Chapter Twenty-Three
Farren
“Why are you surrounded by bodies?” Zev asks.
I shrug, “They aren’t dead.”
“Oh, well that explains everything,” Rival retorts drily, making me smirk.
I launch into the explanation of what happened, including Aldrastos, and how weird that was, because keeping that from them seems wrong.
“Well, that’s strange,” Loki mutters. “Not these fuckers, I sort of expected something like that to happen, but the Headmaster thing.”
I nod, “Yeah. I don’t get a bad vibe off him, but there is something going on.”
Zev’s eyes flash white, and he chuckles, “He thinks you’re hot. You throw him off.”
Reaper nods, “That makes sense.”
“I’m pretty sure that he could see Poca when he was in his office,” I reply.
“Is that why you asked about it over the bondlines?” Kill asks.
I nod, “Yeah. He seemed to hold the door open for him.”
“How strange,” Rival mutters.
“Does he feel familiar to anyone else?” Loki asks.
“What do you mean?” Kill asks.
Loki shrugs, “I don’t know how to explain it properly. He doesn’t feel like a stranger. He definitely doesn’t feel like someone in authority to me. But I know that I have never met him before.”
“I know what you mean,” Rival says. “I thought the same thing. I’m also curious about what kind of supernatural he is. I can’t get a reading on him at all.”
“His magic doesn’t feel like anything that I have encountered before,” Reaper admits.
Storm shakes his head, “Me neither. I’ve met supernaturals from all of the realms. I can’t place it.”
“Which makes him even more intriguing,” Mayhem points out.
“I’m pretty sure he’s a shifter of some kind, like I said, he looked like he was getting ready to shift,” I reply.
“I think we should keep an eye on him. We have no idea if he’s friend or foe, and the fact that none of us have an inkling of what kind of supernatural he may be, other than a shifter, is concerning,” Killian replies with a frown.
“Agreed,” I reply. There’s something not quite right about him, and I would rather figure out if he’s a threat or not now than when he’s trying to take my head off.
“I can’t see him,” Zev frowns. “It’s really strange, I can’t get any sort of flash of intuition now that I’m actually looking for it. That flash that told me he thinks you’re hot, Farren, is pretty much the only thing that I can get, and even then, that was spotty.”
“Well, that’s just even more of a reason to keep an eye on him,” Loki says.
“Come on, we have enough time to drop shit off at the room and hang out for a little bit before we get dinner,” Rival suggests changing the subject.
I pick up my dropped pile of clothes from the floor, deciding to ignore what Zev said because I don’t want to deal with that, and I think it’s more than that. Although I suppose that you can think someone is hot and not like them. Which is what I think is more than likely going on here.
It’s not my problem if he likes me or not.
We all step over the bodies on the floor and head through the hallways to our room.
When we get up to the room, it's to find it completely empty, no Poca, Meri or Oryn.
“The creatures aren’t here,” I point out when Reaper looks at me questioningly, no doubt in response to the fact that I’m frowning.
“I’m sure they’re fine,” he replies with a smile.
I smirk, “I’m sure they are. I just hope that they aren’t up to no good.”
“Would we even know if they were?” Storm asks curiously.
“I guess we’d hear about it if Meri had been spotted, there would probably be full-blown panic,” Loki points out as he crashes down onto the sofa with a thump.
“That’s true,” I reply. “Right, I’m going to go and shower again because I rushed through mine thinking that I would get to food quicker, I didn’t realise the dining hall wasn’t open yet. Plus, I’m now covered in blood from those fucks in the hallway.”
Mayhem chuckles, “Good point. By the time you’re done, it will probably be time to go down to get food anyway.” His smile widens as he pulls me into his arms and kisses me before adding, “Just don’t rush.”
“I’ll try not to,” I reply. Of course, my stomach chooses that moment to growl really loudly. The guys burst out laughing, and I add, “On second thoughts, I’m not going to make any promises.”
The sound of their laughter follows me into my room, where I grab some clothes before I head into the bathroom to shower.
It turns out that when I’m not rushing, I enjoy the shower a lot more, and I feel my whole body relax. It also helps that I know that no one is going to come bursting in here except for the guys, and I wouldn’t mind if one of them came in.
In other words, I feel safe.
Which is a fairly foreign concept to me, and isn’t that just sad?
By the time I get out, I’m feeling a lot more relaxed than I was, and I decide to throw Loki’s jumper back on because it smells like him and I like it. I’m reasonably sure that he’s not going to mind.
I think we need to take advantage of these quiet and stress-free moments as much as we possibly can.
They aren’t going to be around forever. In fact, I know that we’ve got some really stressful things coming up really soon, and luxuries like taking my time in the shower are going to become just that, luxuries.
Hell, if the past is anything to go by, then showers themselves could become luxuries.
I shudder. River baths are not fun. Especially since we’re heading into winter, and knowing our luck, whatever realm we end up in next will follow the same seasonal calendar.
It does make me wonder if that’s the reason why we were brought back here.
Being here has made us slow down. I know this is only the second day that we’ve been back, but we have all relaxed by being here.
Which is kind of ironic considering that everyone else who attends the academy is extremely stressed and definitely isn’t finding it a relaxing place to be.
Compared to where we have been recently though, being here is like being on holiday. We’re safe, warm, and fed regularly. There isn’t really anything to complain about.
“Feel better?” Killian asks as I step out of my room and straight into his arms.
I wrap my arms around his waist and hold onto him tightly, nodding as I do.
Tilting my head up, he smiles down at me as his tail wraps around my waist, pulling me tighter against him. I smile as his lips crash against mine, and my arms wrap around his neck, my fingers threading into his hair and holding firmly.
Our tongues tangle in a familiar way, and I practically melt into him.
I love kissing Kill.
Eventually, someone clears their throat, and the kiss slows, before we pull apart. When I glance over at the others, it's to find that they’re all watching me with heat-filled eyes.
I smirk, “Maybe we should skip dinner?”
Several growls echo around the room, and almost as one, they all take a step toward Kill and me. My thighs clench, and my clit pulses at their heated expressions, and my smile widens.
And then the moment is ruined.
My stomach lets out an almighty grumbling rumble of hunger.
They all stop, all of their expressions softening.
“Come on, let’s get you fed,” Rival says as he reaches out a hand for me and tugs me toward the door.
I pout, “I would rather be naked, and for you to be naked, and the others.”
A groan sounds behind me.
“So would we, but you’re hungry. We haven’t eaten all day, and besides that, you’ll need your energy if you want to play, right?” Storm suggests.
I grumble, “Don’t come at me with logic, I don’t want logic.”
My muttering has the guys all laughing.
When we get to the dining hall, it’s got maybe half of the number of students that it used to have, maybe even less. A few of them look up when we walk in, but for the most part, they ignore us and carry on their conversations.
“It’s a lot more subdued in here than it used to be,” Loki points out with a frown as we go through the line.
“Yeah, I think that’s understandable though. Everyone here would have lost someone they cared about by now. Most likely multiple someone’s,” Reaper adds.
“It’s a harsh reality to be faced with,” Zev replies with sadness as we all take our seats.
We eat in silence for a while. For me, it’s because I’m really hungry, and the academy makes some of the best food that I have ever eaten. For the others, I think they’re observing and seeing who is missing.
The teachers are seated at their giant table at the front of the room like they always were, but even they aren’t behaving as they used to.
All of them look rather sombre, and although there is the odd smile cracked here and there, no one is relaxed anymore, and there are a couple of teachers missing.
They can’t have been lost in the games, I know that, but maybe the old Headmaster let in teachers that weren’t qualified, as well as taking bribes to let students in. Fitz isn’t in here, but from what Tishrel said, he’s gone off the deep end into crazy town.
I’d still like to talk to him, he seemed to know a lot about the games, and I trusted him. He may know why, after so long, we got pulled back here, I mean, technically, we did two levels. At least I think we did.
If I’m being honest, it’s all a big blur. I got kidnapped, tortured, and nearly died in the midst of all that, so I haven’t exactly been keeping track. I’m sure someone is though.
“Did you hear?” Someone at the next table over asks, distracting me from my own confusing thoughts.
My curiosity is immediately piqued. I’m nosey. It’s why I made such a good assassin. You had to do recon before you took someone out, and I love sticking my nose in other people’s business.
“About what?” Someone else replies, sounding as interested as I am.
“Blood Moon Academy finally went back to the Demon Realm. No one really knows why it just up and disappeared,” she replies.
“Oh, well it’s about time. It’s been here for far longer than it should have been. We all sort of figured it was because of the Centres and their Bonded suddenly appearing, and that woman and her Bonded finding them. What was her name?”
“Sage,” she replies. “She’s not like any Centre I ever read about though. She kicked arse. And she grew up in the Earth Realm!”
I smile, I love hearing about people who are underestimated, proving everyone else wrong. I’d quite like to meet Sage one day. I’ve heard a few things about her.
Well, officially meet her. Technically, I have already met her, she was in Monty’s shop when I ‘killed’ him for my father.
I could have sworn she looked straight at me.
She shouldn’t have been able to see me though, since I was in the Void.
Although I guess I was only half cloaked by the Void, not fully in it, meaning I could still see what was going on and position myself better in the room.
Ever since then, I’ve wanted to meet her.
Their conversation quickly moves on, and I lose interest again as I turn my attention to the other people around us and people-watch instead.
“Hey guys, it’s good to have you back,” a slim vampire says as he comes up to the table and takes a seat.
“Hey, Ronny,” Loki greets him with a smile.
They carry on talking for a while, and I simply observe since they’re catching up on people that I have no idea about.
“Rex and Devinir’s teams are the latest ones to go,” Ronny says.
Kill frowns, “No, they aren’t. We saw them outside of the gym a couple of hours ago.”
Ronny smirks, “They’ve literally just been sent packing. Apparently, the Headmaster ripped them a fucking new one. They left his office looking as white as sheets and practically ran from the academy.”
My eyebrows raise.
Before anyone can say anything in response though, the Headmaster walks behind me and stops. I look up at him curiously, just in time to hear him inhale sharply and his jaw clench tightly before he carries on walking stiffly.
“That was weird,” Mayhem mutters.
The others all nod in agreement, apart from Loki, who frowns and leans in closer to me, inhaling.
“Farren, you’re bleeding,” he says, confusion and shock in his expression.
I frown, “I am?”
“Shouldn’t you know if you’re bleeding or not?” Ronny asks, looking as confused as I feel but for an entirely different reason.
I ignore him, mostly because I don’t know how to answer him, and lift up my hands, flipping them over to check for injuries.
When I see the edge of a long slice appear on the underside of my arm, starting at my wrist and disappearing under the sleeve of the shirt that I’m wearing. I realise what’s going on.
“I need to go, now,” I say immediately, urgency riding me hard now that I’ve realised what’s going on.
It’s about to get so much worse.
Without a second of hesitation, they immediately get up and follow me as I weave through the tables, hoping that I can make it back to the room.
“He hasn’t taken his eyes off you,” Kill says.
Zev glances back over his shoulder as we rush out of the doors, “He looks worried.”
“I haven’t been into the Void properly for too long,” I mutter as I pick up the pace. “I’ve hopped in and out of it, but I haven’t stayed for any length of time. Monty said that I had to spend proper time in the Void or this would happen, but it completely slipped my mind.”
I immediately find myself airborne as Reaper picks me up and puts on a burst of speed, heading back to the room.
In theory, I could go into the Void now, but for some reason, my instincts are telling me that I need to be in our room before I go, and I’m going to listen to them.
It would be foolish not to.
We get back to the room in record time, and as soon as we step through the door, I let the Void take me.