“Your plant moved into my path,” Torin says.
Madelyn, who has made even Imani tremble, hesitates while she eyes the situation and sees that her plant is perfectly fine. Honestly, it looks like a weed and seems as resilient as one. Then she smiles.
Hold on… am I not the only one who got a little turned on by this?
“It’s okay,” she says with a beaming smile.
It’s… it’sokay? I brushed a leaf with my pant leg, and I had to hear about how I was playing a role in the demise of plant life and dropping our very earth into global warming, yet it’s fine for Torin to do it?
She slows down to walk beside Torin. “What was your name?”
“Torin, God of War and Love.”
“Of love, you say?”
“And war,” I add.
“Someone’s jealous,” Mickey comments. I turn to him with every intention of causing him mental anguish, I’m just not yet sure how, but he gives me a wide berth as he shuffles his way after the druid who is chatting up the god.
“He’s a god of love. He loves anyone and everyone,” I say.
“Sounds like my high school boyfriend. I just didn’t know about it,” Imani mutters. “Six years! We dated forsixyears, and he slept with every single friend I had.”
Mickey stares at her. “I feel like… you have horrible taste in friends and boyfriends.”
She raises an eyebrow. “Is that why we’re friends?”
“Exactly,” he says.
Madelyn stops. “I feel like the unfamiliar magic is most noticeable right here. But this is where the ley lines converge that run through the city.”
Torin kneels down and touches the ground.
“Do you think this is where he’s going to make the Door?” I ask.
Torin is quiet for a minute, his brow furrowed. “I don’t know the answer to that. I can feel it. But it’s very weak.”
“Like the Door failed?” I ask.
“No… like he’s pulling magic from this world to create the Door. He’s acquired something from this world that has allowed him to create a more solid Door… possibly a permanent one.”
He looks grave, and I can’t help but wonder if he’s thinking about his own world. I hurry up to him and kneel to touch the ground, but I can’t seem to feel it the way he can. “But we know he’s coming. We can stop him before he does anything.”
His eyes watch me closely, his expression giving nothing away, though I can’t help but feel like he’s reliving what happened to him in the past. Does he already think this world is doomed like his was? Does he think he’s going to have to watch every single person die again… and then he’ll be all alone?
“I won’t let that happen.”
Torin raises a brow as we both rise to our feet. “What are you not letting happen?”
I squeeze my gloved hands, realizing that it’s a joke because there’s absolutely nothing I can do. I really should just go home, crawl into bed, and watch the world burn around me.
Fuck.
I never used to be like this. There was a time when I would have done anything to save someone.
And now.
I close my eyes and question what I did to deserve this. Kit, sensing my unease, chews on my ear. I ruffle her ears to tell her that I’m fine.
