Torin’s expression tells me all that I need to know, and I stagger back.
“Torin, I wouldn’t. He’s just getting in your head,” I say, but my voice comes out sounding so pleading.
“Brother, do you think the magic lies? Do you think this god doesn’t remember the very magic that destroyed his realm and nearly took his life? Come home, Brother. Come back to where you belong. You don’t belong here among these parasites. Come home.”
My mind is reeling, and the wolves are closing in on me. I feel like I can’t breathe while my world crashes around me, and I try to fight off the words the horseman is shouting just to fuck with us. To weaken us. To make us fail.
But some part of me can’t. I can’t push those thoughts away with this magic rippling around me and the Door calling to me—or, more precisely, whatever lies beyond it. It’s as though I left a part of myself through that Door.
Breathing is becoming more difficult as I step back, unable to handle the way Torin won’t look at me. My chest hurts, and when a wolf gets close, I shove it back from me. It turns to mist before a second white orb joins the first that still floats around me.
“That’s it, Brother. Let’s go home,” Conquest says.
Torin’s head snaps around like he’s afraid I’m just going to throw myself at that Door. He rushes toward me, and Quill cutsme off from the Door while Torin tries to cut away the wolves surrounding me.
My hands land on the cool scales that run down Quill’s neck. “Torin, I didn’t… I’m not… he’s just fucking with you.”
“He knows I’m not,” Conquest says before charging Torin, who already looks so worn down. Yes, he’s gained some strength since I first met him, but he’s still not strong enough. Anxiety wells up inside me, and I lunge in front of Quill.
Conquest yanks hard on the reins connected to the white horse, and it jerks back just before it would’ve slammed into me. His expression hardens. “If you enjoy the god’s company so much, you may take him back with us. You can enjoy him as you please.”
“And let you destroy my world?” I ask.
“Your world? Your world is with us, not them.”
“Why are you doing this?”
His horse throws its head while Conquest watches me closely. “You really remember nothing? This is your fate, little brother. This is what you must do. You have no choice. Now go home. If it so pleases you, take the little humans you enjoy home with you. They are not all needed.”
“Riley,” Torin says, but nothing follows it. I don’t know what to do, and I feel like everything is spiraling out of control.
I don’t want to believe anything this asshole is saying, but how can I not start to question it?
“I didn’t do it,” I whisper, begging Torin to believe me.
“Riley, we have to stop him. Please, stay focused.”
I glance at him and he nods at me.
Torin looks over at Conquest, who appears to be contemplating how to get through me to Torin, before turning back to me. “My power is so weak right now that I’m not certain I can stop him. But in all of the lore and all of the books, the strongest of the horsemen is Death.”
“I’m not Death,” I protest as I shake my head. “I’m not?—”
“Do you want to save these people? Then use the power for something good,” Torin says.
Conquest laughs. “He can’t even control his power in this state. He’s weak and doesn’t have his horse. Without his horse, he is filled with uncontrollable power. And that power will grow and grow until it consumes him if he doesn’t come with me. So go through the Door. Go to your destiny, Brother.”
I feel a hand in my hair, and I turn my attention to Torin. “You can do this,” he tells me.
“I’m not sure I can. I’m being told that I’m a monster who killed everyone you love, that I’m the one who ruined your world and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of innocent people.”
“Everyone here is counting on you,” Torin says, voice steady. “I can distract him, but you have to stop him. Let’s focus.”
I give him a nod, having absolutely no idea how I’m expected to focus, no clue how he expects me to doanythingagainst this man who calls me his brother.
Torin swings the chain that’s connected to his scythe as Quill charges forward, and I realize that I have no fucking plan.
One of the orbs bounces into me, and I reach out and touch it. Can I make my own wolves? Can I make something to fight with me?
