Chapter Fifteen
Zev
I shake my head, “I don’t think so, but the answer is murky.”
“That’s not very reassuring, mate,” Mayhem mutters.
“It’s all I’ve got,” I reply.
Everyone falls silent as we pay strict attention to our surroundings, listening for clues of the approaching group as we continue to move forward slowly and cautiously.
Then we hear them, the undeniable proof that we are being approached again.
“Do you recognise the voices?” Rival asks Rast quietly.
He shakes his head, “No, it could be the Others. We need to be extremely careful. Be prepared to fight.” He looks uneasy and adds, “Maybe we should run?”
“No, we need to meet with them,” I say before the thought has even fully formed in my mind.
“I don’t like it,” Rast says. “But I trust you.”
His words seem to surprise him. It would surprise me more if I hadn’t seen that he’s going to become a permanent member of our family.
He’s not ready to hear that yet, and to be honest, I don’t think Farren is either.
I’m looking forward to watching that one play out.
There’s no time for anything else as a shadowed group emerges from the treeline next to us.
Everyone freezes.
“Don’t attack,” one of the other group says, and it takes me a moment to realise that he is talking to us.
“We aren’t going to attack you so long as you don’t attack us,” Farren surprises me by answering.
They look over our group cautiously.
“So far we’ve learned that you normally attack,” one of them says, receiving a look that is universal for shut up.
“And we’re getting fucking sick of it,” a male with huge horns says with an edge of anger to his voice.
“Which group are you with, the compound fucks, or the wild ones?” One of the larger guys asks, his eyes flashing briefly to those of his beast.
“Actually, we aren’t associated with either group,” I explain. I know that it’s important that they know that. “We’re trying to get to the King's castle.”
They share a confused look.
“Wait, it might be them,” a woman at the back steps through them, her eyes on Farren. “What’s your name?”
“Don’t tell her. It could be a trap,” Rast warns.
The woman rolls her eyes, “How am I going to trap her by asking her name, numb nuts?”
Farren bursts out laughing, “I haven’t heard that insult before, that was amazing. I’m stealing that.”
The woman grins, “You’re welcome to it. You didn’t tell me your name, though. Smart.”
“Oh, she’s smart for not doing exactly what I just said she shouldn’t do?” Rast mutters under his breath.
The woman's lips twitch, but she pretends that she hasn’t heard him.
Farren’s smile widens, “I appreciate that you understand my caution.”
“How about I tell you my name?”
Farren’s eyebrows rise in surprise at her offer, “Sure, you tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine.”
“I’m Sage,” she says with no hesitation, even though the men around her are giving her warning looks similar to the ones that we usually give Farren.
Farren smiles, “Nice to meet you, I’m Farren.”
Sage’s smile widens, “I thought so, which would make these your men.” She looks at me. “You’re Zev. I think you know our friend, Kysen?”
My eyebrows hit my hairline. “I haven’t spoken to him for a while, but yes, I know Kysen.”
“Hang on a fucking minute,” Rival starts. “If you know Kysen, that means that you are not natives to the Void.”
“We both know this isn’t the Void,” one of the guys says, his eyes rolling with literal flames.
“We aren’t from here,” Sage confirms. She tilts her head to the side slightly, like she’s listening to something that only she can hear. “In fact, we’re about to be sent back, Monty said we didn’t have long once we found you. You’re going to need these.”
She hands a palmful of small stones over to Farren.
Farren takes them cautiously and says, “I’ve got to admit, you aren’t making much sense right now.”
Sage grimaces, “I know, I get how fucking annoying that is, but I don’t know anything else, or I would tell you. Trust me. Or don’t, I suppose we’ve only just met, so you’ve got no reason to trust me.”
“Sage, we’re getting called, hurry,” the guy with the huge horns warns.
Sage nods, “You won’t need the stones for a while, so keep them somewhere safe.”
“Got it,” Farren replies. “Thank you.”
“No problem,” Sage replies with a friendly smile.
I watch in complete fascination as the group of them starts to fade.
“Wait, did you say Monty?” Farren suddenly asks.
Sage nods, “Yeah, he’s . . .”
“Of course, they disappear when they’re about to give us an actual answer,” Reaper groans.
“Do you think it’s the same Monty?” Mayhem asks curiously, watching the space where they’ve just disappeared.
“I think it’s too big of a coincidence for it not to be the Monty that we know,” Hades says thoughtfully.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if he had a hand in this too. He has his finger in a lot of pies and likes to be involved in things,” Khaos adds. “Which makes sense actually, now that we know what we know about Monty.”
“Good point,” Rival agrees. He looks at Farren, “Can I see what Sage gave you?”
Farren nods, and hands the handful of stones over to Rival, “It would probably be best if you looked after them anyway. I am definitely going to lose them. Since they’re so important, I don’t want to risk putting them in a pocket of the Void and not being able to find them again.”
Rival hums, but he’s so focused on what he’s doing that I’m not entirely sure that he has heard what she’s said. Fortunately, Farren doesn’t get offended and simply smiles at him.
“I’m sorry, I think I need just a couple of seconds to freak out for a moment,” Rast starts.
Hades smiles sympathetically, “Shit, sorry, man. We’re all so used to this sort of shit that I forget that you aren’t.”
“What he means is please proceed with your freak out,” Kill states.
“Thank you,” Rast says somewhat controlled, and then immediately devolves into a less controlled rant.
“What was that? Random people who don’t live here just showed up and then disappeared, no one is supposed to be able to get through to this realm.
I went through hell to get to your realm, and you’re all just popping in and out like there’s a fucking portal. ”
“If it helps, I do think that it is limited to just Farren and now Sage, although Sage had help from Monty, which means she had help from the goddess. At least I assume that she did, unless Monty went off on his own again, which would not be surprising at all,” Khaos explains.
I’m not sure that his explanation is exactly helpful though.
“I just, it’s, I mean,” he stumbles over his words.
“Sorry,” Farren mutters. “I would say that it gets better, but it hasn’t yet, and the surprises just keep on coming.”
Rast smiles, already done with his freak-out, although I would wager that it's because of Farren and not because he’s okay with the crazy turn of events.
He nods, “So long as you don’t mind me freaking out for a bit, I’m sure that I’ll get used to it at some point.”
“We don’t mind, man,” Loki replies with a smile. “We all still freak out too.”
“There’s enough for each of us to have one each and then one spare,” Rival suddenly says, proving that he hasn’t actually been listening to anything that we’ve been saying.
“If it were exact, then I would have said that it meant that there was one for each of us,” Mayhem points out.
“Do you know the material?” Khaos asks curiously.
Rival shakes his head, “No, is it something that anyone else recognises?”
Everyone leans closer to look at the rocks in Rival’s hand and then shakes their heads.
“It looks familiar,” Khaos says. He shakes his head, his frown deep, “I don’t know why. I can’t place where I know it from, but I definitely recognise it from somewhere. Hopefully it will come to me.”
“She said that we wouldn’t need them for a while, and we don’t exactly have the resources to research them at the moment, so I think we should carry on before something else finds us,” Rast suggests.
I have to admit I’m impressed with how he’s handling the latest thing that’s been thrown at him. It gives me hope that he’s going to be able to handle everything that’s coming as well.
“Agreed,” Storm says.
Rival carefully puts the stones in the inner pocket on his jacket, and then we carry on walking, picking our way through the trees.
Fortunately, there seems to be an albeit overgrown path that we’re following.
At least I think that it used to be a path.
I’m guessing that it is simply because there isn’t as much growth on this part as there is on the ground surrounding us.
It’s fascinating to me that this place has different levels of dark that allow us to know that it’s different times of the day.
Although, according to Rast, that’s a new development and isn’t the norm for this place.
I look at Farren.
It’s because of Farren.
My instincts are screaming at me. I just don’t know what that means.
“Are you sure you don’t want to put these in the Void?” Rival asks Farren, tapping his chest over the pocket where he put the stones, proving that he was listening earlier.
Farren shakes her head, “I know it doesn’t make sense, but I have lost things in the Void before, so I don’t want to risk it.
Plus, we’re in the Void, or what I was calling the Void, so I’m not sure how it would work if I opened a pocket here.
I’m not sure it’s a good idea to play around and see what I’m capable of here, when the balance is so precarious already. ”
“I hadn’t thought about that,” Khaos replies thoughtfully.
“Technically speaking, and as wild as it is to me, your magic is obviously linked to the realm. I don’t know how it's possible, but there’s no denying it.
Because of that, it would mean that you should be able to use it as you always have, with no issues.
However, I do think that caution is a good idea,” Rast explains with a slight frown.
“Me too,” Hades agrees. “Magic is tricky as you all know, and now that you know where the magic is coming from, that could be enough to mess with it and make it cause problems, even though it’s never caused any issues before.”
“Well, that’s fantastic,” Farren says sarcastically. She looks at the ground. “It just vibrated, but I’m not sure whether it was agreeing or not.”
“Wait, the realm is still communicating with you?” Loki asks with shock.
Farren nods, “Yeah. It stopped when we were in Ignatius’ cabin, but it greeted me as soon as I stepped back outside.”
“It greeted you?” Rast asks incredulously.
Farren nods, “Yeah, I don’t really know how to explain it, but it was definitely a greeting. Like, hey, how’re you? That sort of thing.”
“Interesting,” Mayhem says.
As we all fall silent and continue walking, my mind moves back to thinking about Sage and her group.
I didn’t see them.
The vision showed me a lot, it showed me that we were going to run into a group that would help us, but it wasn’t them.
The group that we were supposed to run into was supposed to help us find the castle. Sage and the guys didn’t mention that at all.
So they aren’t the ones who my vision told me about.
Which doesn’t make sense.
As always, that seems to be the theme.
Wait a fucking second.
“Hang on, Sage,” I say out loud.
“What about her?” Reaper asks.
“Sage, as in the Center, the one from Blood Moon Academy. The kick arse one,” I explain in a rambling way that I’m not sure makes a lot of sense.
“No fucking way,” Farren replies, getting it quicker than anyone else. “That’s crazy. I thought their academy went back to the Demon Realm?”
“It did,” Rival says. “That was the gossip around the school, and I was curious, so I verified it. It shouldn’t have been in the Fae Realm in the first place.”
“Wow. I hope we get to see them again and talk to them properly at some point,” Farren says. “I like Sage. She seems like my kind of person.”
“Hopefully we will, I have some questions for her,” Rival mutters.