Chapter Twenty
Farren
I instantly shake my head.
“No, it was incinerating my clothes. It doesn’t do that regularly,” I explain. “It’s a one-time thing, just to make sure that my clothes were properly incinerated and that the blood of the Abyss creature was properly destroyed.”
“It didn’t warn you yesterday after you killed the Abyss creature, did it?” Hades asks curiously.
I shake my head. “No. It didn’t, but this creature was different from the one that I killed yesterday.”
“That would suggest that there was something different about this one, that meant that you had to get rid of the clothes in the way that you did,” Mayhem suggests thoughtfully.
“This is absolutely fascinating,” Rival says. “The light from the fire is going to attract curious creatures, souls, and who knows what else. We need to move quickly.”
We immediately pick up the pace.
Storm is in the lead as we run through the forest and back to the road that we’re following to get to the castle.
When we get to the road, we don’t stop. We keep moving quickly, needing to get away from the hot spring and the light show that it just put on.
We’ve already had too many holdups, and we can’t really afford to have any more.
I am extremely grateful that I’m clean again though.
That was going to drive me insane.
“Wait,” Reaper says quietly, and we all stop, alert with eyes on the surrounding area. “Do you smell that?”
Loki nods, inhaling deeply. “I picked it up around the same time that you did. Blood, and lots of it.”
“Where?” Storm asks.
“Straight ahead,” Reaper replies. Looking in that direction, he squints, “There’s something in the road ahead.”
I narrow my eyes, and sure enough, there’s a lump in the otherwise lumpless road, that’s a word, right?
Regardless, I’m willing to bet that’s what is bleeding.
“Proceed with caution,” Rast warns quietly. “There are some native creatures of this realm that use the scent of blood to lure you in so they can attack you better.”
“Smart,” I mutter, earning myself a look. I shrug, “Maximum reward for the least amount of effort.”
They all pull similar expressions as if to say good point.
Storm nods, “Got it. Spread out and move slowly.”
We all do as he has ordered and slowly approach. As we get close, I realise it’s not a creature as I first thought, but a person.
They’re dead. That much is obvious. They’re missing limbs, and there is a huge hole in their chest. Oh, that is not a nice way to die.
“Ricollio?” Rast says with shock.
“I didn’t know,” the mangled body says, and I curse.
Still alive, he’s still alive.
Fuck.
“That they sent us in the wrong direction?” Rast asks, kneeling next to him and speaking gently.
“Please, I had no idea that the direction that they told us to send you was wrong. They killed them all,” he says weakly.
“Who did?” Rast asks, although I get the sense that he already knows the answer and just needs confirmation.
“I . . .” Ricollio pauses. “I know it sounds crazy, but I swear it was Bram and Thaddeus. We didn’t stand a chance. The others are scattered around in pieces.”
Rast glances back at us, his expression grim. “Those are the names of two of the leaders of our compound.”
“You were right,” Ricollio says, his chest rattling. “I’m so sorry.”
Rast looks surprised, but nods, “Thank you. I am sorry too.”
Well, that confirms my distrust was valid, although apparently the soldiers that they send out have no idea.
“Can we heal him?” I ask.
Rast shakes his head. “He’s too far gone, and he has been poisoned too. No supernatural could survive this.”
“His soul is too damaged. I don’t know what they’ve done to him, but even if we were to heal him, it wouldn’t help. He would be in constant pain, and not normal pain either. It would be soul-deep aching pain. He would slowly go insane from it,” Mayhem says, his voice quiet and steady.
He didn’t touch him. He’s not even near him, and I didn’t feel a spike in his magic. Which means this is his very base level of power. It means that he’s always been able to do this, but simply hasn’t mentioned it before, or at least not in front of me.
Hades gapes. “That’s incredible.” Realisation crashes over his expression and presses his lips into a hard line.
You best fucking believe I’m questioning him about that as soon as fucking possible.
“End it,” Ricollio rasps. “Please.”
“Very well,” Rast says simply as his expression shuts down completely.
He draws his sword.
“One of us can do it,” Hades offers immediately.
They may not have gotten on very well, but that doesn’t mean that Rast wants to kill him, and killing someone in a battle or fight where they are trying to kill you is a whole lot different than killing someone who is already down and that you know.
Rast hesitates for half a second and then shakes his head, “No. I will do it. He asked me, and he knows me, and I owe it to him to do this.”
“Thank you,” Ricollio says with such heartfelt relief that I know that Rast is doing the right thing.
Rast nods once and then moves quicker than the eye can see. Ricollio would have felt nothing.
“I can use some of my hellfire, so that no one else comes across his body,” Hades offers as he moves to stand next to Rast.
Rast bows his head and then nods once, taking a step back.
I don’t think. I just follow my instincts.
As Rast turns back to look at us to allow Hades to do his thing, I step in front of him and look up at him. For a brief, heartbreaking moment, his guard is completely down, and that’s enough for me.
I wrap my arms around his waist and hug him tightly.
Wow, he’s even bigger than I thought. My arms don’t even nearly wrap around him, and my head is probably only at his nipple height, if that.
He doesn’t move. I don’t even think that he breathes as he completely freezes.
Usually, I would immediately let go and back off, but something tells me to stay where I am.
“Wait,” a voice whispers on the wind.
That’s got to be the realm.
It’s not one of my guys who said it. I know what they sound like, and it didn’t sound like any of them, so it has to be the realm.
If it can talk to me in actual words now, that’s actually really helpful.
My thoughts stutter and then disappear completely as Rast’s arms wrap around me tightly, crushing me to his chest.
His head drops to the top of mine, and he takes a giant stuttering breath.
I feel the tension drain from his body, and I wonder when the last time he had a hug was.
I have to admit that there is a part of me that relaxes too. It would have been absolutely horrible if I had read the situation wrong and he ended up pushing me away or cursing me out.
That would have really sucked, and if I had fully thought about it before I did it, then that would have been enough to make me not do it in the first place.
That was a somewhat convoluted thought. What I’m trying to say is that I’m glad that my impulsiveness stopped me from overthinking this time.
I know that Rast needed this.
The longer that I stay wrapped in his embrace, the more I start to think that I may have needed this from him too. I can’t explain it, but the jagged, torn, and tortured side of me settles as he holds me, and I hadn’t even realised that it was in turmoil.
Although it makes sense, I have thought of parts of my past today, and that always tends to set things off.
We walk away and continue following the road, leaving no trace of Ricollio behind us.
Once we’ve been walking for a few minutes, I can’t help but ask, “Why did you look like you realized something when Mayhem said about Ricollio’s soul?”
Hades' eyebrows rise slightly with surprise, and then he smiles, “You know it never ceases to amaze me the things that you notice.”
I grin, “Thanks. That didn’t answer my question though.”
“Laikynn, are there any ears nearby?” Hades asks.
“No, you are safe to talk,” Laikynn replies from somewhere in the darkness.
I smile when I realise that I could have answered his question myself because the realm is constantly giving me information.
“Well, come on, mate, I’m curious now as well,” Mayhem says with a slight smile.
“When you first told us a bit about what you could do, I said that not even my guards in the Underworld had that ability,” Hades starts.
Mayhem’s eyebrows raise, but he nods, “Yeah, I remember.”
“Well, that’s true, but what I hadn't connected was that my helliers don’t have that gift, but there is a legend that the warriors that were left in charge of Purgatory do have a similar gift,” Hades explains.
“Whoa, hang on,” Khaos says. “The warriors of Purgatory are in a league of their fucking own, that’s why we send the worst of the worst there.
They’re feral, bloodthirsty, and the most important thing is that they cannot leave Purgatory, only you have the capability of sending souls there.
No one can get out of Purgatory. It was designed that way on purpose.
If the guards could get out, then there was a good chance that someone could be bribed or, in the very unlikely scenario, they could overpower the guards and escape. ”
“True,” Hades replies. While we all listen to the conversation with fascination.
“I think what Hades is trying to get at is that, unfortunately, our father is definitely our father, and there’s no way that our mother cannot be our mother. I remember us being born, I remember our mother's face,” Rival explains.
“Holy shit, you do?” Loki asks in shock.
“Yes,” Rival explains simply, while Mayhem doesn’t look surprised at all.
Reaper shakes his head, “That’s crazy, dude.”
Rival shrugs, “Maybe. The point I’m trying to make is that it would be impossible for Mayhem to have those same gifts unless he inherited them from a parent who had those gifts.
Our parents do not have those gifts. Obviously the magic gifted is different from the parents in the sense that no two magics really work the same, but they’re always in the same area.
We’re Fae, our parents are Water and Air- that’s their main magics, so we have elements too. ”
“Yes, but we have all of the elements and a couple of extra, so we’re already not following the norm,” Mayhem points out.
“But they’re still elements like our parents,” Rival argues.
Hades nods, “Yes, you are both right, and that’s where it gets confusing. There’s no denying that the gifts are the same or similar to the Purgatory guards, but the guards can’t leave. No one can leave Purgatory, so I don’t know how it’s possible.”
“It’s an interesting theory,” Rast says. “In our realm, in very rare cases it is possible to get an entirely different kind of magic than their parents, but we’re talking maybe one a century.”
“It’s exactly the same as us,” Rival replies. “I suppose it is possible though.”
Mayhem shrugs, “Honestly, I’m not really that bothered about finding out where it comes from. It won’t change anything, and there are other questions that I am far more curious about being answered.” He looks at Hades. “Thank you for telling me though. It’s definitely interesting.”
“Yeah, I get that,” I reply.
“Well, I want to know,” Rival mutters, making me smile.
Mayhem grins, “You can look into it when we get the chance if you would like to.”
Rival grins, “Thanks, I was going to anyway, but I suppose it’s better that you give me permission to.”
Mayhem just grins and shakes his head at his brother's antics.
There’s quite a lot of stuff that we can’t do anything about until we’re not here.