“It’s going to be okay,” I say, my fingers tracing down his back, trying to soothe him.
“Maybe today it is, but someday soon it won’t be,” he whispers.
“No, we’ll stop it. We’ll figure out what this is.”
“That book has gotten us nowhere. Mickey told me he can’t figure out what the curse has to do with any of this.”
“No… but we know that it connects to the Doors and the horsemen… or maybe the god beyond the Door. We know more than you did before you met me.”
Riley nods but doesn’t appear overly confident about any of that. It makes me unhappy that he’s upset.
“Mickey wanted to know when you woke up.”
“Kit, can you go to Mickey?” Riley asks. He reaches over and writes “I’m alive, don’t bother wasting energy getting out of bed” on a note and hands it to Kit. She takes it in her mouth and gallops off. “I have a bad feeling about all of this.”
“I want to keep you here. Keep you safe,” I admit.
He lifts his arm. “This proves I’m not safe from it even here.”
And I know that’s true. I’d originally hoped that even if his world fell to ruin, I could shield him here. I tell him, “It’s why I thought the Door might have opened here.”
“Did you check the spot where it opened previously?”
“No, but Quill did… I’ll check it more thoroughly once I feel safe leaving you.”
“We can go together.”
“You’d have to ride.”
Riley cringes but nods. “I’ll be fine. Let’s go. Should I borrow Mickey’s necromancy to pull up a horse or something?”
“Quill can handle us both.”
He grimaces at that. “Quill hates me.”
“He loves you.”
“I don’t think he does,” Riley says as he starts to pull from my arms, but I lock him in tight. He tips his head back. “We can accomplish nothing in this bed.”
“We can accomplish,and have accomplished, a whole lot in this bed.”
Riley grins at me and gives me a soft peck before slipping free. “Guide me to the bathroom so I don’t take myself out on the doorframe.”
I jump out of bed and scoop him up.
“I meant lead me! I’m not Mickey!”
“Ah, right,” I say, setting him down. I lean down a bit and wrap my body around him, chest against his back, dick against his ass while I walk him into the bathroom.
“This has to be the strangest way to guide someone.”
“Sexiest,” I assure him as I place a kiss on his cheek. By the time he’s finished in the bathroom and I’ve dressed him, Kit has returned with the note. She doesn’t wait for Riley to pick her up, just begins scaling him.
“Ow, Kit, dammit,” he curses.
“Kit was really anxious about you.”
He kisses her head and scratches under her chin. “I’m sorry I made you worry… but I’m still not sure I deserved to bleed over it,” he says as he looks down at his clothes now sporting little nail holes. He opens the note and looks at it.
