Chapter Eighteen
Zev
All of us know better than to question her.
Not even Rast says anything as he quickly starts to tell the Others to back up.
His gaze moves back to Farren every now and then to make sure that she’s safe.
His eyes briefly switch to those of a supernatural that I have never encountered before.
I would say that he must shift. He’s got that kind of feel about him, but the eyes watching Farren are like no shifter I have ever come across before.
I’m logging all of these little signs of what kind of supernatural he is.
I move to the closest person, “You need to move back.”
“I don’t need to be told twice,” he mutters as he practically sprints further away from Farren and the beast.
Farren’s holding on for dear fucking life as the beast tries its best to dislodge her. It’s so intent on its task that it’s damaging itself as it tries to get to Farren, although it doesn’t seem to notice at all.
As soon as Farren sees that everyone is out of the way, I feel her call on her magic, and my eyes widen in shock.
It shocked me when I felt how much magic she was using when she killed the first beast. It shocked all of us.
She automatically keeps her magic signature locked down, just like the rest of us.
It’s safer. Otherwise, we act like a beacon for anything that thinks it’s stronger than we are or that wants to somehow use us for some reason.
Basically, having our magic cloaked makes others leave us alone.
Apart from Hades, when Rast told him that he could uncloak here, he did it within a couple of moments, and the relief in his expression was clear. Hades is a god though, so in theory he should be able to take care of anything that comes for him.
Unless it's another god.
Or a prince who has the backup of the god.
What has me shocked is that I can now see what happens to Farren when she calls on that much magic, her eyes turn black, with no signs of any iris, as I swear sparks of colour dance through them. I’m too far away to see exactly, but the effect is absolutely incredible.
Her swords appear in her hands and glow with magic, as she scissors them, severing the head of the beast with ease. Everything falls silent for a split second, and then the creature explodes into tiny chunks.
Farren lands expertly on the ground and immediately stands, grimacing as she looks down at her ichor-covered clothing.
“Oh, that is so gross,” she mutters. “Why is it bigger?”
“You killed it!” Fry exclaims.
She winces, “Yeah, sorry about that. I did try to warn you that you guys need to move further back and out of the way.”
Fry frowns slightly and then looks down at his blood-splattered clothes. “Oh no, I don’t care about this. You killed it. No one has ever killed one before.”
Farren shifts slightly uncomfortably, “I erm.”
The Others all look at Farren expectantly.
“We need to go,” I chime in and receive a grateful smile from Farren.
“That must be the first time that all of us are walking away from a fight with one of the Abyss creatures,” the main woman who was speaking before says.
“Thank you. Your companion is right though. You really do need to get going. I would imagine that its death will be a signal to the others, and I know that none of us want to deal with a pack of them.”
Storm nods and steps forward as Farren disappears into the middle of our group, shielding herself from the curious eyes, and letting Storm do what he does best and take charge.
“Thank you,” Storm replies simply.
“Hey, if you get the chance, come back to visit?” Fry asks. “It would be awesome to learn more about you.”
I smile, “We’ll try our best, mate.”
“Travel safely,” the main woman replies.
“You stay safe as well,” Kill replies in kind, his arm wrapped around Farren.
With nothing else needing to be said, we all head back the way that we came.
“They have gone,” Laikynn says as he trots up next to Farren. “I am so sorry. For some reason, I was not allowed to tell you that we were headed in the wrong direction.”
“That’s okay,” Farren replies with a smile. “I know you would have told us if you could, and we knew that you couldn’t say anything.”
“It’s probably got something to do with Sage,” Rival suggests, and then before any of us can agree, he adds, “Or to prove that the people at the compound can’t be trusted.”
“It proves that Ricollio can’t,” Rast says. “There’s no way to know if the message that he gave us was actually the message that the compound leaders sent.”
“That’s true. I suppose there’s no way to know for certain,” Kill replies. “From what you’ve said, I would bet that it was the compound leaders. Ricollio seemed like a giant dick, but he seemed sincere when he said, ‘he wouldn’t risk the fate of the realm’.”
“Which begs the question, that if it was the compound leaders, why were they willing to risk the realm by sending us in the wrong direction and having us waste time getting to the castle?” Reaper asks.
“Unless they thought they were sending us in the right direction?” Farren asks with a frown. “Although I really don’t think that I believe that.”
“It’s a possibility, I suppose,” Rast agrees. “But I agree, if they did send us in the wrong direction, then it was done on purpose.”
I’m watching him, which is the only reason why I see him shiver slightly and bat at something that touches his face.
Except there’s nothing there.
I open my mouth to ask him if he’s okay, but something stops me.
A flicker appears next to him and then immediately disappears, and I get a really strong feeling that if I asked him about it now, I would not get a very good response, and I could prompt him not to speak about whatever is bothering him again.
So I let it drop.
We carry on walking until we get back to the road and turn in the direction that the Others told us to go.
At least their directions were relatively clear and easy to follow. As we break through the trees, something niggles at me, but I can’t quite put my finger on what it is.
“Is the realm lighter?” Hades asks. “Didn’t you say this morning that there aren’t variations in the darkness here?”
Rast’s eyes widen as he looks up from the ground. “What the fuck?”
“Okay, so it’s not suspected then,” Loki says. He adds calmly and with a slight smile, “Good to know.”
I can tell that Rast is getting used to us because he smirks and answers calmly, “No, it’s not typical, and I have no idea why it’s changing now, after all of this time.”
“It’s because Farren is here,” Laikynn says in a very matter-of-fact kind of way.
“Would you care to expand on that?” Loki asks, his eyebrow raising.
Laikynn’s eyes fill with amusement as he says, “Not really.”
“Seriously?” Kill asks incredulously.
Laikynn nods, “Yep. It is not time for you to know.”
“I’m getting fed up with that answer,” I say.
“I know,” Laikynn replies and then simply trots off again.
They must be expanding their perimeter outwards every time that the realm lightens because I still can’t see Laikynn, his pack, or Poca, who has followed him out.
Poca is rather unsociable, and to be honest, I get that. He’s ancient. I’d be done with everyone else’s shit too if I were him.
“Well, I guess all we can do is carry on walking,” Khaos says. “At least with the light having improved, we’ll be able to see anything approaching even better.”
“Unless it’s cloaked,” Hades points out.
“Or just outside of our line of sight in the darkness,” Loki adds.
Khaos frowns, “Yeah, okay, good point. It may be lighter, but it’s not light. The comparison to what it was when we first arrived is quite the contrast.”
“No one is arguing with you there,” Rast replies with a frown. He looks at Farren, “It worries me that everything seems to be coming back to you.” Seeing Farren’s expression, he adds quickly, “Not because I’m worried that you can’t be trusted but because I’m worried about you.”
I smirk as he tenses as soon as the words are out of his mouth and Farren grins.
“You like meeee,” she sings.
Khaos claps Rast on the back, “Don’t worry about it, mate. It's inevitable that you’re going to be worrying about Farren. We all do.”
“I think I’m offended,” Farren mutters.
“Don’t be, Ren,” Khaos says immediately. “You’re the best fucking thing that ever happened to me.”
She completely melts at his words, and Khaos’ smile turns proud as he pulls her toward him and kisses her.
“Smooth man,” Rival compliments, making us all chuckle.
Farren
I mean, they aren’t wrong. That was pretty fucking smooth.
It means a hell of a lot to me, and I hope that Khaos knows that. I’m not great with letting my feelings known.
Having emotions and feelings wasn’t safe for me, not for a long time, and if it was, it was only in certain situations.
It’s not an easy thing to convince myself that it’s safe to feel now.
Being with the guys is helping me get better at that, but it’s going to take a while to break the habit of a lifetime.
Trying to wrap my head around everything that’s happening is an exercise in futility, so as always, I’m just deciding to run with it. Sage was a huge surprise, and I really wish that I had realised who she was when I was talking to her.
Monty sent her to give us the stones. She said that we wouldn’t need them for a while, but it was obviously pretty important that we got them now, and for some reason Monty couldn’t bring them himself, which I find curious.
Although it was pretty obvious that he and Magnus were in a lot of trouble for telling me that they were two of my dads, and that my mother is a goddess who has been talking to me and helping me my whole life.
There’s also a chance that they can’t get in here. It’s supposed to be shut down. Although he managed to send Sage here, so maybe he can get here, and he’s not allowed to help for some reason?
Maybe he’s got stricter restrictions now because of the amount of help that he has given us that he shouldn’t have.
I don’t know.
The space has given me time to think over the revelation, and I'm grateful for that. I’m still not used to it, but I am grateful for the time to process in my own way.
He and Magnus aren’t the only ones who I’m missing though. I also miss Xerxes. I’ve gotten used to having access to him and being able to ask questions, plus he became a close friend during the extended time that we spent together.
I scoff slightly and get a curious look from the guys closest enough to hear me and just wave them off.
Extended time together makes it sound like we were on holiday, which couldn’t be further from the truth. It was my imprisonment.
My torture.
Oh.
Actually, thinking about it, that might be why he isn’t here.
He might need the break. He used magic and went through a very stressful experience.
He deserves the rest, and I am really glad that he’s not here after all.
From what he’s told me, he hasn’t had an easy existence, and being assigned to us hasn’t made it any easier.
If he can rest now, then I want that for him.
He’s getting the biggest squeeze when I do see him though.
Looking around, I can’t help but smile. Which I know wouldn’t make sense to almost everyone else who lives here.
Everyone is on edge here, fighting for survival and sees this place as dangerous and somewhere that the majority of them don’t want to be.
Not me though.
I see a place that is scared.
The creatures here seem to be calmer than the people. Laikynn certainly is, and I think that’s because they have the knowledge that the people don’t. Creatures tend to know more than the people in most situations, so it wouldn’t surprise me if that was the case here.
Everything is run on fear.
I get that. I understand why everything is scared.
They’re living in a realm that has been slowly consumed for thousands of years, and even if you took that away, there are some very dangerous people that stalk this realm who escaped from the punishment side.
That means that they were scared before it plunged into darkness, before the Abyss creatures arrived. The inhabitants of this realm have lived in fear for a long, long, time.