Kit rushes over and I see it has a little piece of paper tied to it. Once she’s up on my shoulder inspecting the creature, I pull the paper off and hold it in front of her so I can read it.
I’ve stolen your man and plan to never return him. Haha. JK unless you die. Torin said to trust him and make the jump. If you splat, I’ll revive you. XOXO Lots of love. Your best friend, Mickey.
What the fuck does any of this mean?
The bird takes off, though not before trying to grab Kit like it’s just going to feast on my familiar. I shoo it off as a highly displeased Kit dives into my shirt right before I hear them bang on the hatch that the god is standing on like a statue. I’m not quite sure what he’s planning on accomplishing by standing there. Kit jumps down and rushes over to the edge where I see Torin far below doing something. It only takes me a second to determine that he’s making a Door that’s horizontal to the ground… does he expect me to just jump off the fucking clock tower and through that Door?
There’s no fucking way.
I feel an influx of power as the white magic I’ve come to realize is my Death magic bristles. But if the people trying to get up here don’t have magic… no… I don’t want to hurt more people.
Vero whirls around when a different Door opens, one that’s on top of the clock tower with us. I grab Vero’s hand and jerk him back as a horse and rider step through the Door. The skeletal black horse watches me with dark eyes, and the rider on its back wears a ragged cloak that flutters out behind the rear of the horse. It tosses its head while the rider looks over at me.
“Why are you here?” the horseman asks, and I’m surprised to hear a woman’s voice. Is she the woman shown in the book we’d been referring to? It said there was a woman with my affliction… could it have been her? “What do you hope to accomplish?”
“I’m going to stop you from destroying this world,” I say, which sounds almost silly when I’m standing here looking for a way to flee.
Famine cocks her head as she pulls her hood back so I can see her beautiful face. She looks otherworldly with white hair that falls around flawless tanned skin.
“Brother, I have done nothing but give them the tools. They are the ones who have chosen to pick them up and destroy each other with them.”
“Why are you doing this?” I ask.
Her horse paws impatiently while her brown eyes analyze me. “What choice do we have? Now come home so I don’t have to force you.”
I back up as the guards push through the hatch and begin to file out onto the roof. Their guns are raised but they haven’t shot us yet, making me wonder if they think they can simply talk us down. One shouts, “Put your hands up and get on the ground!”
They ignore the horseman, like they can’t even see her. She just continues to watch while they point guns at us and threaten to shoot.
“We’re going to jump,” I say. “Vero, there’s a Door below. Jump with me.”
Anxiety swirls through me as I question if this really is the best bet. I kind of feel like I’d rather get shot and hauled off without magic for a few days than fall to my death. What if I miss the Door? What if…
“I’m not trusting you,” he growls.
A gun fires and Vero yanks me back as it skims right by my cheek. It very much would have killed me if he hadn’t pulled me back.
“We were instructed not to kill him!” a guard yells.
“He’s a monster. Monsters deserve to die.”
The god looks behind me before he wraps an arm around me and jerks me over the edge with him. My stomach seems to drop out of me, and I squeeze Kit tightly as we begin to fall. The Door is such a small target and we’re freefalling from extremely high up. And when I look down at the spot below, I can’t quite tell whether we’re going to hit the Door or the ground outside of it.
Suddenly the hourglass shakes and the sand spills out, wrapping around me and the god, surrounding me with warmth. The fear in the pit of my stomach is immediately gone. It’s like I’m wrapped in an embrace that assures me that everything is going to be okay. Everything is going to be just fine?—
And then I slam right through the Door and fall straight down into water.
For an instant, I’m so lost in the feeling of being… whole that I don’t realize that I’m going to drown if I don’t start moving.
An arm wraps around me and draws me toward the surface while the sand that surrounded me dissipates, leaving me feeling lost again.
When I break through the surface, I’m pressed against Torin’s wet chest as I see the Door directly above us disappear so no one can follow us.
Torin drags my waterlogged body out onto the shore and wraps me up in his arms. His hold is so tight, I feel like he’s going to crush my ribs, and I have to pat him to ease up.
“You’re going to murder me with love after I barely managed to live through that fall,” I croak out.
“Oh… sorry,” he says as he picks me up and pins me to his chest, face buried in my neck. “I wanted to tear the world apart,but they promised me you’d be safe. I’m so sorry I left you with them for so long. Look at you. Look at your face. I’m going to destroy every last one of them. I’m going to rip them apart for daring to touch you.”
