sex with you, even if you are irritatingly attractive in your new body…” His eyes narrow like he’s now thinking that there may be a possibility.
“Dammit, no, I’m trying to get some cloth to bandage up your wrists.”
“Your kindness disgusts me. I would never have sex with you.”
I gawk at him as I decide that my ability to understand gods is nearly nonexistent. Annoyed, I just tug at his shirt until he pities me enough to rip off the bottom of it for me.
“I don’t need medical attention. I’m a god.”
“Yes, a god who is currently bleeding everywhere. Do you have a plan now that we’re up here?” I ask.
He stoically stands on top of the hatch while I attempt to swiftly tie the makeshift bandages around his wrists. My tremors are letting up now that the hourglass is back, but they’re still present. The god just stares at my hands the entire time as I finish up.
Then Kit hops off my shoulder and gallops the perimeter, looking for something to help us. There’s next to nothing, but she still runs around looking for any way down. But aren’t the stairs we just came up the only way down?
“Vero, was it? What percentage would you give for our chances of success at dealing with all of them?”
“I will crush all of their skulls,” he claims.
“Realistically, what percentage?”
“Two,” he says, which sounds significantly different from the “all” he’d stated. “Their guns shoot bullets that immediately immobilize any magic in your body. It takes days to recover.”
“Even for a god?”
“Even for a god,” Vero confirms.
“So your powers right now are nonexistent?” I guess.
“Correct.”
Kit cocks her head and I know she hears them coming, but then she hesitates and hurries to the edge of the tower right before a bird flies up and lands on my shoulder. It’s a large hawk that I quickly realize is undead, likely made by Mickey.
