Chapter Four

“S o, Hades is missing, the princes are in control and trying to control the different factions in the Shadowlands in order to gain access to the Fae Realm, and god knows why. Somehow we’re assuming that the Wraiths are involved as well, and we don’t have a clear motive as to why they want out of the Underworld and what their end game is,” Rival summarises.

“Yes, that about sums it up so far,” Grey replies and then frowns before his eyes suddenly widen. “There was this rumour going around, and I heard some of the torturers talking about it, while they thought I was out. There’s a way that they could permanently open a gateway between the Underworld and another realm. If this happened all the creatures that need to stay in the Underworld would be able to escape. Whereas the majority of the Underworld's dead population would want to stay where they are, there are obviously some that would risk losing their souls by trying to get back to their realms.”

“Well, fabulous. I still don’t understand the reason why they’d want to?” Loki asks.

“There are creatures who are perpetually hungry, while in the Underworld, their hunger is controlled and dampened, but if they go anywhere else, that hunger will come back tenfold, and they will eat anything and everything in their path.” Grey replies.

“You know quite a lot about the Underworld,” Reaper points out.

Grey smiles, “You pick up on things when you’re down there for so long.”

“Do you know how they could open the gate?” Storm asks.

Grey shakes his head, “No, but I have an extensive library here and there are several people that we can talk to as well who might have the information we need.”

“I feel like we’re working with only two or three pieces of a thousand-piece puzzle.” Zev groans, and then adds, “I can’t see anything to do with it, not at the moment. I’m guessing that it’s a part of the trial, it could be classed as cheating if I could see everything and what path we should take.”

“That’s got to be a new feeling for you,” Loki smirks.

Zev rolls his eyes and flips him the bird, “Yeah fucker, and I don’t like it.”

“I didn’t read anything about the Fae Realm taking magic during the Warrior games. The whole point was that they used all their magic to the highest of their ability to prove that they were capable and worthy of protecting the realm in the up-and-coming war.” Rival replies and then adds, sounding frustrated, “Nothing I read makes sense, none of it. It’s almost like it's been scripted, that only some of the real information is being given to us.”

“You’re right,” Grey answers.

“What?” Killian asks, and then rolls his eyes, “I feel like I’m saying that a lot during this conversation.”

I smile as I tap his arms, which are still wrapped around me.

“It was decided a long time ago, by the ruling families, that only certain information was going to be taught in the academy’s, a series of half-truths. In recent years, a select few members of the monarchy have taken that to new extremes.” Grey explains.

“How do you know that?” Mayhem asks, curiosity evident in his tone.

Grey winks at him, “I’m older than I look.”

“Right, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m exhausted, and there’s fuck all that we can do right now anyway,” I start, as I stand up and Kill reluctantly lets me go, “so why don’t we head to bed and start again in the morning. We can start by going through the archives that Grey has here and then we will hopefully have some more information and we can work out where to go from there.”

“Do you have the real information?” Rival practically pleads.

Grey smiles, “Yes, I have it all.”

I smile as they start a conversation about all things information and research, Zev moving closer to them both so that he can join in, it’s important to me that they all get on with Grey, and more than just because he’s one of my best friends, I have a gut feeling that he’s vital in the long run as well to all of us, not just to me.

I feel like there are several strings, threads that are being weaved by the fates, things that we don’t know and won’t until they deem it necessary that we know. Something big is coming.

*********

The next morning, I’m awoken by a knock on my door. My room at the academy shocked me because it was truly mine, and I’d already gotten used to my usual living conditions at my father’s estate. Although this room was given to me by Grey, it wasn’t really mine, but the room at the academy was. I don’t know why it felt more like mine, most likely because I had just spent the last six months in absolute hell. Maybe it wasn’t the room itself; perhaps it was the people that made it seem more like home even then when they were all being assholes.

Shaking off my thoughts, since they aren’t making much sense anyway, I get up and walk to the door, pulling it open to find all of my men, I mean the others standing outside of my door. Reaper opens his mouth to speak and then snaps it closed as his eyes travel my whole body.

“What,” I snap, cranky thanks to my wondering thoughts, the slew of entirely inappropriate dreams I had last night and my distinct lack of coffee or stabbing anything recently. All of this doesn’t have me in the best of moods.

Zev clears his throat as his eyes snap up to meet mine, “Erm, you, you’re.”

“What he’s trying to say is you’re pant-less and looking sexy as fuck right now,” Loki smirks and gets smacked on the back of the head by Kill’s tail.

Glancing down, I shrug as I move back into the room, leaving the door open as I hunt around for my pants. As I pull them on, I ask, “What’s up?”

“We were just wondering how much you really trust Grey,” Storm starts.

I zip up my pants and turn around just in time to see all of their eyes move up from my ass; I smile, “I trust him with my life.”

Loki smacks Zev on the chest, “Tell her what you told us.”

Zev sighs, “I can’t see him. No matter how hard I tried, and I actually did the meditation we’re taught as kids to try and focus our magic. I still couldn’t see him.”

My eyebrows raise, “Huh, that’s odd.”

“Yeah, but as I said to the others, I also don’t get much on you guys, not like I do with everything else. That’s why I said yesterday that I think my abilities have been messed with thanks to the Warrior Games.” He explains.

“That would make sense. I mean, you’d have an incredible advantage if you did have access to all of your magic.” Killian replies.

“Also, has there ever been a Seer that’s been a part of the Warrior games, especially one that’s going to be the Seer for all the realms?” Loki asks, and we all look at Rival since he’s the one that not only did the most research on the Warrior Games but because he tends just to know these things.

Rival shrugs and rubs his hand across the back of his neck, “I have no idea. I don’t imagine that they were. Mostly because they like to have other people fight for them; I know for a fact that past Seers, whose magic is only as a Seer and who don’t have secondary magic, have not attended Black Onyx. Zev is somewhat of an anomaly.”

Zev smirks, “That’s me. I’ve never been one to do what I’m told or supposed to do, and like hell was going to let anyone else protect me.”

“This is why we get along, man,” Mayhem replies.

Before anyone else can weigh in on the conversation, Grey appears, standing next to me.

“Shit, man, do you have to keep doing that?” Loki exclaims.

Grey chuckles, “Sorry, I’ll try not to make you jump.”

Loki smirks, “Or wear a bell?”

Grey pretends to think about it, “Hmm, yes, that may be a way to go.”

Amused, I say, “I would pay to see you wear a cow bell.”

“Not going to happen, Farren,” he replies, and then continues, “I’ve set up some pastries and coffee in the library. I figured you’d all want to get a start.”

I don’t even bother replying as I walk out of the room and head in the direction of the library. He said coffee, and I need me some coffee.

The guys are quick on my heels, and we soon find ourselves in Grey’s extensive library. I already have a mug full of coffee in one hand and a pastry of some kind in the other.

“Wow,” Rival mutters, his tone hushed in awe as he gazes around at the rows and rows of books stacked all the way up to the doomed ceiling. He’s got an enormous fireplace, already lit with comfy armchairs dotted around where you can read. There are also huge tables where you can set out any research you find, in other words, it’s perfect for what we’re going to be doing here.

Storm frowns as he looks around, “Where do we even start? We have no idea how to open the gates to the Underworld, or if gates really exist since we know based on rumours that were heard in the Underworld, and they could’ve just been spouting bullshit for all we know.”

“We need to find anything that could mention opening the gates to the Underworld, and then we go from there,” Rival says as he starts to walk the aisles of books, and Grey follows as they begin to talk about the kinds of books that they need to find. We all follow and just stand there and hold our arms out, ready for them to place books in. Once none of us can possibly carry anymore, we venture back to the central part of the library and set our stuff up on the tables and get reading.

Now don’t get me wrong, I actually like research and learning more about this world, but two hours later, with lots of coffee in my system, I’m done, I’m bored, I want to stab something, and I am not used to being this inactive for this fucking long.

Something inside of me is starting to yearn for violence, long for the fight, and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it.

Slamming the book closed, Reaper gets up, “I can’t find anything. I feel like we need a starting point of where to look, at least. Plus, I’m getting twitchy.”

“You’re right. Why don’t we go and see Monty? He’s likely to have some more information for us, and we can use it as a base point. He most likely knows something about the Wraith situation and what’s going on with the factions as well.” I suggest.

“Who’s Monty?” Kill asks curiously.

“Someone I know,” I reply, looking at Grey to see if it’s a good idea to go and see him or not.

Grey shrugs, “It can't hurt.”

“Wait, I found something,” Rival says, excitement threading through his tone as he leans further over the book that he’s reading.

“Well?” Mayhem asks impatiently when his twin just carries on reading and doesn’t actually explain to us what he’s found.

Rival’s head pops up as he smiles sheepishly, “Sorry, I got distracted. Okay, so according to this text, thousands of years ago, the Underworld was open to the rest of the realms, and the supes born there could travel freely, much like we travel between worlds now. But, it came with issues; like Grey said yesterday, a certain few of those creatures began not to be able to control their hunger in any other realm apart from the Underworld. Not only that but some of the souls, the good ones, when they crossed back over not as a living being but more as a spirit, struggled to behave and follow the rules, which caused big problems. There were protocols in place that meant that they were not allowed to interact with anyone from their previous lives and all that bollocks.” Rival starts to explain.

Storm raises his eyebrow, “Bollocks?”

“Yeah, I mean, it’s important but not right now.” He runs his finger down the ancient-looking page and then grins, “Ah, here it is. Okay, so they had the rules but as with the supernaturals who found that they couldn’t control their hunger out of the Underworld, they suddenly noticed that the longer the souls spent in the Realms, the more they seemed to lose themselves, becoming ravenous and cannibalising their own kind, each other or pulling the souls from the beings that lived in the many Realms, souls that weren’t ready to die yet. It caused a massive problem in the Underworld and everywhere, actually, so much so that war almost broke out, and it was decided that the gates of the Underworld would be sealed shut and only Hades would be able to grant certain supes access to the Realms.”

“Wow, okay,” I reply, “that definitely wasn’t taught in any of the history books. At least none that I read.”

“No, it wasn’t,” Zev adds, “does it say how they locked the gates?”

“Yes, one second,” Rival says as he starts to flick through to try and find the right part of the book.

While he looks, Grey scrapes his silver and black hair back into the bun on top of his head, his eyes flashing with anger as he says, “It would make sense that they try to open the gates now that Hades is supposedly gone because there’s no way that Hades would allow his Realm to come under threat, and that’s what would happen. His people, his realm, everything would be destroyed. I don’t think the Princes truly understand what the consequences would be if they opened the gate. They wouldn’t just be letting the supes out of hell, for what purpose we don’t know, but they’d be letting questionable supernaturals in.”

“What do you mean?” Rival asks, temporarily distracted by Grey’s words.

“I read somewhere, in a book that I probably shouldn’t have had access to, that there are artefacts and treasures of all kinds kept in the Underworld to keep them safe to ensure that they don’t end up in the wrong hands. They were extremely powerful things, talismans, jewels, books, the real history; it’s all down there, and it's all potent. There are people in this realm especially that would love to get their hands on them and would cause the end of the world as we know it.” He explains.

Loki frowns, “If all of that is there, then why can’t the princes use it? Wouldn’t that be easier than opening the gate?”

“In theory, yes, although we don’t know what they have planned and why they want the gates open.” Grey replies before adding, “According to the book though, the only person who knows the location of the vault and can access it is Hades. The princes won't be able to get any of it.”

“Well, that’s good news unless they know where Hades is and manage to overpower him somehow and get the location out of him,” Reaper points out.

Rival immediately starts shaking his head, “Impossible, Hades is a god.”

Mayhem hums in agreement, “Yes, but aren’t the Princes demigods?”

“He’s right,” I reply, “and there are more of them, so they might be able to overpower him.”

“It all comes back to us needing more information,” Storm replies and then looks back at Rival, “did you find what you were looking for?”

“Oh yeah, sorry, I got distracted by the conversation. Anyway, according to this book, the key is literally a key. Look,” he turns the massive book around and shows us a picture of a key. The drawing is incredibly detailed, and the key looks ancient. The top has five intricately carved circles, each one with a different design and a precious stone in the middle, all surrounding the massive dark green gemstone in the middle of the top part of the key. Vines with skulls instead of leaves twist around it, wrapping down the shaft of the key until it gets to the intricately carved bit, it looks far more complicated than any skeleton key I’ve seen before, and like the vines, there’s several skulls carved into it.

“That’s a wicked looking key,” Loki grins, reaching out his hand and brushing his fingers over the detailed drawing.

“That’s the real size of it as well,” Rival adds.

“What? That's the actual size of the key?” Zev asks.

Rival nods, “Yep.”

“It's as big as my fucking forearm and wider!” Mayhem mutters.

“Maybe you should work out more, then,” Loki smirks, his eyes twinkling with mirth.

“Fuck off,” Mayhem retorts, using his magic to flick a tiny spear of ice in his direction and making him yelp.

“Stop it you two,” Storm orders and then turns to Rival who’s trying to stop himself from laughing, “I don’t suppose it tells you where it is, does it?”

Rival shakes his head, “Nope, but maybe this Monty person that Farren mentioned will be able to give us more information?”

They all look at me, and I shrug, “He knows a lot that he shouldn’t, so it's possible.”

Grey stands up, “Alright, let’s get going and see what Monty has to say. You better fill them in on the way there, or Monty is going to eat them alive.”

“Literally?” Loki asks, sounding somewhat cautious.

Grey’s smile is sharp, “Yes.”

I chuckle as I get up, and we all start to make our way out of the room, “Aww, don’t worry Loki, he will play with you first.”