Chapter Seventeen
Farren
None of them seem entirely convinced that I do actually have this, but there’s no time for me to try to explain it more because Revel comes charging toward me.
I brace myself, stepping to the side at the last moment and using a boost of my magic to help me grab onto him and swing myself up onto his back. He doesn’t slow down in the slightest as he somehow manages to pick up more speed, and we race through the huge paddock, the other horses joining us.
I hold on as he jumps through one of the fires that he’s created, and when he’s cleared it, I try to pull the air from it so that it will go out. I don’t know how he’s done it, but somehow he’s managed to stop my magic from stopping the fires.
Sneaky fucker.
I have absolutely no idea when he learned how to do that. I do, however, know that he shouldn’t be able to do it. Like Khaos said, it’s not normal. He shouldn’t be able to do magic at all, but that has never really stopped him.
“Smart, Revel,” I compliment him as he sends us soaring over yet another fire. “I assume that you know how to put them out?”
Still galloping, he somehow manages to glance back at me and snap his wickedly sharp teeth. He simultaneously sends me feelings, which are roughly translated as a shrug.
“Seriously? You don’t know?”
He huffs and sends me images of the years that I’ve abandoned him for, and again tries to make out that they treated him really badly while I was gone.
I roll my eyes, “I know for a fact that they have been treating you well, just like last time, despite the fact that you are being extremely difficult for them.” My eyes widen slightly, “Serious question, how long have I been gone for?”
He sends me the image of years again.
“Revel,” I warn. “I need a serious answer.”
Huffing again like the sassy shit he is, he gallops through a bush that has me spluttering and spitting out leaves, as he lets out what can only be described as a snort of amusement.
“Seriously, Revel, it’s important. How long have I been gone for this time?”
He slows down a bit and sends me an image. What’s surprising is that he’s got the length of time exactly right. The time that we have actually been gone for, and not the time that everyone else seems to think that we’ve been gone for.
“Thanks, buddy,” I say, patting his neck as he finally slows down to a walk.
“I’m really sorry I left you for so long.
I didn’t mean to, and I would have taken you with me if I could have.
Although on second thoughts, with the shit that happened, I am glad that you weren’t with me, and were safe here instead. I missed you.”
He snickers quietly in agreement, sending the same feeling back to me. He then sends a picture of me doing the whistle for him.
“I would have if I could, but you know there are places that you wouldn’t have been able to get to me.”
He stomps his foot angrily and then rears up. His thoughts becoming insistent that the next time I call him. I shrug, it really won’t make much of a difference to me.
“Okay, okay. Chill out. I promise that if I go again, I will call for you if it’s appropriate, okay?”
He huffs and settles back down.
I steer him back toward the guys who are all grinning. Even the stablemaster has a smile on his face.
When we get within hearing distance, Kill points to his hair and smirks as he says, “You’ve got a bit of bush in your hair.”
I flip him off, “Thanks, Kill. As helpful as always.”
“He’s calmed down a lot already,” the stablemaster says, and then his eyes widen as the rest of the horses, who were running wild, head back into the barn and to their stables. “Well, I’ll be, I had better go and supervise that.”
Once he’s gone, and I’ve checked that no one else is in earshot, I turn back to the guys, “Revel knows how long we were really gone for.”
“Well, that would explain why he was so pissed,” Storm replies immediately.
“It’s interesting that he knows though,” Rival mutters thoughtfully, his brain clearly going a mile a minute.
“Do you think you could convince him to put the fires out?” Mayhem asks, as the blazes roar and start to take over more of the paddock.
I roll my eyes, “He doesn’t know how, and the usual way that I put them out, he’s learnt about and has somehow managed to block.”
“Damn,” Loki mutters, sounding impressed. “He is definitely not a normal Fae Horse.”
It is pretty impressive, but it’s going to become a big problem if we don’t manage to do something about it soon.
Reaper’s eyebrows rise slightly as he smirks and says, “Clever horse.”
Without saying anything else, his eyes shift to Ryu’s.
“Hello, Little Mate. Ryu help,” his voice rumbles through my mind for the first time in what feels like forever, and I grin.
“Ryu, I missed you,” I mutter back.
“Good,” he replies gruffly.
Reaper chuckles, “He’s definitely got a way with words.”
“Ryu’s talking to you, I presume?” Storm asks with a pleased smile.
I nod, “Yeah, it’s the first time I’ve heard him since before I got kidnapped.”
“What’s the plan, Reaper and Ryu?” Zev asks. “I assume that you have one since you’re both here.”
Reaper grins, his eyes those of his Dragon and nods.
Of course, it’s Reaper, so he doesn’t give us any more information than that. Holding out one of his huge hands, my mouth drops open in shock. One by one, the fires that Revel set lift into the air and move toward Reaper’s hand, as he seems to just absorb the magic.
“Whoa,” Loki mutters, “I had no idea that you could do that.”
Reaper frowns slightly as he absorbs the last fire, “I think that there are probably a lot of things that I don’t know that I can do because I’ve had Ryu locked down for so long. I haven’t actually had access to a portion of my magic.”
“That makes a lot of sense,” Rival nods. “Ryu is a big part of your magic, and you’ve only been using small amounts of it while you’ve had him on lockdown.”
“It's also extremely impressive because you were fucking strong before and now you’ve got access to even more power,” Mayhem adds, making a good point.
“Hades said that you were an Alpha. We know fuck all when it comes to Dragons, so we have no idea what that could entail,” Kill points out.
Reaper nods, “Yes, that’s true.”
“Let’s head back to the room. We’re gathering quite a crowd,” I say as my eyes scan the people pretending that they aren’t watching, and Revel moves uneasily underneath me, sensing how uncomfortable I am.
“Good idea,” Mayhem agrees, his eyes narrowing slightly as he looks at the people watching us closely.
I quickly put Revel back in his stall, promising that I will come back soon and making him promise that he’s not going to maim anyone in my absence.
After another apology to the stablemaster, we all head out.
Somehow, there are more people out here now than there were a moment ago, and I really miss the emptiness of the hallways before, that had to have been a coincidence because there doesn’t appear to be a shortage of people now.
We’re nearly back to the castle when someone who I vaguely recognise from talking to the guys before runs up to us.
“Storm, we thought you guys were goners for sure,” the guy says, as he and Storm do this weird handshake thing.
“Tishrel, it was definitely touch and go for a bit,” Storm replies with an easy smile.
The guy's expression clouds, “Not many teams have come back.”
We all stiffen.
“How many have been lost?” Kill asks, his voice sombre.
Tishrel looks at him slightly nervously, and I have to remind myself of the reputation that he has.
That they all have actually.
“Including you, only three teams have made it back,” he replies.
“What?” Loki barks. “That would mean that over one hundred teams were lost?”
Tishrel nods sadly, “Yes.”
“That would explain why the hallways were so quiet, there are barely any students left,” I mutter, horrified. “Are any new teams getting called?”
He looks at me and hesitates slightly, seeming surprised by something, although I can’t put my finger on what it is.
“No,” he replies shortly.
“I know that the team that wins gets gifts and all that, but I thought that so long as the teams passed the levels, then they didn’t die and got privileges and called upon if the realm needed them?” I ask.
“That’s what we all thought. The Games aren’t behaving like they usually do, and no one can tell us why,” Tishrel replies.
“Maybe we should talk to Fitz?” Zev suggests. “He seemed to know a lot and was actually willing to tell us before.”
Tishrel scoffs, “Good luck getting him to talk. All he does now is mutter to himself, flick through books, and shout at you if you try to talk to him.”
“Well, that sounds promising,” Mayhem says sarcastically.
“The new Headmaster seems to be leaving him to it, even though Fitz hasn’t turned up for any of his classes for a while now,” he says with a frown.
I had almost completely forgotten about all of that, despite the fact that Kill mentioned it earlier.
We were the ones responsible for getting rid of the last Headmaster because he was trying to kill us, and Rival has awesome connections.
He suggested that Magnus would make a good replacement, but since I saw him in the Underworld, it’s obviously not him.
Pain pierces me, and I violently push it away.
Nope, not dealing with that right now.
“Who is the new Headmaster?” Reaper asks.
Tishrel shrugs, “He’s an obscurity, no one knows where he’s come from.
He’s not a known name, he’s not linked to the King, or any royalty or nobles.
I like that, a lot of us like that. He treats everyone the same, no matter where you come from, and if you don’t have what it takes to pass the classes and aren’t willing to put in the work to do so, he kicks you out,” he smirks.
“It’s actually another reason why the numbers in the school are so low. ”
“Oh wow,” Rival mutters. “I never thought that I would see the day when the school was actually run like it was supposed to be.”
Tishrel nods, “Yeah, it’s stirred some shit up that’s for fucking sure. He’s made enemies.”
“What’s he called?” Storm asks curiously. “Maybe one of us has heard of him?”
“Aldrastos Orion,” he replies.
Storm shakes his head and then looks at the rest of us to see if any of us recognise the name, and we all shake our heads.
It’s not exactly a name that you would easily forget.
I don’t recognise the name, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t recognise the person.
I am really bad at remembering names, unless they are the names of those that my father sent me after.
Those are seared into my mind. Under normal circumstances though, I never remember names, but faces have a way of sticking with me.
“I think we should go and introduce ourselves to him,” Storm suggests. He looks back at Tishrel, “Thanks, mate.”
“No problem,” Tishrel says as he bypasses us and heads toward the stables.
“The new Headmaster sounds interesting,” Loki starts, a gleam in his eye that says he wants to check him out and see if he lives up to Tishrel’s description of him.
Before I can reply, two of the girls who were all over Storm when he was still being pissy with me interrupt us, making us stop again. They both sneer and look at me like I’m dirt on their shoe, which makes me smirk and finger wave at them, making Loki snort.
“Move,” Storm orders roughly.
The words and his demeanour are a complete contrast to how he was behaving with them before, and that tiny niggle of doubt that had started to bloom dies immediately. Making me smile.
The woman giggles and then reaches out her hand to touch his chest.
My amusement disappears, and within a split second, I’ve stepped into the Void and appeared behind her. One of my favourite blades to her throat, and my hand in her hair, pulling her head back roughly and giving me better access to slit her throat, if I want to.
I haven’t quite decided yet whether I’m going to spill her blood or not, it quite honestly depends on her.
Storm’s eyes widen.
Kill chuckles, looking incredibly proud and turned on, “There’s my girl.”
I blow him a kiss, because I can. Although it probably looks weird because I can’t take my hands off the bitch who tried to touch Storm. Well I could, but I don’t want to.