Chapter Ten

T hat buzzing should’ve been the end of it, but apparently, my wards decide to take it a step further. I become blinded by light as I hear the guys grunt, not necessarily with pain but instead sounding more like they’re uncomfortable.

When the light finally fades, and I have no idea what the fuck just happened, Rival asks, “Is that what normally happens?”

Grey answers for me since I’m currently staring at my wards like they’re going to tell me themselves.

“No, well it didn’t last time we did it, but as I said before, the wards were updated.” Grey replies.

“They’re stronger now,” I say, suddenly realising what it is that the wards did, “I think they absorbed some of your power to strengthen them. They weren’t meant to do that.”

“So that wasn’t a part of your spell?” Storm double-checks.

“Nope, it’s just supposed to grant you access so long as you mean me no harm.”

“Well, just add it to the crazy shit pile.” Loki shrugs.

Rival looks thoughtful, “Well, to be honest we all know that magic can have its own mind. There will be a reason why your wards decided to use our magic to strengthen themselves, but we probably won’t be able to work it out now.”

“You’re right, let's go in,” I reply, and I push open the gates stepping through and looking back at the guys standing on the other side.

They all follow me through, with no ill effects and without being forcibly removed from the grounds, and that small part of me settles again. Once we’re all inside the gates, Grey calls his horses through, and the gates shut back up behind us all.

“You weren’t joking about it needing work,” Zev mutters.

“The bones are there. It just needs a bit of love to bring it back to life.” I reply, feeling slightly defensive.

I fell in love with what I knew this house could look like when it was restored. It’s big, as are most homes in this part of the Shadowlands, but unlike Grey’s castle, it’s in the style of a second empire home that is usually found in the earth realm in the place that they call America. However, it’s more extensive and more intricately designed than the ones I’ve seen from the earth realm. It needs a lot of work; the roof needs redoing, the windows replacing, the porch is sagging, and the inside is empty, broken and needs just as much work. I could have hired magic construction workers, but that always leaves a risk for their interpretation and if you’re away for long periods of time, then it can fall back into its previous state, which is why I want to do it the traditional way.

“Why are your wards so state of the art, but the house looks like this?” Mayhem asks.

“The wards were more important than the house,” I explain, “there’s no point making the house look nice and fixing it up if I don’t have wards that are up to snuff because the house would just end up destroyed anyway.”

“That makes sense, I guess.” He replies as we move up the steps of the porch, trying not to step on any of the rotting boards and slip through.

As we get to the top, I place my hand on the door; the house recognises me and opens, allowing us all to step inside.

“It’s got some really beautiful original features,” Loki comments as he looks around, “do you know when it was built?”

“I think it’s around a thousand years old, possibly more,” I reply. As soon as I make my way through the door, I breathe in a sigh of relief; this place has always felt like home to me, I can’t explain it, but it just feels safe. “I can’t wait until I can get it back to its former glory.”

Kill frowns, “Why hasn’t it been done already? If you get a good team on it, then it could be finished in a day.”

“I want to do it properly. It looks like this because the old owners moved on, and they didn’t restore it properly in the first place, which means underneath the magic, it was still deteriorating, and I don’t want that.” I explain.

“I’m with you,” Rival replies, “I’d do the same thing. You need to ensure that a house has good foundations, especially if you intend to live in it long term.”

“Exactly.” I smile, and he wraps an arm around me, pulling me close.

“Right; what did Monty say we needed to do?” Loki asks.

“That I need to free my magic to search again, but this time with the knowledge that there is a hidden room here somewhere,” I reply.

“You sound skeptical,” Reaper points out, his giant arms crossed over his chest.

“I am. I searched this place with my magic, and without it, there was no hint of a hidden room here.”

“It’s worth a try right? Even if there isn’t one, at least we’ll know and then we can go back to Monty and tell him he got it wrong.” Storm suggests.

Loki chuckles, “Yeah, I highly doubt that he’s going to take that well.”

Zev shares a look with him, “Yeah, I’m not telling him. That’s on one of you.”

“Do your thing, Farren,” Kill interrupts the guys.

I focus and send out magic feelers throughout the entirety of the house, all of which I recognise from when I’ve done it before, that is, until my magic hits something that, in my mind's eye, looks like a glowing door. I tilt my head as I remain focused. My magic can’t move past the door, which suggests there’s something pretty strong protecting it, and as much as my magic pushes, it simply can’t break through. Keeping my eyes closed, I follow where my magic is leading me, trusting it not to allow me to crash into anything. The guys are silent, but I know that they are all following behind me because I can feel them, which is curious.

I feel like I’m walking for a long time until, finally, I stop at where my mind's eye tells me that the door is. When I open my eyes though I’m in the master bedroom and staring at a completely blank wall, no nicks, no wall sconces to pull that could lead to a secret room, nothing. It’s just a blank wall with peeling wallpaper.

“It’s there?” Mayhem asks.

I nod, “Yes, well at least my magic seems to think it is. It can’t get inside though.”

Grey frowns, “So it’s very well guarded then.”

“Yes, it would appear so,” I reply.

“The door might have a spell on it to conceal it. Try picking it apart,” Killian suggests.

“Good idea,” I reply.

I focus on the threads of my magic again, coaxing it forward, and then I simply think about what I want it to do; within seconds, my magic has tugged apart the threads of the spell that was keeping the door concealed, and it appears.

“I don’t think I’ll ever not be in awe of how easily you can do that,” Mayhem mutters.

“You didn’t use words or anything,” Zev adds, and it occurs to me that he hasn’t actually seen me do this before.

“No, I don’t need to,” I reply.

“With anything?” he asks.

I shake my head, “I haven’t found anything that I need to say the words for yet. Sometimes I’ll say them just because I want to, like with the wards.”

“That’s fucking awesome.” He compliments.

Storm starts to walk toward the door to open it, and I hold my arm up, blocking him. When he looks at me with a raised eyebrow, I explain, “You can’t go through; there are still protections on it. All I did was reveal the door. If it’s this well protected, then there’s a good chance that it will have a nasty kickback if you do try and open it.”

“How do we get in then?” Kill asks before adding, “Could your magic not un-weave the spell?”

“It might’ve been able to, but it would take me a long time because it’s so complicated and has so many layers to it, and by the time that I’m done, I’ll be completely drained. Since we don’t know what’s on the other side, I’d rather not risk it.”

Loki nods, “No unnecessary risks, Love.”

“We could try blasting it?” Rival suggests.

“With magic or with my favourite toys?” I ask excitedly because it's been a while since I got to blow shit up.

Reaper narrows his eyes as he looks over me, “You have explosives on you?”

I grin, “I always have explosives on me.”

Grey chuckles before asking, “Isn’t that dangerous? What if you get in a fight and they explode?”

Rolling my eyes, I reply, “I’m not that careless. The explosives I always carry on me need to be activated by a word.”

“So you’ve managed to mix explosives with spell work?” Rival asks curiously.

I shrug, “Well, kind of. The explosion isn’t magic; it’s just triggered by magic and protected, so I don’t explode when I usually would if it goes off while it's on me.”

“That’s quite impressive,” Rival replies.

“I’ll show you how to do it if you’d like?”

He grins, “Yes please.”

“Alright, why don’t we try to open the door with a magical blast first and then you can try to explode it.” Storm suggests.

I pout, but I nod, making his eyes fill with amusement. It’s still slightly jarring to me when he gives me an unguarded look. I think a part of me is still expecting him to shut down and go back to keeping all of his emotions behind a mask.

“Wait,” Grey interrupts, and we all look at him in question, “how are you going to make sure that you only blast the door and not damage the surrounding area?”

“I’ll put up a ward around the blast,” I suggest.

Mayhem interrupts, “I can also be on standby with my water, just in case the force field doesn’t contain the blast.”

I nod, “Good idea. I’d rather not damage my house any more than it already is. I have also been known to add a bit too much boom to my explosives before.”

Storm pinches his nose in exasperation, “Why am I not surprised that you make your own explosives.”

I smirk and wink at him as I reply, “Because I’m fucking amazing?”

“Who’s magic are we going to use to blast the door first, then?” Zev asks, getting us back on track.

“How about my fire?” Reaper asks, “Ryu wants to help, but he knows that he can’t come out in here.”

“Yeah, that might do it. Dragon fire is pretty fucking strong stuff,” Killian replies.

“I’ve got an idea,” Rival starts, “if we’re going to blast it with magic, we may as well do it properly, right? Go big or go home and all that.”

“Yeah, there’s no point half arsing it,” Loki replies.

Rival nods, his own fire lighting in his eyes as his orange hair starts to flicker so that it almost looks like its fire itself, “Exactly, I’ll add my fire to Reaper’s. We can blast it at the same time.”

“I can add mine too,” Grey offers and winces slightly, although I have no idea why.

“You have fire magic?” I ask curiously.

Grey nods, his eyes trying to convey something to me that he can’t say, “Yes, it’s one of my gifts that has just come back.”

I frown, “Are you sure you want to use it then? I don’t want you to drain yourself.”

“Trust me. It will be fine.” Grey replies with a knowing glint in his dark eyes.

I shrug, “So long as you're sure. If there’s that much magic being kicked out though I think I’ll ward the entire room just in case something goes wrong; at least then, the room is protected.”

“I’ll be on standby too.” Mayhem offers his eyes glowing blue as he calls his magic forward.

Loki smirks, “I’m pretty useless in this situation, but I’ll be ready to use my speed to get people out of the way, and I can heal anyone if they get hurt.”

Zev frowns, “And I will just stand here, completely useless because I can't use my gift like I normally can, and I have no fucking idea if this is going to work or not and if I need to warn you or something.”

I'm not too fond of the way he’s speaking about himself, and judging from the frowns on everyone’s faces; neither are they.

Storming up to him, his eyes widen at my approach as I crane my neck back so I can look up at him, poking him in the chest as I say firmly, “You are not fucking useless, Zev, and if I hear you talk such bollocks ever again I’m going to smack you into next week. You are valuable, you are needed, and you are one of us. There are going to be plenty of situations in the future where one of us will not be needed.” I soften my voice as I add, “I know your lack of visions is frustrating you, but they don’t define you or your worth, and if you woke up tomorrow and were a freaking Tripterone, we’d still want you around.”

“Although I might have to get over my fear of things with that many legs,” Loki shudders.

Zev’s eyes are wide, and I wonder if anyone has ever told him off for talking shit about himself. I also wonder if I’ve maybe overstepped a line because that wasn’t my intention in the slightest, I just wanted him to know that he was ours now, and nothing is going to change that. He has a lot of demons weighing him down, and I have the overwhelming urge to help him. I knew from the first time that we fought that he was important, and now, I’m even more sure.

He's silent for a few more moments, and I slowly remove my finger from being pressed into his chest, his very firm chest. Internally rolling my eyes, I curse at myself, noticing how muscular his chest is, really isn’t the priority right now. Just as I start to step back and apologise for going off on him, he wraps his muscular arms around me and pulls me in tight, burying his head in my neck.

After a moment, he mutters, “Thank you. I feel like I say this a lot, but I’ve never had people care about me like you and the guys seem to. It’s going to take some getting used to.”

Breathing out a sigh of relief, I reply, “I told you that you were stuck with us now. You scared me when you went silent. I thought you were going to be mad at me because I yelled at you.”

“Never,” Zev replies, his lips brushing against my neck as he talks, and I desperately try to suppress my shudder, only just succeeding. However, there’s fuck all I can do about the goosebumps that prickle my skin and when he steps back from me, there’s no mistaking the happy smile on his face as he winks at me.

“Let’s get this done then,” I announce, turning back to face the others and ignoring the knowing looks on all of their faces.

“Well damn, remind me not to piss you off, Sparky. I don’t want to be on the receiving end of your wrath,” Mayhem chuckles and has all the guys nodding in agreement.

Warmth fills my chest at his nickname for me, but outwardly I just roll my eyes. “Just give me a second to put up a ward around the room, and then you guys can have at it.”

I only need to concentrate for a short amount of time before I get it done, making sure I also protect the floor. When creating a ward like this, many supes forget that they also need to include whatever they’re standing on; otherwise it has the potential for disaster; in this case, the magic will disperse into the room below since it has nowhere else to go, but if you’re stood on the ground outside, then it could travel through the magic channels in the ground and cause all sorts of unimaginable danger.

I’m not sure if it was just me that wasn’t taught this, I had to figure it out the hard way, and I didn’t exactly have a traditional upbringing, but when I’ve watched other supes with the gift of force fields or wards as I prefer to call them, they often forget to cover what they’re standing on with the ward. It’s a really good way to sneak into a supernaturals house if you’re so inclined because even the supes that are employed to fit wards sometimes forget, and that’s why I built my own around this house. Not only am I reassured that my home is completely protected and I won’t get any attacks from under the ground, but I am also the only one who knows how they work and how to ensure that someone else has access to the house if they need it.

“I’m done,” I say out loud, hoping that I wasn’t stuck in my own thoughts for too long.

“Alright, everyone that’s not involved, stand back,” Storm orders, as he looks at me sternly, I don’t know why I always get the urge to argue with him whenever he tells me what to do in a non-emergency situation, but I do, and he clearly knows it.

I know we’re in a serious situation, but I’m feeling playful, which is why I widen my stance, cross my arms over my chest and raise my eyebrow as I give him a challenging look.

“Oh shit, this is going to be fun to watch,” Loki smirks and I glance over to see him lean up against the far wall, away from the door.

The others all have similar expressions as they chuckle.