Chapter Seventeen

K eeping to the edges of the room, I move closer to the mirror as I send my magic towards it cautiously to see just how complicated it’s going to be to pull it apart. I’m going to have to work reasonably quickly because although I can’t sense any kind of alarm that would let the princes know that someone is tampering with it, I don’t want to risk it. That’s also the reason why I’m keeping to the peripheral of the mirror as well; just because it doesn't look active doesn’t mean that it's not, and even though I’m shrouded in the Void, more so than I usually am in these sorts of circumstances it doesn’t mean that if someone was paying attention that they wouldn’t be able to see or sense me and raise the alarm.

I've dealt with the worst of the Underworld, and I have no intention of going back, not for a long time anyway.

I start to use my magic to pull on the threads, and at first they offer little resistance, fooling me into believing that this may be less complicated than I had thought. The more I pull it apart though, the more it starts to resist, and I have to put more strength into getting it to unravel than I ever have before. The last thread that will break it entirely will not budge, and I start to wonder if I even have the skill to pull this off. I’m not one to give up easily though, especially when it’s something this important, so with sweat beading on my brow from the exertion, I dig deep into my magic, deeper than I have gone before, and I feel that new magic that I’ve only briefly touched before start to unfurl, welcoming me the rush of it rejuvenates me and I grasp hold of it, temporarily forgetting that Grey had asked me not to use it until we understood it more.

The difference is astonishing, and as I send it toward the last thread of the spell, it’s met with absolutely no resistance and disintegrates, something that I have never seen happen before. As the spell finally breaks, a shock wave releases from the mirror as it turns to dust. The shockwave is so strong that it knocks me backwards, and I lose the hold I have on the Void to keep me concealed. Thankfully, with the mirror gone the princes won’t know of my involvement.

As I sit there, dazed, that new magic sinks back into the depths of my soul, my usual magic wrapping around it almost protectively. I’m so distracted by my magic’s behaviour that I’ve let my guard down, a rookie move and one that I should know better not to do. The door slams open, and I jump to my feet, ready to fight since, by now, it’s far too late to use my cloaking technique. The fucker has already seen me.

However, my confidence quickly disappears as I see who I’m facing. Memories start to play through my mind rapidly. Being sliced over and over again until there was no part of me that wasn’t bleeding. Then they’d fix me up and start all over again. The memory of them burning me until I was charred and bleeding, on the brink of death and repeating the process, is so strong that I swear I can smell burning flesh, the acrid scent burning my nose.

“Well hello, little queen,” Astaroth grins, all of his teeth sharp, teeth that he used to like to sink into me, tearing chunks of flesh away and scraping bone.

My body begins to shake. Anyone else, and I might’ve stood a chance, but not Astaroth; he was my biggest tormentor.

No, you can do this. You’re stronger than you were then. Do not let him hurt you again.

Despite trying to give myself a pep talk, I can’t seem to make my body move, and because of that, I start to panic for a different reason. He just watches me, his smile wide, and I begin to get angry. I encourage the feeling and welcome it; anything is better than this paralysing fear that is currently consuming me.

My anger fizzles out when he brings forth his favourite blade, “Do you remember this blade? We’ve missed you.” He plays with the knife as he slowly moves toward me, and I feel a small amount of relief as my foot moves back. At least I can move, even if it's not to fight but to retreat. He smirks as he flicks his hand out and holds me immobile, “Ah ah, I don’t think so; I’m going to get so many rewards for taking you back; the princes have been looking for you. You’re at the top of their most wanted list.”

“W-w-why?” I stutter and immediately curse myself for my show of weakness.

“No one knows, but I’m sure that it’s for nothing good,” he replies, “they didn't, however, specify what condition that you had to be in when they got you.”

He strides forward with more purpose and even more aggression than he had when he was approaching before. His words have brought that anger back, but I’m not fast enough to call on my magic to pull apart the spell holding me still; just before he gets to me, a giant dark blur darts in front of me and attacks him.

My heart soars as my eyes land on Poca, holy fuck I’ve missed him.

“A hellhound?” Astaroth asks incredulously as he stares at Poca, “Impossible.”

Poca pounces again as Astaroth starts to retaliate. He is strong though, and although Poca is more than capable, I will not let this fucker take him away from me. I’m stronger than this. While I gather my courage Poca viciously attacks, he seems to be getting the upper hand, and I am so fucking proud of him. Astaroth is starting to get pissed though, and using his vast strength; he launches Poca across the room, making him crash into the now useless mirror, Poca tries to get up but whines and falls back down.

“No,” I hiss as Astaroth continues to approach him. There’s no doubt in my mind that he is going to kill him.

“You can do this, daughter,” the musical voice whispers through my mind, getting stronger, “do not let the fear control you. Use it to end him for once and for all; you have the skill, daughter.”

The voice calms the ragged edges inside me and I call my magic, it rushes forward, eager to help and before he can take a single step closer to Poca, I hold my hands forward, concentrating on my gift and combining all my magic, even the new magic, into one blast. It strikes him in the chest, blasting a hole straight through him, big enough that I can see the wall behind him through it. He looks down as if surprised and then back at me; he seems to come to some sort of realisation as his eyes widen in horror, his mouth opens, but before he can get out any words, he disintegrates in front of my eyes, the black glitter of my magic consuming him entirely.

I shake off my shock at what just happened and rush to Poca’s side, checking him over and then sinking my hands into his fur. He licks my face and barks quietly, letting me know that he’s okay.

“We can’t leave yet. I need to find the key fragment. Are you up to it?” I ask him.

In response, he hops to his feet and shakes out his coat giving me a doggy smile that would terrify anyone else considering his multiple rows of teeth and smouldering fur that harms anyone who touches it unless he allows them to. I am even more keen to get out of this damn place now and I can hear arguing, meaning that the occupants are starting to realise what happened. We need to get out of here now before they begin to blame us for their current predicament.

I quickly activate the spell that should lead me to the fragment and then sigh as I look down at Poca, who has made himself smaller than his usual size, “Is it too much to ask that the fragment be in here.”

He lets out a sound that is curiously similar to a chuckle and then heads to the door. I guess we’re leaving then.

Slowly pulling open the doorway, I check the hallway, relieved when it’s empty and follow the tugging sensation the spell gave me that’s leading me in the right direction. I just hope that it’s not downstairs somewhere; there is still a lot of shouting going on, and they all sound panicked. I imagine that if they found me in the house, it would be kill first and ask questions later and whereas they wouldn’t mind killing me, I am opposed to killing them, I just have this feeling that we’re going to need them.

Fortunately, it seems to be leading us further down the upstairs hallway. Finally, I get to a door that Mayhem’s tracking spell is pulling me towards, and I know that the key fragment is behind it. Poca alerts me at the same time that I pick up on the nasty spell guarding the door. They may not realise that they have the key fragment that the princes are searching for, but they clearly have something else in here that they want to protect.

“It can’t hurt you, daughter. Open the door.” The voice whispers.

It shocks me, not because of what it tells me because now that the words have been said, I instinctively know them to be the truth. What shocks me is that the voice has spoken to me so soon after the last time; that has never happened before.

Poca whines as I reach for the door but doesn’t stop me as I simply grasp a hold of the handle and pull the door open; I feel the tingle of the spell, but none of the effects that it’s supposed to have, and I walk straight through, Poca following behind me. The room is full of priceless and magical artefacts, and there’s no wonder they had such a deadly spell on the door.

I am curious why I could break that spell but not the one that Astaroth cast on me to hold me still. Maybe it has something to do with when I use my new magic, it’s possible that each time I use it, I get stronger and the new magic grows.

I really don’t have time to think about this right now, and I follow the tugging to the other side of the room and quickly locate the box perched on the mantelpiece above the fire. It’s not in any of the display cases dotted around the room, each one of them with deadly spells protecting them. Which means they don’t think it’s worth protecting.

Poca suddenly becomes alert, and I hear footsteps rapidly moving down the hallway and heading in this direction, fuck. I didn’t want to use the Void again, but I’m going to have to or risk getting caught. Grabbing the box, I call Poca to my side just as the door begins to open and then step into the Void, just in time to avoid being seen by the supe walking through the door.

The Void welcomes me like usual, but I need to get back, so instead of lingering like I want to, like my magic is asking me to, I imagine the spot on the outside of the first layer of wards and step through.

My fist swings out as I sense someone approaching me quickly and I flip my attacker over my back as I draw my sword, landing on top of my attacker and holding it to his neck.

“Whoa, Farren, it’s just us,” Loki says, appearing next to me as the others all step out of the woods. I look down at Mayhem beneath me, his eyes wide but heated, and I wince.

“Shit, sorry. It’s been one hell of a night. I guess I’m still on edge.” Standing up, I hold my hand out for Mayhem to take and help pull him back up. As soon as he’s standing, he wraps me in his arms.

“Yeah, we know that. Why do you think we’re out here,” Storm says, with a slight bite in his tone.

“What?” I ask with a frown.

Before he can reply though, Poca makes himself known, bounding around them all and loving on them.

“Poca? When did he turn up?” Zev asks.

“A hellhound?” Grey asks, and I remember that Poca was still doing his only appearing to me and making me look fucking crazy to everyone else.

“It’s a long story. Can we just get out of here, and I’ll explain everything when we get back,” I reply, aware that we are really exposed out here, the main house is in chaos, and I have no doubt that they will be sending extra patrols out soon to make sure that their people are safe.

They share a look, but they instantly do as I ask, and Grey wraps an arm around my shoulders as we quickly make our way into the surrounding woods. I’m glad when I see that they haven’t brought the carriage, as that would be far too conspicuous. Of course, they know that so that’s why they didn’t bring it, and my brain is circling.

We end up with some of us doubling up on the horses as we ride back, under the cover of darkness, as we’re soaring high above everything my mind and my body calms. I got what I went in to get, and I overcame my fear and took out Astaroth. He can never hurt me or anyone else again. Although his soul will be in the Underworld, it will be contained to the side where the most evil of beings ends up to be eternally tortured.

As soon as we make it inside, Grey directs us to one of his more homely and comfortable sitting areas and I happily sink into the plush couch, my hand sinking into Poca’s fur.

“What the fuck happened?” Killian asks, “You were fine, excited and happy, and then suddenly we felt this overwhelming fear. I have never felt anything like that before.”

I sigh and sit up straighter, “Everything went off without a hitch at first. I got through the weak spot, and then into the main area surrounding the house. It wasn’t until I was perched on the window sill outside of the room where the object was that it started to get interesting.” I then explain what I overheard.

“So the third key fragment is in the Underworld,” Rival replies.

“Yes, Prince Remehus was very proud of that fact. He had no idea that they had a fragment in their possession.” I reply.

“Well, we aren’t going to be able to get to the third piece while the Shadowlands is still on lockdown,” Loki adds.

I nod, “True, but I have a theory about that. Poca didn’t show up until after I broke the mirror that was controlling the dark magic. So, I think that it broke the spell holding the Shadowlands hostage or at least part of it.”

“That sounds plausible to me, although I think it’s more likely that it’s only part of the spell.” Grey starts, “I am reasonably certain that there are two more factions that are being controlled by dark magic, and of course they are the biggest ones. The smaller ones seem to be unaffected.”

“If that’s the case, then we need to break the other objects in the other factions in order for us to get the other pieces,” Mayhem replies.

“This must be a part of the Warrior games,” Rival mutters with a frown.

“Well, we were brought here by the portal, and we would have been recalled if it weren’t.” Storm replies.

“All true. I have never known a trial to last as long as it has already though, and I am quite well versed on the history of the games,” Grey adds.

“What are you suggesting?” Kill asks him.

“I’m not sure, but it may be that this trial is actually more than one, that for some reason the fae realm and most likely a couple of the gods or goddesses have decided to change things up a bit,” Grey replies thoughtfully.

“Why would they do that?” I ask.

Grey shrugs, “They get bored.”

My eyebrows raise, but before I can ask the question of how in the realms he could know something like that, he winces before he cries out in pain, and his hands grasp the side of his head like he’s trying to hold it together. Rushing over to where he’s dropped to his knees, my hands flutter unsure how to help him.

“Grey, are you okay? What’s happening?” I ask him, his eyes meet mine, and I can easily read the pain in them.

“Let me through so I can see what I can do?” Loki questions, gently moving me out of the way. Loki’s hands glow as he holds them over Grey’s hands, still holding his head. “There, that should help.”

Grey slowly moves his hands and then breathes out a sigh of relief as he falls back on his butt.

“What the fuck was that?” Killian asks.

Grey just stares at us as if he’s not willing to trigger whatever it was again.

“I’m guessing that was the effect of telling us something that his silencing spell didn’t want us to know,” Rival suggests.

Grey nods but looks confused, “I don’t know how I managed to even say that much. I have never been able to before, and I’ve wanted to say a lot.”

His eyes meet mine; he means he’s wanted to tell me.