Chapter Twenty-Nine #2
I nod and turn back to the bed. “I have some things to tell you guys as well, actually.” I stop as I get a good look at the room. “Wait a fucking second, are we in Ignatius place? Did we go backward somehow?” I groan dramatically, “More walking.”
Reaper shakes his head, “We’re in Ignatius’ place, but we haven’t gone backward. When we mentioned that we needed a place to rest for the night, we turned a corner, and there this place was.”
“That’s so cool,” I grin as I settle on the bed.
Poca settles on one side of me, Fluffy on the other. Meri is on Poca’s back still, sleeping as usual, and Oryn is perched on the windowsill.
The guys all take seats around the room, and at the end of the bed where there’s space, and then they fill me in on everything that happened.
I have to say that it's surprising how quickly they’ve all taken to Nico, but he’s not hard to like.
I mean, he makes several jokes while they’re filling me in, and he seems to bounce off Loki really well.
Once they’re done, I start filling them in on what I find out in the dream.
“Whoa, your mum is a Fate?” Nico asks.
I nod, “Yep. I’m ignoring that piece of information, if I’m being honest, because I don’t know how to even begin to deal with it.”
“I’m not surprised,” Nico mutters.
I glance at Hades and smirk, “Monty’s still pissed at you.”
“Why would Monty be pissed at Hades?” Rast asks, now fully caught up on the whole messy situation.
“Because we’re friends, they’re actually some of my closest friends,” Hades replies with a sigh. “I have a silencing spell put on me, so I can’t tell Farren certain things until she finds them out when she’s supposed to.”
“Oh, so you’re dating his daughter,” Nico chuckles. “Yeah, I get why he’s pissed. That’s hilarious actually.”
“I’m glad the threat to my life is funny to you,” Hades retorts with a slight smile, but Nico doesn’t look repentant at all, his smile just widens.
“Oh, come on, you know that they would never hurt you. They wouldn’t risk pissing off Farren,” Storm grins.
“Wait!” I say as everyone freezes and looks at me. “That’s why I woke up like I did. I don’t know how I forgot.”
“Forgot what?” Khaos asks.
“Verena, Monty, and Magnus all told me that I can use the Void like I have always been able to,” I start.
“They called it the Void?” Rival asks curiously.
I frown slightly. “I think so. I might be wrong, it still gets mixed up in my head sometimes.”
“That’s understandable,” Loki says. “You’ve always called this place the Void, it’s a hard thing to suddenly start calling it something else.”
“Exactly,” I reply. “You distracted me again!”
“Sorry,” Loki winces, and then leans in for a kiss.
“Damn it, Loki,” I grin when he pulls back.
He shrugs, “I’m not sorry, it’s funny.”
“You were saying?” Kill asks, trying not to look amused.
“I can open a door, and we can go straight to the castle, we don’t have to mess about with walking there,” I get out in a rush.
“It didn’t occur to me that I could do that mostly because I was worried about using my magic that connects me to the Void, but they all confirmed that I can use it like I always have been able to do. ”
“Seriously?” Nico asks. “You can do that?”
I nod, “Yeah.”
“Let’s go then,” Kill grins. “Are you up for leaving right now?”
I nod, and the pause, “Give me a second to pee. Can someone fill Laikynn in?”
“I can do that,” Rast says.
“I’ll come with you,” Nico offers.
“We’ll let you get ready to go and grab our gear, we’ll meet you outside?” Storm asks me.
I smile and scooch off the bed, making the creatures grumble at me as they settle back down.
Standing up on my tiptoes, I kiss him, and then say, “Yeah, that works. I shouldn’t be long.”
All the guys give me kisses as they leave the room, and once I’m alone again, I take a deep breath.
Alright, let's do this.
Grabbing my bag, I make my way into the adjoining bathroom and quickly do my business.
“We’ve got time, especially since we’re cutting travelling time by you being able to take us there. We’ve all managed to shower, so if you want to shower now, go ahead,” Kill calls through the door.
“Thank fuck,” I mutter. Raising my voice, I call back, “I won’t be long.”
True to my word, I’m in and out of the shower in ten minutes tops. I want to take longer, but I really can’t, and thanks to going in the hot spring, I’m not really that gross.
Grabbing my stuff, I head back out into my room, unsurprised to find it completely empty apart from Kill sprawled out on the bed looking delicious.
“Feel better?” Kill asks. When I hesitate, he immediately opens his arms for me, and I collapse against him.
“It’s a lot,” I mutter, speaking directly into his chest since my face is smooshed against it.
His hand smooths down my hair as he kisses the top of my head. “I know it is. You don’t have to deal with it alone. I’m here, and I’ll always be here for you.”
“Thanks, Kill,” I say gently as I lift my head and kiss him.
After a moment, he pulls back and sighs, “Come on, we should get going.”
I pull a face, and he chuckles as he stands us both up, sets me on my feet, and we make our way out of the room.
“Do you know where my creatures are?” I ask. “I can’t believe that Oryn is an Abyss creature.”
“No, that was a big surprise, among many big surprises,” he replies. “They left as soon as you stepped into the bathroom, so I’m assuming that they’ve gone out with Laikynn.”
I nod and say thank you to the house as I step back through the door, the others already gathered outside.
“Hey,” Reaper greets us with a smile. “You ready?”
“Yep,” I say. “I have to admit I’m glad that we don’t have to do more walking.”
“Me too,” Loki says. Although the fact that he’s bouncing on his feet seems to directly contrast his words.
“I’m going to open a door directly into the castle.
Everyone needs to hold on to each other.
I don’t want anyone getting lost even though we’re travelling through the realm.
It’s still possible. I would also suggest that everyone is ready to fight as soon as we step through.
We don’t know what we’re stepping into, but chances are we’re going to have to fight immediately,” I start to explain.
“Sounds good.” Storm replies. “Laikynn and all of your creatures have run ahead. Apparently, we were slowing them all down.”
I chuckle, “Yeah, that makes sense, to be fair.”
“Alright, is everyone ready?” Kill asks.
Everyone calls their magic to the surface so they’re ready to use it as soon as we step through the door, and then we all hold hands. As soon as I know that we’re all connected, I call on my magic and open a door.
As we step through, I immediately know that we’re not going to come out inside the castle, there’s some sort of resistance. It’s too late to go back, so I just hope that when we step through the other side, we’re not miles away from the castle still.
“Oh, I was not expecting to see the gates again,” Zev says as we make it through.
I smile as I look up at the imposing gates from my dream. I don’t know why, but they make me smile, they give me a good feeling, which is strange.
We’re all looking up at the gates, and I explain what happened, “I met resistance when I tried to create a door into the castle, this is where it dropped us off instead.”
“That makes sense there are some pretty strong spells on the gates,” Rival says.
“How are we going to get through them?” Nico asks.
“Farren is a Spell Weaver,” Rast explains.
Nico’s eyes widen. “No way! I missed that.”
I chuckle, “Alright, shall we do this?”
We all freeze as a low, threatening growl reverberates through the ground, causing the gates in front of us to rattle and sounding far too close for comfort.
Fuck.