Chapter Eighteen

“H ow do you know that the gods get bored?” Zev asks and then winces, especially since the rest of us are practically glaring at him. “Sorry, of course I don’t want you to say anything that will trigger that reaction again.”

“It’s okay. I’d be curious in your position too,” Grey replies, his voice slightly hoarse.

“I’m actually ordering you to try not to trigger it,” Loki warns, and Grey looks at him incredulously like he’s not used to being ordered to do anything, and I suppose that’s true. Loki isn’t having any of it though. He raises his eyebrows and crosses his arms over his chest as he stares him down, “You can give me that look all you want; I am not backing down on this. Do you even realise what was causing you that much pain?”

Grey looks confused but impressed as he answers, “It was just a headache.”

Loki scoffs and shakes his head, “No, it wasn’t just a headache. It was your blood cells in your brain bursting over and over again, as soon as they heal, they burst again, and I don’t know how much of that your brain can take before it’s irreparably damaged, and I can’t heal it. So, I’m ordering you not to try to tell us anything. It’s not worth it; it’s not worth your health.”

Grey seems surprised by his words and then looks around at the rest of us, we all have the same firm look on our faces.

He clears his throat, “You would all pass up on knowing information that could make your lives easier, that could help with all of this just to stop me from being in pain?”

“Duh,” I reply.

“You’re one of us,” Storm shrugs.

“Thank you,” Grey replies, and then clears his throat and looks at me, “what else happened?”

“He’s right, the amount of fear that you felt, that we all felt,” Killian says, looking at Loki and Storm, “none of what you just told us explains that, so what else happened.”

I hesitate, my gaze lands on Grey, and his eyes widen as he pushes himself up off the floor and moves toward me.

“Farren, what happened?” he asks, crouching down in front of me.

“Astaroth,” I reply.

Understanding fills his eyes along with a healthy dose of anger, “What happened? Are you okay?”

“I froze. It was like I was paralysed with fear and I was suddenly weak, right back where I was when he had me.”

“Astaroth?” Storm bites out.

“One of her main tormentors from the Underworld,” Grey answers for me.

“Fuck,” Killian curses, looking tormented himself.

All of the guys are looking at me in concern, but not with pity which I’m grateful for. I don’t feel pitiful I feel strong, I ended one of my tormentors, I overcame my fear and feel fucking good about it.

Zev leans forward in his chair, “Did Poca save you?”

Grey shakes his head before I can answer, “No, that’s impossible. Hellhounds are strong but wouldn’t be able to take down a higher-level Underworld demon like Astaroth. He’s pretty much impossible to kill.”

“If that’s the case, how did you get away?” Rival asks me.

The wheels in my head are spinning; if he’s so impossible to kill, how the fuck did I manage to do it so easily.

“Farren?” Killian asks, sensing that I’m not telling them something.

“I didn’t escape,” I reply, my smile sharp.

Zev’s eyes narrow slightly as one of his eyebrows raises with confusion, “You must have. You’re here.”

My sharp smile grows, becoming proud, “I killed him.”

Grey shakes his head, “Are you sure? He’s not easy to kill. Maybe you just knocked him out?”

I can’t help but look amused, “He had a hole in his chest that I could’ve put my head through, and then he went poof.”

“Poof?” Loki asks, sounding amused despite the seriousness of the situation.

I nod, my smile excited, “Yeah, he went poof. He exploded into black glitter.”

“What?” Grey asks, his voice coming out in a snap. “That’s impossible, unless.”

“Oh no, don’t you say anything else,” I say firmly, “I’m not watching you go through that pain again.”

“Fine,” Grey says somewhat reluctantly.

“It’s alright, man. When we’re supposed to know, we will,” Zev reassures him.

Grey studies him closely but nods.

“No one has asked the most important question yet?” I say, changing the subject.

“Oh, and what’s that, Darlin’?” Kill asks me, looking damn proud.

“Did I get the key fragment?” I reply.

When I don’t say anything else, Mayhem chuckles and asks, “Well, don’t keep us in suspense, Sparky. Did you get it?”

I smile and reach my hand into the Void; I left it in there when I transported myself out of the castle and beyond the ward. It’s different to the main part of the Void that I walk through. I use little pockets that are a part of the Void to store weapons mostly but they are useful for storing other things as well.

“Of course I got it,” I smile and open it up, showing them the part of the fragment that’s inside.

“You’re amazing,” Zev grins.

“Why don’t we put it in the safe with the other piece?” Rival suggests.

“We could put the pieces together and see what happens?” Loki suggests.

“No, I don’t think so. We aren’t sure what is going to happen. So it’s probably best that we keep the pieces apart for now.” Grey replies, and from the frustration in his voice it’s obvious to us all that there’s more that he wants to say but can’t.

“Okay,” Rival replies, and then adds, “Are we even going to put the key pieces together? I mean we only need the key whole if we want to open the gate, right?”

“Or close it,” Storm adds ominously.

“Well, that was cheery,” Killian teases.

While they start to bicker, I stand up and head out of the room to put the box in the safe in the library with the other one.

“I’m going to get some food ready,” Grey calls after me.

“Okay, I’ll meet you in the kitchen. I’m going to check in on Xerxes as well.”

“Have fun,” Loki calls after me.

It takes me no time at all to stow the key fragment with the other one, and when I put it on top of it, I can feel the magic of the key pieces reaching for each other; they clearly want to be whole again. Closing the door to the safe and locking it, which automatically reinstates the wards I start to walk away before something encourages me to turn back around and add another layer of wards to the safe.

Once I’m done, I frown, that was easier, and the ward is stronger than any that I’ve cast before; I think my earlier suspicion about my magic getting stronger after each use was correct. It would also explain how I walked so easily through the ward that was on the door guarding the key fragment; it didn’t break; I simply walked through and somehow granted Poca access as well, keeping him safe while keeping the ward up. Grey obviously knows something, but he can’t tell me; Xerxes might know something though; he’s old, really fucking old.

I walk the aisles of books until I find him. He insisted on being placed on the shelf with the other books, said that he felt the most at home there and that he loved hearing the stories from the books that surrounded him. He explained that even though we couldn’t hear them, he could.

“Xerxes? Are you awake?” I ask, when I find his shelf.

He pulls himself out from between the other books and flaps his pages as he moves over to a nearby table and lands.

“Farren,” he says, sounding pleasantly surprised. “I’m surprised to see you.”

“Why?”

“I’m normally left alone, even by past masters, once they’ve gotten information from me, or unless they want information from me,” he explains.

It’s at that moment when I hear the sad resignation in his tone that I decide not to ask him if he knows anything about what is going on with me, I don’t want him to think that’s the only reason I wanted to come and see him, especially since that was an afterthought any way and I really was just coming to see him.

“Well, that was shitty of them,” I reply, “I wanted to come and check in on you. You’ve had a big upheaval and I wanted to check that you were okay.”

“Really?” he asks incredulously.

“Yes, really. So, how are you?” I ask as I take a seat at the table. It’s kind of weird to talk to someone who doesn’t have a face. I'm used to reading facial expressions, but his voice is very expressive, and I’m just going to have to rely on that to tell me how he’s feeling.

“I’m good. I like it here,” he replies and then adds, “I hope I can stay.”

“I see no reason why you couldn’t if that was what you wanted to do. I’m sure that Grey would be happy to have you here.”

“Will you be moving into the house?” he asks.

“Yes, eventually, when I have restored it properly,” I reply and then add, “If you would like to, you could come back there with me. You can either go back into the room we found you in, or we can find you another place in the house that you’d prefer. It’s entirely up to you.”

There’s silence for a minute while he thinks over my offer, “You know, I think I’d like that. Not in the room, though. I don’t particularly appreciate being confined in small spaces. You know that as soon as the house is back to its original glory and it understands that you mean it no harm, it will come out of hiding.”

“What does that mean?” I ask curiously.

“Well at the moment, it has retreated to the room that you found me in. The house is still very much magic and alive, but the last owners fixed it with magic, and it didn’t like that, so it retreated to the room that no one else knew existed. The good news is that the house clearly likes you because it opened the door.”

“I hope so, I adore that house, and I want us to live together harmoniously when I finally manage to get everything fixed and where it should be,” I reply with hope.

“Have no fear. I think you’ll be surprised by how welcoming the house will be; as I said, it likes you.”

“Does the house have a name? I mean, it’s sentient?” I ask curiously.

“No, he doesn’t, but not for the same reason that I don’t. He didn’t like the first owner very much and obviously didn’t like the second, so no one named him.” Xrexes explains.

“Well, I’ll have to change that if he will allow me to,” I reply.

“He will, he’s a little grumpy at first, but once he decides he likes you, then he becomes a giant teddy bear who would die for you.”

“I can't wait to be formally introduced to him,” I smile.

Xrexes pages ruffle, and he lifts up into the air as he moves closer to me, and I stay still, wondering what exactly he’s doing.

“Farren, are you aware that you have a Maradrache in your hair?” Xerxes asks.

“What?” I reply, staying still. “Aren’t they deadly, and why is it in my hair? How did it get into my hair? And where is it?”

“It’s okay, just stay calm, I don’t think that it’s going to hurt you, or it would’ve by now, I sense that it’s been there for a while.”

“Okay, so what should I do? I can’t even feel it, and my magic didn’t pick up on it at all.”

“They have incredibly good cloaking skills. Hold your hand up to your hair and see if you can coax it out. It’s scared,” he replies.

Doing as he says, I hold my hand up near my hair and figuring it can’t hurt, I start talking, “Hey, I don’t know how you got in there, but I’m not going to hurt you. Why don’t you come out so we can introduce ourselves properly?”

Despite my nerves, and the fact that I know they have the ability to kill any supernatural creatures from any of the realms with a single bite, when I feel a tiny nose nudge and sniff my fingers I stay still. My intuition isn’t tingling, and so I trust that it’s not going to hurt me. Ever so slowly, it climbs on my hand until it's settled in my palm, and I can feel small claws on my skin and a long tail moving against my wrist.

“I’m going to pull you forward now, okay? I’m not going to hurt you, I promise.” I say gently, and I feel the tail wrap around my wrist gently.

So far, it hasn’t tried to hurt me, but there’s very little information on them as anyone who has seen one has ended up dead, I don’t even have any idea of what it could look like. When I say there’s very little information, I mean we named it and know that it can kill anything; that’s it, that’s the extent of the information we have. If Xerxes says that’s what’s in my hair though, then that’s what’s in my hair. He is far more knowledgeable than me and most likely most supes since he’s been around for so long.

When I finally pull my hand forward and get a good look at the most deadly creature in the realms I couldn’t be more surprised. Not only is it tiny, but it’s cute as fuck. It tilts its head as it studies me just as closely as I’m studying it. It’s a tiny dragon with black scales that have an iridescent shimmer to them that catches in the light as it moves its wings. Its forked tongue snakes out and tickles my hand, and my lips start to tilt up into a smile before the panic sets in that it’s just licked me.

“Don’t worry; you won’t die unless he wants you to. Curiously enough, he seems to be inquisitive. I think he likes you,” Xerxes warns me.

“It’s a he?” I question.

“Yes,” he answers with a fondness in his voice.

“Is he a baby? He’s smaller than I imagined him to be?”

The tiny dragon tilts his head to the side, looking like a cute puppy, before he starts running around in circles and chasing his spiked tail. While the crown of dark night blue horns spark, it reminds me of the way that Killian and Storm’s horns produce a fireball between them when they have strong emotions.

“No, he’s not a baby. One of their many skills is being able to change their size. Most of them like to remain this size until they’re about to attack and then they will increase their size until they’re bigger than their opponent unless it is more advantageous for them to remain small, they are the ultimate hunters.”

“Wow,” I reply, and then look back at the Maradrache in my hand, “you’re a pretty fucking amazing creature aren’t you?”

It makes the cutest little chirping noise as it flaps its wings proudly.

“How did you end up in my hair?” I ask, not expecting a reply, so I’m shocked when its eyes meet mine, and a series of pictures appear, showing me how he was in the room where I found the key fragment, that he was guarding it and was supposed to end anyone who came near it, but when he saw me, his mission changed from protecting the key to protecting me.

“As far as I know they can’t communicate with other supes,” Xerxes says.

I smile, “Apparently, he can, he showed me how he was tasked with guarding the key fragment and killing anyone who tried to take it until I showed up and then it changed to protecting me.”

“You know it's very rare that I’m caught off guard by information that I didn’t know,” Xerxes replies, sounding both intrigued and amused.

I shrug, “It’s not really surprising, there’s so little information on Maradraches that I’m surprised you know what you do.”

“So he’s protecting you?” Xerxes asks.

“Apparently, but I don’t know why, and I don’t know who told him to protect me. He didn’t decide to share that,” I reply, as I gently raise my hand and run my fingers down his back. Logically I know that this is probably a stupid fucking idea, but he hasn’t tried to hurt me yet, so I can’t help myself.

“Has he got a name? Since you gave me mine, I’ve realised the importance of having one.”

“I don’t know. I’ll ask him,” I reply and lift my hand so I can see him better, “do you have a name?”

To my surprise, he nods and then shows me a picture of his name written on a piece of parchment.

“So what is it?”

“Merikhah,” I reply and then add with a chuckle, “but he likes to be called, Meri.”

“Well, that’s a damn interesting name. It means death,” he replies.

“Fitting, but I like Meri better,” I say, and then realising how long I’ve been gone for, I add, “okay buddy, do you want to go back into my hair to go and meet the guys or stay on my hand?”

Meri seems to consider it before he runs up my arm and settles back into my hair, I guess he’s staying there then. “Okay, I just have one request; please don’t kill any of them; I like them.”

I feel his paw tap my neck and a wave of reassurance goes through me. I’m going to assume that means that he won’t.

“Farren?” Xerxes asks.

“Yes?”

“Please may I come with you, I can’t wait to see your men’s reactions to Meri,” he asks, and the amusement in his voice is more than evident.

I smirk, “Of course. Do you want to fly, or would you like me to carry you?”

“I’ll fly.” He replies.