Chapter Twenty-Seven

“A lright, no. Stop.” Loki suddenly says into the silence, pulling me to a stop. “Farren, please explain.”

“Now?” I ask.

“Yes, I don’t want something to distract us when we get back, and I think we all want to know what we just saw.”

I take a deep breath, “Okay, I owe you that much. Just remember that whatever I say next, you can’t let go of me, or you’ll be lost in here.”

“Alright,” Storm is the one to reply, and it shocks me when I feel a squeeze on my other hand and look up to find him holding it.

“The weapon is mine; I have several, and they’re made specifically for me.”

“So, no one else could possibly own one of these?” Mayhem clarifies.

“No, and I’m sure you know what that means. You all know my father was an absolute bastard, but it goes a bit deeper. He trained me from when I could walk to be the ultimate killing machine for him. He’s always had his own agendas and people he wants dealt with without going through the proper channels. I guess he assumed what better way to ensure obedience than to train and torture your own daughter into compliance. No one would believe that such a kind and generous man could ever treat his beloved daughter that way, and he had enough guards and staff that would vow on their deathbeds that he was an amazing father that I couldn’t tell anyone even if he hadn’t tortured me into compliance due to fear of worse.” I pause, studying their horrified faces. “When I was fifteen, he sent me out on my first kill job. I succeeded barely; after that, it was more training and more assassinations. I’ve lost count of the people I’ve killed, and I know that sounds callous. I can tell you the number of all the innocents I saved from him though, new identities, locations, and he still, to this day, he thought they were dead.”

“How many?” Rival asks gently.

“One-hundred and fifty-nine.”

“Holy fuck.” Killian exclaims, his tail for once dead still as if he’s in shock.

“Something happened three years ago, something that I can’t talk about yet. I’m sorry. But when I was finally found, a few months before I came here, it did something to my father, and he finally allowed my uncle to enrol me at the academy.”

“Farren, look at me,” Killian asks, his voice soft.

“Look at us, please?” Storm adds his tone the same as his brothers.

I look around at them all, and my heart stops. There’s no judgement, no hatred, nothing but understanding.

“Love,” Loki starts gaining my attention, and my eyes drift to him, “we’ve all been fucked over by our families. We’ve all been made to do things we shouldn’t have had to do. There will be no judgement from us.”

“Even though I’m insanely curious, I’m not going to ask how you managed to save that many people on such a large scale. It’s fucking impressive.” Mayhem adds, surprising me when he leans forward and kisses my forehead. “We’ve got you, and we aren’t going anywhere. You fit, remember? The last piece of the puzzle.”

“Well said, mate,” Rival agrees, slapping him on the back and looking at me meaningfully.

“Couldn’t agree more,” Loki adds.

Reaper just nods firmly once and looks like he’s trying to stop himself from reaching for me, Killian and Storm just stare at me, and when I raise my eyebrow in question, they roll their eyes and give me the same duh look, making them look more like the brothers they are than they ever have.

“Thank you,” I whisper and then turn to look at Mayhem, “I’ll tell you all about it one day, but for now I can tell you that I’m very good at illusions.”

They look confused, so with the Void fuelling my magic, I create an illusion of a dead body on the floor by our feet.

“Whoa, that almost looks real,” Rival mutters, creeping closer.

“Touch him,” I suggest.

“What?”

“Touch him. There’s no point having an illusion to hide the fact that someone is actually alive unless it can be verified by officials,” I explain.

Somewhat sceptically, Mayhem reaches forward and then almost immediately jerks his hand back and looks up at me in awe, which prompts the rest of them to reach down and touch it, too, being careful not to let go of each other and subsequently me.

“Holy fucking shit balls, batman,” Loki exclaims as he keeps prodding the body.

“Farren, that is truly amazing. How much scrutiny can it withstand?” Mayhem asks curiously.

I’m well aware that we’re completely off track from the original conversation, but it feels good to share, and there’s nothing particularly pressing we have to get back to. It took much less time than I thought it would.

“Almost all, but if something gets someone curious, then it will dissipate with absolutely no magical trace, and by that point, the original is alive, and everyone assumes it was a delayed ashing.”

“Wow,” Rival mutters as they all stare at me like I’ve done something truly remarkable.

Mayhem clears his throat and nods down to the body. “That isn’t an illusion. I’m not sure what it is, but it's far too complex and real to be an illusion. Even a strong one wouldn’t be able to be touched without the magical strands breaking down and revealing it to be an illusion.”

“What?” I ask, dumbfounded and trying to process what he’s telling me.

“It’s most likely something to do with your Weaver abilities. There hasn’t been one for such a long time that we don’t really know what your abilities are.” Rival adds, making Mayhem nod along.

“We can help you find out when we get a chance back at the academy if you’d like?” Mayhem asks.

“Yes, please, any information would be helpful. I’m flying blind when it comes to that gift.”

“How do you get rid of it if it doesn’t dissipate by itself?” Rival asks the others listening to the conversation intently.

“I thank it,” I reply.

“You what?” Loki asks, his nose wrinkling in the cutest way.

“Like this,” I gesture to the body, “thank you for your service. You may depart, friend.”

The body disappears in a fog of black glitter, like always, and I look up to grin at the guys. I’ve never shown anyone that trick, and I’m pretty damn proud of it. I met with white faces, silence and pure shock.

“What?”

“You can take this one, brother,” Storm mutters, slapping Killian on the shoulder.

“You weren’t speaking Fae, you weren’t speaking any language I’ve ever heard, and your eyes were completely black, your pupils glowing gold,” he tells me bluntly.

I stare and stare and try to comprehend what they’re telling me. I was speaking English.

“I said, thank you for your service. You may depart, friend,” I repeat.

“Still not any language we know, Love,” Loki says, looking part fascinated and also slightly freaked.

“Well, fuck.” I curse and then add, “please tell me that was Fae?”

“Yes, Darling, it was. Don’t worry. We’ll figure it out.” Killian reassures me.

“Come on, let's get back. I want my bed,” Storm says, effectively ending the conversation, and I start forward, my mind spinning.

My thoughts should probably be on the fact that I just murdered my father, but I’m unaffected by that. The man made my life and countless others hell. He is a murderer of so many that he deserves his fate. No, my thoughts are on the revelations that have just occurred and the fact that the guys are staying and treating me the same so far. As we approach the doorway back to our room, I can’t help but think that things are starting to look up. The main threat to my life is gone, the Headmaster is going to be replaced by Uncle Magnus, and I’ve got the guys.

As we step through the door though, I curse myself for being so optimistic; I should’ve known better.

“Is that what I think it is?” Loki asks, staring at the purple flames hanging in the middle of the lounge and spelling out the words; Your first trial starts now.

“Grab your bags now!” Storm orders.

We all rush to grab our go bags, and I’m grateful that we’re already in our fighting gear, thanks to our middle of the night excursion. At least that’s going to cut down on the time it takes to grab everything. I pull my bag on and grab a couple more weapons just in case. Just as I turn back to the door to meet the others, I feel a sucking sensation take over my whole body and find a portal, the edges glowing green, just behind me. It pulls me towards it, and I go willingly, not bothering to fight it since, from what we were told, we will all get pulled into the same place anyway. As I move over the threshold, there’s a flash of green that completely takes over my vision, and I can feel that the ground beneath my feet has some give in it, which makes me think I must be standing on grass.

I keep my other senses alert as I wait for the green to fade from my eyes so that I can see again. Hearing a thump next to me, I tense, preparing to fight without my sight, but thankfully the green quickly starts to recede from the edges of my vision, and I can just make out a crouching Loki. I instantly relax but stay ready just in case something decides to attack while we’re vulnerable from the portal. We’re going to have to be careful about that. It wouldn’t surprise me if one of the levels were based on something like that. After all the Fae Realm is testing our skills, I wonder how well the others can fight with one of their senses taken. Something to think about when we get back.

We seem to be on the edge of a forest with a dirt track set out in front of us, and nothing looks particularly unusual, so I assume that we’re still in the Fae Realm. After I’ve checked the surrounding area is safe, I turn back to Loki.

“You okay?” I ask, walking over to him.

“Yeah, fuck, that first step is a doozy.” He replies, his eyes scanning the area like mine just did. “Where are the others?”

I open my mouth to say how the hell should I know when five green-edged portals appear. “There, I guess.”

“Wait five?” Loki asks, “surely there should only be four?”

Out of the portals lands, Killian, Storm, Rival, Reaper and Zev!

“What the fuck?” I ask.

“What’s wrong?” Storm demands clearly still blinded by the green.

“Don’t worry; the green will fade in a few seconds,” Loki tells the others, and within seconds they all start looking around.

When their eyes land on Zev, they all just stare at him.

He rubs his hand against the back of his neck like he’s nervous, and to be fair, I would be too, with all of us staring at him.

“Erm, hi guys,” he says, giving us a little wave.

“Don’t take this the wrong way because I’m happy to see you, but how?” I ask.

“I’m not entirely sure as far as I’m aware because I don’t have a team and won’t have one because I’m the next Head Seer I was going to be pulled in by myself, so I have no idea how I’ve been pulled in with you guys, but I’m incredibly grateful because at least I have a pretty decent chance of survival now.”

The guys look at me.

“Well, the voice you heard did say that he’d be safe,” Rival points out.

As I go to reply, tinkling laughter fills sounds all around us, and I freeze.

“Please, for the love of just about everything tell me that you guys heard that?” I practically beg.

“Yep, I heard it.” Zev replies, looking to the others, who all nod, “what voice?”

“After I realised that you were the next Head Seer, I asked the fates to make sure that you’d stay safe in the games, and the voice of a woman replied saying you would be, but only I heard it,” I explain quickly.

Zev’s eyes widen, “In that case, I guess that thanks are in order.”

I nod and then look around again, “So how do we know what we’re supposed to do?”

With a zap of purple light, a scroll appears and hovers in the air, waiting to be read, almost like the Fae Realm was listening to our conversation and waiting until we had gotten over the surprise of Zev being here before it gave us the information we needed to do the mission.

“I guess that’s how,” Loki grins, looking over at Storm, “you’re the boss. You get the honours.”

“Alright,” Storm says, plucking it out of the air and unravelling it.

Scrolls aren’t really used much anymore, people sticking to heavy paper and envelopes instead, so I can appreciate the Fae Realm’s flair for the dramatics.

Storm clears his throat and starts to read, “A hybrid beast from the Void Realm,” his eyes snap up to mine.

“The Void is a Realm?” I ask, shocked.

“I just assumed it was magic, not an actual place,” Mayhem agrees with me, and if he didn’t know, then I don’t feel quite so bad that I had no idea.

“We can come back to that. What else does it say?” Reaper asks Storm.

“The beast has escaped into the Crimson court,” he starts and gets interrupted again.

“That must be where we are,” Killian says and then, when Storm gives him an exasperated look, adds, “sorry, please continue, brother.”

“Thanks,” Storm replies drily. “It’s causing terror and havoc. We need to subdue it and stop it from continuing its attack on the crimson court. They have tried everything and have had no success. We only have two days to complete this task, and then the green portal will come to take us back to the castle. Once back at the academy, we will have four days' rest before the next level if we successfully complete this one. Then it goes on to say, "use everything at your disposal, or you die.”

We’re silent as we run the words over in our minds and make sure we remember them.

“It’s interesting that it tells us how many days rest we get in between levels. I knew that there is always a break between each level to recover and study for the next one, but I didn’t realise that we were actually given a set time of how long we’d have.” Zev comments.

“It’ll certainly help us manage time better. So what do we do about the beast then?” Killian asks, his tail still wrapped around his waist.

“Kill it?” Loki suggests, looking around at the rest of us.

A sick churning starts in my stomach at his words, and I clamp my mouth shut, not sure where my reaction is coming from; I want to know what the others think we should do before I weigh in my opinion.

“Not necessarily,” Rival replies, and I lose some of my tension. “It says subdue, not kill.”

“I’ll give you that, but what do we do with it if we actually manage to subdue it?” Reaper argues.

“Not only that, but they’ve been trying to get rid of it for goddess knows how long now and haven’t succeeded, and they’ve had a chance to study it. We aren’t going to get that, especially in the time frame we have. I mean, we don’t even know where it is. The scroll didn’t say that, which means that we’re going to have to find a village or something so that we can get some information on where we need to go.” Mayhem explains.

I can’t keep my mouth shut any longer, my gut instincts are going crazy, and I have to say something, “We will not kill it.”

“What?” Storm asks me since I almost exploded with the statement.

“I didn’t mean for it to come out quite so forcefully as it did,” I apologise and then take a breath and try to explain where I’m coming from more clearly, “We cannot kill it. Think about it for a second from its point of view. The beast has found itself in a new and unfamiliar place, a place that is full of light that it is not used to; you’ve all travelled with me through the Void; you know what the light levels are there,” I start to explain when Zev interrupts me.

“You travel through the Void?” he asks. There’s an urgency to his question that I don’t quite understand, and where I would typically question whether to tell him about my Void gift or not, there is clearly something bigger going on here. Whoever that voice was, has put him in our path to keep safe, so I have to believe that I can trust him.

“Yes, it’s my main gift.”

“That’s why you never used your gift when we sparred?” he asks, but I think he already knows the answer and just asks the question because that’s what’s expected of him.

I tilt my head slightly, studying him. “Vision?”

He nods, “I can’t tell you. I would if I could, but I can’t risk it.”

“Don’t worry, mate, we know how it works. We won’t ask.” Loki reassures him, and Zev’s shoulders droop as the tension leaves him.

“Farren, you were saying?” Storm asks me, trying to get our conversation back on track.

“Right, it’s arrived and immediately been attacked because it's different and doesn’t fit in here. It’s scared and acting out of fear. We need to take it home. If we can subdue it, then I can take it back through the Void with me.”

Storm studies me and then asks, “It’s that important that we don’t kill it?”

“Yes,” I reply firmly.

“Alright, then, we won’t kill it.”