“Welcome home, Riley,” the god I have to assume controls the horseman says, and I flee through the Door.
I’m disoriented, but the second I hear the howl of a wolf, I know that I’ve found myself in the right place. I notice that my magic has returned to me, and with a touch to Kit’s forehead, my eyesight comes back.
Chapter Thirty
Riley
I find myself standing in front of the Door, surrounded by dilapidated buildings and hundreds of wolves. They don’t come at me and instead circle around me, snarling and snapping their fangs, but none get close enough to touch me. I’m not quite sure what I’d do if they did since none of my magic seems to affect them, other than the strange magic that I can’t quite manage to control.
The last ones I touched were the beings in the cage, but when I hold my hand out, all I can feel is Mickey’s necromancy magic. I reach out and feel the way the magic entwines within the earth, pulling out any and all dead that I can access. The ground splits as undead crawl out from beneath it before it settles back down and I’m left standing among them, needing to find Torin.
“Kit, can you hear Torin?” I ask, but she doesn’t leap off and lead the way. Instead, she stands up on my shoulder and sniffs the air until her eyes fix on an area to my right. I rush toward it, well aware that I’ll be plunging right into the wolves, but instead of coming after me like they did last time, they flee, scrambling to get away from me. The medallion in my pocket is so hot, I feellike it’s going to burn me, but something inside of me doesn’t want to let it go. Ican’tlet it go for some reason. It’s similar to the urge I feel to go back through that Door.
There are so many wolves that not all of them can escape me, and one slams into me. The wolf jerks away as it trembles, staggering back on large black paws, and then it turns to mist, dispersing and leaving behind a white orb that floats toward me.
I hesitate when I see it and find myself reaching down to pull out the medallion, but when I stick my hand into my pocket, I discover that it’s so hot that it burns me. I yank my hand back, deciding against that. Nervously, I look around, feeling uncertain but knowing I need to find Torin. That’s more important than anything.
The road beneath my feet has cracked, making it hard to run on while I move in the direction that Kit stays focused on until I can hear the sounds of their fight. When I reach Torin and the horseman, I see that they’ve pulled apart, both bloody and holding weapons tightly in their hands as they sit astride their mounts.
Torin looks over at me, but the horseman does as well. His fixation on me unnerves me. He turns his horse toward me, like I’m now more interesting to him than Torin who has put him in this state. Is it because I’m the one who hurt him so badly last time?
Torin and Quill dash in front of me, cutting me off so I can’t get any closer to the horseman.
And the horseman does the very last thing I expect.
He starts laughing.
“You’re going to protect him?” he asks, sounding almost giddy. “You’re really going to protect him? Do you know who he is? I didn’t realize it before—his magic was so locked away that it was nearly impossible to tell—but it’s clear now.”
“Stay away from him,” Torin growls.
Conquest laughs again. There’s blood on his face and his glee makes him look manic. I can tell by the way Torin is holding himself that he’s hurt. “Do you know who he is?”
Torin glances back at me, and I feel like there’s something that he’s caught on to that I haven’t. Turning back to the horseman, he asks, “You think I’m going to abandon him because he’s one of you? He’s nothing like you.”
“No, he’s worse,” Conquest says with a grin. “You’re really going to protect the man who slaughtered everyone you love? Who destroyed your realm? Who killed all those you held dear to you? You want revenge, then take it. He’s right there.”
Torin’s body stiffens as I stand here, confused by what they’re saying. “No. I killed him.”
Conquest smirks. “You think we horsemen can die? We’re the bringers of the apocalypse. We can’t die.”
I feel like I’m drowning in their words and struggling to pull out any useful information from either of them. He’s declaring that I’m… a horseman? And not only that, he’s claiming that I killed all of Torin’s people?
I shake my head. “Torin, he’s just trying to get in your head.”
The horseman is relentless. “You recognize that magic, don’t you, now that he’s getting stronger? It’s the same magic that ravaged your land.”
Torin’s attention is fixed on the man. “He can borrow magic. He’s just…” Torin grits his teeth, but his body is still rigid. He can’t truly believe him, right? He can’t believe that I would do such a horrible thing and take everyone he loved from him. That I would…
Conquest chuckles. “He’s notborrowingmagic. He’s connecting to their souls. He is Death, after all,” he says while his horse paws at the ground.
I shake my head again, refusing to believe the bullshit this man is spouting. “No, he’s lying. Torin, he’s lying.”
The horseman looks at me. “Brother, come home. You’ve been lost and confused, but it’s time for you to come home,” Conquest says as he holds a hand out to me. The wolves circle around me and Torin. They want to usher me back toward that Door… Iwantto go through that Door. I want to?—
But my mind focuses on Torin.
Does Torin believe him? He can’t actually believe him, right?
