Chapter Five
Farren
“Yes,” Zev replies.
“Is it wise to simply walk through the gate?” Reaper asks. “I would think that he’s got quite a few spells guarding it, especially if he’s got things in here that have such powerful spells in them.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” I frown. “He didn’t say that there were spells guarding it. He gave us a lot of information. Surely he wouldn’t have left that out.”
“I wouldn’t have thought so,” Khaos agrees, although he looks at the gate suspiciously.
“I’ll go first,” Aldrastos says, and before any of us can stop him, he simply walks through the gate.
Nothing happens, and I rush after him.
“Oi,” I exclaim, grabbing his arm and making him turn to look at me in surprise.
“What?”
“You got pissed at me because you thought I put myself in danger, and yet you do the same thing. You could have been hurt! Ignatius is fucking strong, and if he had put spells on this place, they would have easily killed you. If you had waited for a fucking second, I could have checked with my magic.” I smack his arm again.
“Don’t play with your fucking life like that, got it? ”
He stares at me.
I’m aware that I may have slightly lost my shit then, but for some fucking reason, I care about Aldrastos, and besides, you would have to be pretty fucking heartless if you didn’t care about someone dying in front of you.
Some sort of emotion flashes across his expression, too quickly for me to name.
“If it means that much to you, then I will be more careful,” he replies with an unsure frown.
“It does,” I reply honestly because I think it’s important that he knows that. “You should care too.”
“Perhaps,” he replies, noncommittal in his response, and that simple answer tells me more about him than anything else has so far.
There is far more to him than I initially thought.
While I didn’t think that his life had been all sunshine and rainbows, how could it have been trying to survive in a place like this? I have a feeling that he is fighting a lot more shadows than I originally thought.
He doesn’t say anything else as he starts to approach the dilapidated building. My gaze locks with Reaper, and we share a concerned look. I’m glad that it’s not just me who likes Aldrastos.
We’ll figure him out, and hopefully, soon, he will figure out that not only do I mean what I say, but that the guys want him to be careful as well.
The concept of someone wanting him safe seemed so foreign to him that it makes me wonder if he has ever truly had someone care for him, and that makes me sad and fucking angry all at the same time.
There is a chance that I could be reading the situation wrong completely, and that he is confused because I haven’t really known him for that long, and that was quite a strong reaction to have.
I don’t think that’s the case though.
I can’t do anything about it now, and I sense that if I were to push him on the subject, he would close down completely, and it would take him even longer to open up to us.
Besides, as I said, he barely knows us, and I’m not sure why I keep having to remind myself of that. I refocus and look up at the house as we slowly approach it.
I have to admit that I’m not sure how the house is still standing. The roof has collapsed in on itself. One of the walls looks like it’s about to go at any moment, one of the chimneys has completely gone, and I don’t think any of the windows have any glass in them.
It’s a wreck, quite honestly, and I’m not sure that there’s much point in us going inside. If it is deserted, which I am ninety percent sure that it is, and we try to rest inside it, I have a feeling that we’ll most likely end up inadvertently causing the whole thing to come down on us.
It looks that fragile.
Aldrastos is nearly at the door, and I get ready to yell at him again for not listening and risking his life. However, he surprises me when he stops just short of the door, his hand is only a few millimetres away from the handle. He glances over his shoulder at me and shrugs.
“Sorry, it’s automatic,” he surprises me by apologising.
“No problem,” I reply.
I’m not really sure how I’m supposed to respond to that, and the fact that he not only listened but stopped himself and then apologised has admittedly thrown me a bit.
I jog up next to where he and the others have all gathered, and send my magic out at the same time, checking for anything that could harm us or cause us any trouble getting inside.
It’s extremely unlikely that there would be, considering the general decay of the house, but you never know.
Magic can stay dormant for an extremely long time.
It can be forgotten to time completely, and then a specific and complicated set of circumstances can trigger it and usually cause all hell to break loose.
I frown slightly. My magic isn’t warning me that there is something dangerous that we need to be concerned about, but there is something there. It’s quietly and calmly pulsing in the background.
It’s not a threat to us.
But I don’t know what it is, and maybe the not knowing is what makes it a threat to us.
“Farren?” Loki asks.
“I can feel something, but it’s not a threat,” I try to explain. “I don’t know what the magic that I’m feeling is, though.”
“It could be leftover residual magic from when Ignatius lived here. We know that he was really powerful, and a building, if it’s lived in for a long enough time, can absorb some of that magic,” Zev suggests.
“Yeah, maybe,” I agree with a slight frown.
I honestly don’t know whether his suggestion is right or not, my instincts and my magic aren’t giving me anything, not even the vaguest hint.
Khaos nods, “Alright, well, just in case it is something to be concerned about, I’ll go in first.”
“Actually, as much as you’re all going to hate this, it would make more sense if I went in first. If a spell gets thrown at us, my magic will tear it apart,” I say, putting a hand on Khaos’ chest to stop him from walking past me.
“Farren, there is no way that I’m going to let you walk through that door,” Khaos replies heatedly.
I raised my eyebrows as I turn to face him, “Actually, you don’t get a say in what I do.”
Aldrastos
I’m used to not being in control, unfortunately.
However, I’m not used to being comfortable with not being in control. I guess comfortable may not be the right word. I have no idea what’s going on. I don’t know how it’s possible that Farren can travel here. No one should be able to travel here, that’s what we were all told.
Clearly, that isn’t true.
How the fuck do I begin to process that, and all of the other little revelations that have already happened? Why did the tree glow? I have never in my life seen the trees fucking glow, and Farren only grazed it with her hand, and it fucking lit up.
Why?
Was it her magic? Was it the trees?
Then there’s the fact that I feel so comfortable with them all, and I really shouldn’t. I don’t feel comfortable with anyone. Not anymore, and I haven’t for a long time.
They aren’t like me.
I wait for a moment to make sure that Farren is fully distracted by Khaos arguing with her about keeping her safe, and then I grab hold of the door handle.
I may have said that I wouldn’t deliberately put myself in danger not more than ten minutes ago, but if the choice is between my safety and hers, I will always choose hers, and I’m not going to apologise for that.
Especially not if it means that she looks at me all pissed off like she did before. It’s cute.
I frown.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
Turning the handle, I refocus on what I’m doing before Farren wins the argument with Khaos.
I’m not sure how well she would take it if I just picked her up in order to stop her from heading through the door first. I’m hoping that the shock of me picking her up would distract her for long enough that she wouldn’t kick my arse.
Or that I would at least be able to get to a safe enough distance away from her that I would get a head start before she realised what had happened.
I have a feeling that she is more than capable of kicking my arse, and it intrigues me more than it probably should.
Everything about her intrigues me more than it should.
The door handle twists easily under my hand, and while I do feel a slight buzz of old magic from it, it doesn’t cause me any harm, and it dissipates quickly, so I pay it no mind.
Pushing the door open, I cautiously step inside, my eyes widening at what I see.
Looking over my shoulder at the still bickering couple and the other guys who are only now starting to notice what I’m doing, I say, “You guys are going to want to stop arguing and come and have a look at this.”
“What the fuck?” Farren asks, as her eyes land on me, standing in the open doorway. I simply smirk, and my smile widens as her lips twitch as she fights her own smile.
I’ve decided that I prefer pissing her off. I’m pretty sure that means that I need therapy, but I’ll just add it to the list of reasons that I need therapy.
It’s a long list.
I move further into the space so that everyone can file in behind me and get a look at what I’m talking about.
“What the hell?” Loki exclaims as he walks through the front door and then immediately turns around and heads back the way he came so he can look at it again from the outside.
“It looks like someone left moments ago,” Mayhem points out, his gaze on the kettle on the stove, steam streaming from its spout.
He’s not wrong. The fire is still lit, giving off a gentle heat and warm glow. Sconces that should have gone out thousands of years ago are still lit, plants are still alive, and most noticeably, the roof is still on, and the windows are still glazed.
But from the outside, it looks like a long-abandoned, derelict building that could collapse at any moment.
It’s an incredible use of magic, and a lot of it.
I can’t believe that it’s still working after all this time and hasn’t dissipated.
Even if it is just a case of it being triggered by us entering and not that it has been in this state for that long, it is still really impressive that it’s lain dormant for as long as it has.
I also can’t believe that no one has found and taken advantage of this place. It’s not exactly difficult to get into.
“We need to check the place out and make sure that there’s no one else here,” Killian says, clearly coming to the same conclusion that I have.
Thankfully, it doesn’t take us very long at all to do a quick sweep of the property. There are a lot of us, and the house isn’t that big.
“Anything?” Storm asks as we all meet back up in the main area of the house.
“Nope, we’re alone,” Zev confirms first, prompting the rest of us to do the same.
“This is incredible. Do you think it has been in this stasis since it was first abandoned, or that we triggered something? Why do you think that no one else has come in and used it over the years? I can’t sense anyone else's magical signature, so it’s not like someone just stepped out and we’re about to have a fight on our hands,” Rival rambles before he forces himself to stop.
I smile. I see the litany of questions still spinning through his mind as his eyes dart around the room.
Something that he’s said has intrigued me though, he said that he couldn’t sense another magical signature.
He’s Fae.
According to my records, which I checked as soon as I suspected that they might be the team that I was looking for, he is not the kind of Fae that can sense magical signatures.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that this group is far more powerful than I even suspected after they let their magic flow at the academy.
It should worry me, but it doesn’t.
What worries me is how comfortable I am with them. That doesn’t happen to me, and it doesn’t feel safe.