Chapter Fourteen
Farren
“Fuck. You’re right.” I frown. “Actually, I think we’re going to have to put a pin in this whole thing. We can’t do anything about it right now anyway. We need to save the realm first.”
“Yes, we do. For the record, no one talks to the Fates unless they deem it okay,” Hades says. “But . . .”
We all look at him as his sentence simply stops right there.
“Seriously, there are still things you can’t tell us?” Rival asks, obviously catching on quicker than anyone else.
“Apparently,” Hades replies flatly.
“You know the more I get to know you guys, the more I realise just how fucking unique you are,” Rast says as we once again carry on walking.
“I’m going to take that as a compliment,” I joke, earning a smile.
“We’ll fill you in properly when we’re in a safer location,” Storm offers Rast. “Honestly, it’s wild. I have trouble believing some of it, and I was fucking there.”
“Agreed,” I say. Looking around the lighter darkness, which seems like an oxymoron, but I don’t know how else to describe it. It’s still really dark, but it’s not the all-encompassing darkness that was surrounding us last night. “We’ve only been attacked once.”
I say it as if it’s a statement, but there’s no doubting the question in my tone. When we first arrived, Rast made it seem like we were going to be attacked regularly, and so far, it’s only been once.
Of course, Laikynn could be fighting off more than we thought and just not telling us that he is.
Rast frowns, but says, “Yes, we have been incredibly fortunate, although I am sure that having Laikynn and his pack travel with us has been extremely helpful. They are formidable and, to be honest, it’s usually them that we have a problem with.”
“Not the escaped prisoners?” I ask curiously.
“Clever.”
I frown. That wasn’t a voice that I recognise, but it was barely above a whisper, so maybe it was one of Laikynn's pack members who overheard our conversation.
Hell, it could very well be my subconscious complimenting me now.
I’ve lost it.
“No. Apparently, they used to be a much bigger problem, and they still are a threat if you run into them, but the frequency with which we run into them now is not as often. The Abyss creatures are a much bigger threat,” Rast explains.
“They’re what you call the Others, right?” Reaper asks.
Rast nods, “Yes.”
“Could the compound leaders have something to do with that? You said that they were handing people over to them?” I ask.
He nods, “That’s one of my theories, yes.”
“Or they could all be dead. But there’s no way to know for certain, I suppose, since no one can get into the punishment side,” Rival says.
“Exactly,” Rast replies.
We carry on walking in silence.
I think all of us, not just Rast, have come to some pretty crazy conclusions while we’ve been walking.
Rast is walking ahead of us, since we’re following him and the compass that the arseholes gave us, and once again I see something flicker on the left of him.
The ground beneath me whispers, but not in warning this time. I’m not sure what it’s telling me, and the flicker's gone, so I decide to let it go, we’ve got enough going on.
Zev
I’m incredibly grateful that I got a vision and that it led us to realise some pretty big things, but I’m once again left questioning a lot. I know the others are too because they’re all silent.
I know that I needed to ask the questions about the dead.
The vision told me that I needed to, and while it did bring up some interesting conversations, I’m not entirely sure what the purpose of it, is because I know that the conversations that it brought up were not the reason why I had to bring it up.
The shift in the visions has me almost as worried as when I hadn’t had one for a while.
Especially since I have no idea if it’s a permanent change or if it was just for that vision.
I was shown a lot, and I instinctively know that I didn’t manage to actually see everything that I was supposed to, but that I will remember it when I’m supposed to remember it.
My gaze drifts to Farren, as it does every five minutes or so, to check that she’s okay.
She’s handling all of this surprisingly well. She even mentioned the ‘G’ word, which she explicitly warned us not to say, which means that while she isn’t quite ready to talk about it yet, she is at least dealing with it in her mind in her own way.
Admittedly, I did choose to leave some things out.
The others don’t necessarily need to know everything, and some things I can’t tell them anyway.
My magic always lets me know when I can share something and when I can’t, and there were a couple of things that I couldn’t share but that I want to keep an eye on.
If I can.
Before we came here, I was starting to be able to call on visions when I wanted to see something. It was actually a welcome change to be in control rather than to have the visions catch me off guard, but as I told the others, my visions have not been playing ball.
By that I mean that until a few moments ago I hadn’t had any.
I guess there’s one way to find out if the vision has brought back my ability to control them or if it was just a one-time thing.
Focusing on my magic, while making sure that I’m still paying attention to where I’m walking, I ask my magic to give me a vision to clarify the part of the vision that is puzzling me most and is one of the parts that I can’t mention to anyone.
Which just makes me more curious.
I want to know why it felt like there was someone else with us.
The vision was long. It spanned quite far in the future and didn’t just include what is happening in this realm, and throughout the whole thing, I felt like I was missing someone.
I kept going to say something to someone, or joke with someone, and whoever it was wasn’t there.
I know it sounds strange. I’m actually relatively glad that this is something that I can’t share with the others.
I don’t want them to think that I’m crazy.
The thing that I don’t understand is that I was so certain that they were there, that I was talking to someone that I knew, especially in the later parts of the vision, and I could see the others doing the same thing and talking or joking with someone who I couldn’t see.
All of that tells me that I’m not supposed to know who it is yet, which is strange in itself, but then again, I am surprised that I was shown so much of our future when I haven’t really been getting anything. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at the black spots, and there were more than one.
It’s just that one that bothered me the most. I’m usually quite happy to leave the black spots in my visions alone. I know that they will reveal themselves in time, and that I will understand them when I’m supposed to.
But this feels different somehow, and I can’t put my finger on why.
Almost like it’s really important, or there’s a time limit in place.
I am really unsure, and quite honestly, the time limit feeling could have absolutely nothing to do with the person who isn’t actually there. It could be because we’re running out of time to save the realm.
Refocusing on my magic, I realise that it’s listening, it’s as responsive as it’s always been, but that I can’t call on a vision for this particular thing.
So I test out a theory. I ask my magic to show me a vision of how long it’s going to take us to get to the castle.
Sure enough, it works, and I’m given a brief flash of how long it’s going to take.
Unsurprisingly, the vision answers my question but also poses a question too.
By my calculations, and from what Rast has said, we should be a couple of hours away by now, maybe three.
The vision showed me that it’s going to be at least eight more, and that doesn’t make sense.
It was around eight hours from Ignatius’ place, and we’ve been walking for hours by this point, so eight hours doesn’t make sense at all.
Maybe my visions are still behaving a bit odd.
It’s possible that whatever paused my visions when we crossed over is still messing with them.
But if that’s the case, then I can’t rely on anything that it showed me in the big vision either.
Which would make the missing person make more sense, but would be especially concerning since we rely on my visions to guide us, and how am I supposed to know if something is real or whether it has been warped by whatever took my visions in the first place?
If it takes us eight hours or more to get to the castle, then I’ll know that the visions are accurate. Which admittedly would raise some questions, but I would definitely feel more settled if I knew that I could rely on them as much as I always have been able to.
It was incredibly unsettling not to get them.
I fucking hated it.
More than I thought I would, actually. I have always struggled with my visions, but being with Farren and the others who accept me completely has allowed me to reconcile some of the bad feelings that I’ve felt towards them in the past and appreciate them for the help that they’ve given us.
They’ve saved our lives there’s no doubt about that.
“Are you okay?” Farren asks me, pulling me out of my thoughts.
I must have been deeper in thought than I thought I was because I have no idea how long she’s been walking next to me, and I’m usually always aware of where she is.
I reach out and take her hand. “I’m good. Are you? You used the ‘G’ word.”
She smirks, “Yeah, I am. Surprisingly. I think that Monty and Magnus being called back has actually given me the time that I needed in order to process some stuff.”
“Good. I’m glad it has,” I reply with relief.
“Are your visions back to normal now?” She asks.
“I’m not sure, but I’m conducting an experiment of sorts. I’ll let you know what they tell me,” I try to explain without giving away anything that I shouldn’t.
She smiles, “Okay.”
I frown slightly, lowering my voice, I say, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you straight away about my visions not happening.
I was still getting vague feelings, just not the actual visions.
I didn’t want to worry anyone, and we’ve got so much going on already, and I didn’t want to add to it.
If it went on for any longer, then I would have said something. ”
She gives me a raised eyebrow look, “Would you?” She smiles softly, “It doesn’t bother me that you didn’t say anything. You don’t have to share everything, none of you do. That’s not sustainable or practical. I am worried that you didn’t tell us about it for another reason though.”
I freeze.
How the fuck did she know?
I haven’t even acknowledged the real reason I didn’t mention it to everyone to myself and yet here she is calling me on it.
“It doesn’t make sense. I’ll acknowledge that first. It doesn’t make sense because I have been isolated my whole life because people don’t trust me and don’t like my visions, but you guys are the opposite.
I guess there may have been a part of me that thought that .
. .” I trial off. It’s harder to admit this out loud than I thought that it would be.
“That’s not right. What use am I to all of you if I don’t have my visions?
That’s pretty much the only thing that I’ve got going for me.
I wasn’t even supposed to be in Black Onyx Academy because I only have visions and I’m not supposed to be strong enough. ”
“Right, first, you could be completely powerless, clumsy as hell, have no battle experience or training whatsoever, and I would still adore you and want you around all the time. Two, you are not just your visions. You are so much more powerful than you realise, your magic is so much more than just visions, and even if it weren’t, we would still want you around,” she replies fiercely.
I squeeze her hand. “Logically, I know that. I do. But the illogical and insecure side of me wasn’t listening, so I didn’t say anything.”
“You’re an idiot,” Loki says, coming up on my other side. “I know that you’re new to the group, at least technically speaking, but it doesn’t feel like it to me.”
“Or us,” Storm chimes in, showing that they’ve been listening.
It’s kind of hard not to under these circumstances.
Reaper claps me on the shoulder, “You’re family.”
“Thanks,” I mutter, emotion clogging my throat.
They feel like family too, more so than my own family ever did. I don’t know how to find the right words to express that to them in the way that I want to.
Thankfully, before I have to find a response, a vision washes over me.
“There’s a group approaching,” I say before the vision has even ended.
“Are they a threat?” Kill asks immediately, an edge to his voice.