“Werewinning, you mean,” Mickey corrects as the winner banner flashes across Mickey’s screen.
I hesitate and then flee the room before Riley can yell at me.
He’s out the door almost as fast as I am, only to find me running down the hallway looking for somewhere to hide from his wrath.
“You shithead! I was winning!” Riley calls.
“I know! I had to! I had no choice, Riley. It was nearly life or death,” I say as I slip down another hallway and then press myself against the wall so that when Riley skids around the corner, he starts past me. I grab him with both arms and tug him back so I can kiss away his anger.
Those lips sure are rigid when I find them. His fiery attitude is conveyed quite clearly on them.
“I refuse to kiss you back,” he states. “I am ashamed of you.”
“I hear no such thing.” I eye him when he holds his hand up, causing a shard of ice to form in the air above it. It seems as though the hourglass has helped his magic stabilize enough that more powerful spells aren’t hurting him like they once did. “What are you doing with that, my sweet dearie?”
His evil look tells me I’m not going to enjoy it as he pulls down the back of my pants and the ice dives inside.
“Fuck, that’s so cold,” I say, doing a little dance to try to get it out. He just smirks and walks off without me.
“My love! Why are you now the one fleeing from me?”
“I am stalking away from my traitorous… friend.”
I gasp. “No! I… I have been downgraded?” I cry. He turns a corner as I finally retrieve the ice and toss it.
“You sure as fuck have. A partner wouldneverhave deceived me like that.”
“But… But I love you and I promise never to use Kit against you again.”
Riley slips outside, and I rush after him but don’t see where he went. He’s disappeared into the foliage of the garden that’s started to bloom and flourish… almost to the point of being out of control with no gardeners here to care for it. It’s almost as beautiful as it was when this place was filled with people.
I spot a flick of Kit’s tail and hurry along the tall hedges that run between us before shoving myself through a break in twohedges and right into his path. He collides with me, and I wrap him up in my arms.
“Oh my, such a handsome fellow has fallen into my embrace.”
His eyebrow quirks. “Such a traitorous man has wrapped his slimy appendages around me!”
“S-Slimy?” I pick him up, wrapping an arm under his ass as I lift him off his feet and into my arms. “Please tell me how I must repent.”
“Hmm…” Riley taps his chin as he seems to think about this. “You must go to all of the theme parks with me.”
“Every single one?” I should have just let him win the forsaken game and would only have had to suffer at one theme park.
“Yes. I also want to go to Renaissance festivals because I want to see you dressed up in your armor.”
“I can wear my armor for you anytime.”
“Fine. You will strut around the palace wearing it with nothing underneath.”
“I’ll make that happen.”
He grins at me before slipping out of my hold, but when he pretends to walk away, I hook his arm and he ends up pressed against my back where he wraps his arms around me. “I want you to take me some place you haven’t shown me before.”
I think for a bit before the perfect place comes to mind. The only problem is that I don’t know whether it’s still a desolate wasteland or life has returned to it. “I can do that,” I say as I hook his legs and lift him up onto my back before I start walking. He drapes his arms over my shoulders and tucks his head against my neck, and I love the feel of it.
“You know I’m not Mickey, right? I don’t need to be carried. I was just hugging you.”
“You must.”
