“NO!” I scream as magic rips through me and the world turns white. Selena shrieks while her hand begins to blacken and she falls back, dropping the sword while she scrambles away from the cavernous hole she’d created as the world shudders again.
Hands wrap around me, squeezing me tight while Torin tucks me into him. “I have you,” he murmurs as I realize we’re falling. I might have saved him from the sword, but I caused what was left of the overhang to collapse, dragging him down with me.
Will Torin die from this height? Have I killed him in my attempt to save him? No… no, he’s a god, he should live… but will I in this state? I wrap Kit up in my arms, uncertain how to fix this mess.
Torin pulls me in close and kisses the top of my head a second before white sand wraps around us, and all of my fear is immediately washed away as we gently land in the bottom of the pit.
He is as shocked as I am while I watch the sand melt back into the crack of the hourglass, but I notice that some grains tumble to the ground.
“I-I was trying to make a Door as we fell, but I have to touch the ground to do it. And… fuck,” Torin whispers. He squeezes me so tightly that I feel like he’s going to crush me.
“Torin, we’re not going to win this fight,” I say.
He stands still for a moment, his expression grave. “No… we’re not. I can feel my power, but it’s so weak… it’s a joke compared to the goddess’s. Hers is built off the fear of her people, and they feel significant fear.”
“But what if we save the people? Will it still count as another world destroyed if we save them, even if the world goes to ruin?”
“I don’t know,” he admits. “But let’s do it. This is her land. She will be strongest here. If she wants to destroy her world, she can with ease. But the people… these people aren’t even the ones who enslaved her. Those people have been dead for years, but her hatred of humans is too strong to see that, and the hundreds of years they’ve feared her is empowering her.”
He makes a Door and pushes me toward it, destroying it the instant we’re through. I find that we’re outside the clinic where Mickey is. Torin already has another Door open before I even turn back to him.
“Everyone go through now!” Torin shouts. “Quill!” Quill appears in front of us and Torin throws me onto his back. “I will open as many Doors as we can guard. We cannot let Selena or Famine through. Can you get Vero and direct people to the Door?”
“Yeah.”
“Please be careful,” he says.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Riley
Quill is already running before I can tell him anything, so I anxiously cling to his back. People are fleeing while the houses and buildings crash to rubble around them, burying those who cannot escape. Thankfully, I see Mickey rushing toward the Door with others before I hurry toward the epicenter, pulling out my walkie-talkie.
“Vero, we’re fleeing to Torin’s world. They have too much power here. We need to retreat,” I yell into it, but I get no answer. Quill races down the street as the cobblestone roads begin to shift and break.
“Get through the Door! There’s a Door down this street, go through it!” I shout at anyone fleeing.
The people are panicked, but I hope they hear me when I beg for them to rush toward the only hope for life they have in this decaying world.
And there in the middle of it, I see Vero still trying to kill Famine. He’s bleeding and weary as he stands in front of her. His power is still so weak after spending so long enslaved in this world. She’s also wounded, but it looks so minimal compared tohim, and I get the distinct feeling that he doesn’t even care if he dies as long as he makes her hurt.
“Vero, come with us. It isn’t time yet. You are too weak to win this fight,” I plead, my voice nearly drowned out by an entire building being swallowed by the hole in the ground that’s expanding by the minute.
Famine rushes him and I realize she has a spear. She tosses sand into the air and then suddenly appears behind him. Vero turns, sensing her, but he’s too late as she drives the spear right through his shoulder, pinning him to a wall that’s barely standing. I try to pull strength from the Death magic, but all I can do is feel it. It’s like I can never choose when to use it. Is it because my powers are so dependent on my horse?
Sensing movement, I turn and see Famine’s horse running to her aid. Quickly, I call forth as much ice as I can. There are at least fifteen shards of it that I send flying at the horse. The horse shies back, but it doesn’t see the ice I formed behind it as well. Famine’s attention snaps to the horse when some of the ice strikes the creature.
And it’s all I need to dash forward on Quill and grab Vero. But there’s no way I’m dragging the god up onto Quill without his help. I can barely stay on this wretched beast myself.
“Vero, why die here and accomplish nothing?” I yell. “You’re really just going to throw your life away to her?”
He snaps out something I can’t hear over the sound of another building collapsing before he tears the spear from his shoulder and swings onto Quill. Vero throws the spear at Selena, but the goddess easily bats it away, stepping in closer to her lover. They stand there and watch us go as Quill races back to the Door that I continue to beg people to flee toward.
When I look behind me, I discover that the road we’ve traveled is disappearing while the crevice in the ground widens. Thankfully, it seems like most of the people have already fledfrom it, but it will destroy the ground this Door stands on shortly. Quill speeds up as buildings topple and one crashes right into the road. I grab Kit tightly to keep her from falling off.
Quill skids to a stop and jerks to the right, nearly throwing me off, and he would have if Vero wasn’t holding me on. He leaps over a pillar as Vero ensures I don’t get left behind while we approach the Door.
“Vero, can you destroy the Door and make a new one?” I ask, hoping to move the Door farther from the destruction.
