Chapter Twenty-Two

Loki

I hear her scream, and I’m gone, following the sound as the others follow behind me. The fact that we’re all using our true speed rather than tampering it down like we usually do says a lot about how much we all care about Farren.

What I see when I get to the changing room has me freezing in shock, the guys nearly crashing into me. I step further into the room, allowing them to see what’s going on as I study the scene in front of me. Farren is curled up in a ball on the floor, rocking back and forth as sobs wrack her body, and she repeatedly says no. I glance toward the only other person in the room. I thought Storm had decided to apologise for the shit he was pulling today, but clearly, something went very wrong.

The unflappable and stoic Storm is staring at Farren with absolute devastation clouding his features. This looks really bad, and if it were anyone but my bond brother in this situation, then I’d instantly assume the worst, and he’d be dead. There’d be no question about it. But he is my best friend, teammate and brother, and I know for a fact that he wouldn’t physically hurt her. With his words, sure, he’s got a sharp tongue, and Farren seems to like verbally sparring with him even if he does take it too far sometimes, but he would never physically or sexually hurt her, which is what this looks like.

Before I can react in any way, Reaper charges past the rest of us, who are still frozen in the doorway, a deep and threatening growl echoing around the changing room as he rushes Storm and has him pinned to the lockers behind him by his throat within seconds.

“What the fuck happened?” he growls, his voice part beast.

I share a worried look with the guys. It’s a testament to his friendship with Storm that he didn’t immediately shift. The good news is that he is talking, so he’s not so far gone that we have to worry about him completely losing control. Of course, that depends on what Storm says to him.

“Start talking, brother.” He demands, his eyes flashing with anger.

“I-I-I don’t know,” Storm stutters, which makes us all pause and really take him in. He hasn’t stuttered for well over a decade. He continues, “I was just going to give her shit like I have been all day. She usually fights back, and I fucking love it, but this time,” he cuts his own sentence off as he clenches his fists by his sides, not even trying to remove Reapers hold on him, “why won’t she let me help her? Why was she in the Shadowlands? She shouldn’t have been there. She could have been hurt, a-and she can’t be hurt, she just can’t. I knew she didn’t like my wings, b-b-but I was p-p-panicking, and they came out. They aren’t used to being bound.” His ramblings are extremely telling.

“That’s why you’ve kept your wings hidden? Because you think she doesn’t like them?” I ask, he nods, and I add, “I think they remind her of something.”

Reaper loosens his hold on his throat. It’s easy to see the delicate state he’s in right now, “What happened, Storm?”

His eyes haven’t left her once as he’s been talking, “Her eyes glazed over like she wasn’t really here anymore and then she screamed and dropped to the floor.”

“You fucking triggered her,” Killian growls, not pulling any punches when he tells his brother exactly what he’s fucking done to her. His hands clenching at his sides as his tail whips back and forth and stabs the air.

“No n-n-no, I fuck!” his face crumples, showing more emotion than he has done for as long as I can remember.

It’s at that point that I realise I was wrong. I thought that Storm was fighting his feelings for her, that because he hadn’t given her a chance, not a real one, he was behind the rest of us in what we feel for her and what she means to us. I was so wrong. He’s been pushing her away and acting like an arse because he’s already fallen, and it scares the shit out of him.

Fuck.

Mayhem slowly moves further into the room and then stops immediately as Farren’s cries increase at the sound of his footsteps, and she makes this horrendous keening sound, then adds softly, “She’s having a flashback.”

At the sound of the keening, we all stop moving. Holy fuck, how do we fix this? I feel utterly helpless. There is absolutely no hiding that I have feelings for her; we all do. I think the only one who doesn’t realise is Farren herself. We’re gone for her, and seeing her like this and not knowing how to help or what could make it worse is killing me. Somehow, even though she’s in the depths of a panic attack, I’m not getting anything from the bond, like she’s automatically closed it off. I glance over at Killian questioningly, and he nods that he’s not feeling anything either, a deeply concerned look darkening his features.

Storm drops to his knees, shocking the shit out of all of us as he crawls towards her. When she doesn’t make the keening noise again, we all follow his lead and sit our arses down, making ourselves as small as possible. I can’t help my shocked stare as Storm is literally brought to his knees.

When he gets just over a metre away, she tenses again, and he immediately stops advancing. The words that come out of his mouth next are almost shocking enough to convince me that we’ve slipped into an alternate reality, which is entirely possible, although very rare to do so accidentally.

“Shhh, b-b-baby, it’s me, I’m not going to hurt you, sweetheart, I promise. I’m so f-f-fucking sorry.” He keeps his voice soft as he talks to her, and it seems to be getting through to her because her tense shoulders start to loosen, and her rocking slows down. Seeing this, he painstakingly slowly starts to move forward again, still crawling.

I can’t even begin to comprehend the words that just came out of his mouth. Any barrier that was holding his emotions back and ensuring they remained hidden has been completely obliterated. A quick look around at the others shows the utter bewilderment they’re feeling as well, and I’m relieved that it’s not just me.

My attention goes back to Storm and Farren just in time to see that he’s managed to get within reaching distance of her, and she is calmer than she was, rocking slower and not quite as tense. I watch with bated breath as he slowly reaches out and gently lays his hand on her folded arms. She flinches hard and lets out a whimper as she starts to tense again, and he immediately lets go, but he doesn’t back up.

“Baby girl, it’s me. Come on, d-d-darling, look at me? Whatever you are seeing right now isn’t real. You aren’t there now, Baby girl, you’re at the academy, with me, Loki, Killian, Rival, Mayhem and Reaper, do you remember? I can prove it to you, Baby. All you’ve to do is look at me. C—c-come on, look at me,” our stoic, unfeeling, and emotionally closed off leader pleads with Farren.

We all hold our breath, not daring to move as she slowly and stiffly unwinds her arms slightly, just enough for her to peek out at him to verify his words. He nods encouragingly, giving her the softest smile I have ever seen from him, even before he shut down his emotions. I thought that as soon as she realised who was in front of her, she would back up. After all, he was the one who inadvertently triggered her but instead, she launches herself at him. We all prepare to intervene. Storm isn’t fond of being touched. Although he makes allowances for women, it's always on his terms and very rarely, which is why the rest of us saw through what he was doing in the dining room with those two women so easily, he was trying to get a rise out of Farren, and he hated every second of having their hands on him.

We’re not needed, though. Her arms wrap around his neck, her legs wrapping around his waist as best they can since he’s on the floor, and she buries her face into the base of his neck, trembling and holding on tightly like he’s her lifeline out of the hell she was just in. He manages not to fall backwards from sheer force of will and, as soon as he’s stable, wraps his tattooed arms around her with absolutely no hesitation as he pulls her impossibly closer, the relief on his face profound as he drops his head so he can talk to her quietly for the rest of us to hear. As he holds her, his shadows come out, and I watch in utter fascination as the things used for harm and pain gently stroke over her back and arms, soothing and comforting her. Even more shockingly, she actually does take comfort in it, relaxing even further into Storm.

“What the fuck,” Kill mutters and then goes wide-eyed and panicked that he might’ve scared her again when she tenses ever so slightly.

“I didn’t know shadows could behave like that?” Mayhem asks, his voice barely above a whisper.

“They can. They’re a part of us, but so far as I’m aware, Storm has never used his like that.” Kill answers, looking to the rest of us for confirmation.

“No, he hasn’t,” I reply.

Unsure what else to do, we just stay silent and watch. It’s clear that Storm has this handled. Eventually, her shaking stops, although she doesn’t loosen her hold on Storm.

He looks over at us, his barrier still down, and I hope like fuck it stays that way. I miss my best friend, the one who’d joke around with me, the one who would always try and make me feel better when my home life became unbearable, even though his was much the same as mine. Then he closed himself off completely. The more abuse his father inflicted on him, the more closed off he became until he was the emotionless man we know now, very rarely showing any kind of emotion until Farren came along.

“I think she’s fallen asleep,” he says, quietly enough not to wake her.

“I’m not surprised, that must’ve been exhausting. I know that I’m always super tired after a flashback.” Mayhem admits.

He’s not the only one of us familiar with flashbacks.

“She obviously trusts you though, brother. She never would’ve fallen asleep on you so soon after otherwise.” Killian points out.

“I don’t deserve it.”

“No, you don’t,” Reaper says bluntly, “but you’ve got it, so don’t fuck it up, or I will eat you.” The grin he gives Storm is not pleasant at all and can only be described as a predator looking at his prey.

“I promise.” Storm sincerely replies, before looking back down at Farren, “I’m done pretending like she didn’t walk in and completely turn my world upside down like she hasn’t had me wrapped around her finger since day one.”

“Fucking finally!” Mayhem exclaims, and the quiets as Farren shifts in Storm’s arms. “It took you fucking long enough.”

Storm’s smile is genuine as he starts to get up, managing not to jostle Farren as he does so.

“I think we’re done for classes today. Let's get Farren back upstairs.”

We all stiffly get to our feet, showing that we’ve been sitting here for a while and we’re lucky that combat class is now a three-hour lesson. I doubt she would want anyone seeing her like this. Actually, now that I think about it, I realise she wouldn’t want anyone to see her being carried, either.

“Storm, I don’t think we should carry her through the halls. Not only will she not like people seeing her like that but also it could get back to the Headmaster, and who knows how he could spin it against her.” I point out.

“I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll take her in my shadows.” He says casually.

“Are you sure?” Kill asks. At the questioning looks from the rest of us, he adds, “it’s quite an intimate thing to do and leaves you vulnerable. Once you take someone in your shadows, without the intention of harming them, they’ll be able to call to them when they’re in need.”

“Wow,” Rival says, his wide eyes once again focused on Storm.

He shrugs like it’s no big deal and starts gathering the shadows around him, “She owns me anyway.”

With that prolific statement and an amused grin at the shocked looks on our faces, he lets the shadows consume him entirely as he disappears, no doubt almost to our room already.

“I’m not sure I know how to process any of this,” Mayhem admits as we all make our way out of the changing rooms as quickly as possible.

We stop at the guys changing rooms quickly to grab our stuff and then practically run to get to our room, ignoring everyone who tries to talk to us on the way. I’m not rushing because I don’t trust Storm with her. Nope, I’m rushing because on a typical day, I don’t like being away from her, but on a day like today, when I know she’s hurting, I fucking hate it. I’m almost certain that the guy's reasons are not dissimilar to mine.

When we get to the room, Farren is still asleep, and Storm is lying her down on the sofa. I quickly grab a blanket as Kill steps forward and takes off her shoes, Mayhem gently moves the hair off her face, Rival strokes her cheek looking both relieved and terrified, and Reaper crouches in front of her, stares at her for a second as if to reassure himself that she’s okay and then leans forward gently kissing her on the forehead.

“Thanks, guys,” she mutters, shocking us all since we had no idea she was awake, but her breaths soon even back out, and she’s once again fast asleep.

We all settle down around her, putting the tv on low so that we can at least pretend we’re watching it and not all stuck in our own heads. It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest when Poca appears, although he does make me jump slightly. He whines as he sniffs her and then licks her cheek. I still have to fight myself to stop from freaking out every time he does that because he should burn her with hellfire, but she’s never so much as winced. He sniffs her entire body, no doubt searching for injuries and then, satisfied that she isn’t hurt, curls up on the floor beside the sofa.

“I don’t think we should ask her what it was about and what happened.” Rival suddenly says into the silence.

“No, she can tell us when she’s ready.” Kill agrees.

After that’s settled, we all watch the TV, none of us willing to move away from her. Storm could’ve put her in her room, but like us he needed to see that she was okay too. So far, his emotionless barrier seems to be staying down, and I’m hoping with everything I am that it stays down. We need a leader that is capable of everything, of feeling alongside the rest of us. With the Headmaster determined to fuck with us at every opportunity and the games quickly approaching, I truly believe that although Storm was a great leader before, with his emotions fully switched on and, more importantly showing, he will be an amazing one. I have never doubted that he cared about us but seeing him be himself again would be amazing.

At some point, the sun goes down, and we decide to order food. We don’t bother waking Farren, wanting her to sleep for as long as possible and hoping that the smell will wake her. She’s so exhausted though, that she doesn’t even stir, so Mayhem wraps her plate and puts it in the cold storage in case she wants it later.

As the evening progresses, I feel my eyes get heavy. I really should go to bed. I’m going to have one hell of a kink in my back by the morning if I stay here, but I can’t bring myself to move, and no one else does either. My last thought before I finally succumb to sleep is that Farren has made us stronger. She has quickly become the glue that sticks us together.

*********

Farren

D eja vu hits me when I’m woken up by banging on the fucking door again. I groan as I roll over and realise that I’m not in my bed at all. Suddenly all of the events of yesterday come rushing back, and my eyes immediately search the room for Storm. When I find him, he’s already looking at me and smiling, a real honest to goodness fucking smile. As I gape and his eyes become amused, which is not helping my shock because when the hell did he start showing his emotions? He gets up, the banging still sounding in the background.

“Good morning, gorgeous. How’re you feeling?” he asks, no snark in his tone and completely ignoring the banging.

“Like I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole. Like in that famous earth realm book.” I ramble.

“You’ll get used to it.” He grins.

“You mean, you showing your emotions? You’re not going to hide from me again?” embarrassingly, there’s a thread of panic in my tone by the end of the sentence.

“I’ll never hide from you again.”

I nod, unable to get any words out, as I sit up and glance around at the rest of the guys, all spread out in the room and starting to wake up thanks to the incessant banging.

“They didn’t want to leave you.” Storm explains, “I better get that.”

Then shocking the shit out of me, he dips and gently kisses my forehead. My eyes don’t leave him as he strides towards the door; by the time he gets there, his mask is back in place, but he doesn’t seem as tense as he has been since I’ve known him. I swear if he doesn’t drop that bloody thing again, I will make him somehow.

“What!” he barks, pulling open the door and then adds, “Sorry, Magnus, you woke us.”

“The Headmaster has managed to go above me and everyone else who disapproved of sending you out again so soon,” Magnus rushes out.

Storm sighs heavily, “When?”

“Now.”

“What the fuck, you have to be fucking kidding me!” Loki grumbles.

“I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do. He was insistent that you went out today.” Magnus’s worry is obvious.

“Okay, don’t worry, we’ll sort it. Thanks,” Storm says, closing the door.