Chapter Twenty-One

Grey

“W ell fuck.” I curse. “That’s something that we need to look into. Storm and Killian’s father is the King of the Autumn court, right?”

She frowns, “Yes, how did you know that?”

I shrug, “I know a lot. My point is they might have some information. I hope you’re wrong; otherwise, this goes further than we thought and gets complicated. The corruption is far-reaching.”

“We know that the monarchy is corrupt, at least most of them are. I think there’s probably a high chance that King Lucien is involved with dark magic; he was a close friend of my father,” she replies.

“Good point, and that’s concerning. Let’s see if we can get through the barrier and then go and ask the others some questions and see what they know about their father's involvement.”

“We also need a plan to get to the other factions as well,” she adds.

“We certainly have a lot to do,” I reply. “But my original point was that we don’t want to cross over to any of the usual cross-over points but instead somewhere more remote.”

She nods, “Don’t worry, I know the perfect place. I will be highly surprised if they put guards there. The locals aren’t exactly friendly and known for accommodating outsiders.”

“Are you sure?” I ask.

She nods and then squeezes my hand as she steps toward the glowing door, however when she steps through, my hand is zapped with pain and magic, and I hit a wall as I try to step through; her hand is ripped from mine as she disappears from sight and I’m left alone in the Void. I know the dangers of being here without someone who has the Void gift, and Farren very definitely isn’t here. She better be okay, or I’m going to lose my shit. The thought of something happening to her has always haunted me, but now, after spending more time with her, something has changed and grown, and I will destroy the realms if something happens to her. The Princes will be the least of everyone’s problems if something happens to Farren. I will watch the world burn, and I can guarantee that there will be several other extremely powerful supernaturals joining me.

I am pulled out of my thoughts as a loud and threatening growl echoes around me, and I remain still, now that the light from the door has gone out and now that Farren has left, the Void has gone back to being pitch black, and I can’t see a damn thing. I channel some of my magic into my eyes, and the world around me appears, it’s still dark, but at least I can see what is surrounding me.

Fuck, I hope like hell they believe that I mean Farren no harm because, in my current state and with how many of them there are, they could very definitely take me out.

Farren

S tepping through the other side, Poca appears next to me having decided to make his own way here rather than travel through the Void with us and Meri still securely snuggling on my shoulder, I become acutely aware that Grey is not with me, which means he’s left alone in the Void. On the plus side, the forest that I’ve come out into is entirely devoid of anything but creatures, and the fact I’m here proves that we were right about me breaking the spell on the first object weakening the spell that’s holding the Shadowlands hostage.

My only worry now is what if I can’t get back into the Void; not only is this not the best place for me to be hanging out, but if I can’t leave and go back through the Void, then it means that Grey is stuck in the Void and there’s every chance that he could die in there and I can’t lose him, just as much as I can't lose any of the others. I have very real feelings for them all.

Well, there’s only one way to find out if I can get back in or not, and if I can’t, then I’ll figure something out. There is no way that I’m abandoning Grey in the Void, not to mention all the other complications that will happen if I’m stuck out here. I mean, if I’m not in there to participate in the Warrior Games, then does that mean I fail?

Realising that I’m stalling because I’m panicking, I call my Void magic forward, asking it to take me to Grey and hoping that it works since I’ve never tried to go to any specific place in the Void, and especially not a person. I usually just step inside and then call the door to me.

When I step through, I’m so relieved to see that Grey is alive, albeit looking a little bit tense, I don’t take any notice of anything else as I launch myself at him, wrapping my hands around his neck as he scoops down to hug me back.

“Erm, Farren, while I am extremely glad that you are back, could you please reassure the creatures surrounding us that I mean you no harm?” Grey asks, his arms still around me.

My eyes widen slightly at his words, and as soon as he puts my feet on the ground, I spin around to see what exactly we’re dealing with. We’re surrounded by so many creatures of different kinds as far as I can see in the darkness. But standing directly in front of me, I see a familiar face, and I smile as I step forward, holding out my hand to him.

Grey’s hand on my arm tightens, stopping my progress, “Farren, don’t approach them. The only reason they aren’t attacking is because you have the Void gift. You absolutely cannot pet a Void beast.”

I’m about to argue my point when a couple of the pups that I saw when I brought Laikynn home run toward me.

“Farren!” They call excitedly, and I’m surprised when Grey lets go of my arm and takes a step back instead of trying to stop me from advancing. It’s almost like he can understand them, but I assumed that I could understand them because I have the Void gift.

“Hey guys,” I greet the pups as they rub against me, and I stroke their heads. Even though they are babies, they are already ridiculously big, which isn’t surprising because their parents are fucking huge. Speaking of, I incline my head, “Hello, Laikynn, how’re you?”

He stretches one of his feet forward as he bends his other leg and bows to me, “Much better, thank you, Bellator Regina. We were protecting your mate for you while you left the Void.”

I really fucking hope that we are both speaking in the language that none of the guys understood and that Grey doesn’t understand it right now because otherwise, there are going to be a lot of questions that I don’t know how to answer.

“Thank you, Laikynn,” I reply with an affectionate smile. I reach back for Grey’s hand and add, “We need to get going.”

“Of course, next time you have the time, we would love to give you a tour. I have a feeling that this place will surprise you.” Laikynn offers.

“I would love that,” I reply and then tilt my head as one of the smaller creatures catches my eye. It’s different from the others. Whereas they’re solid, this one seems to be wispy around the edges, not quite substantial like it’s here, but it’s not at the same time. It’s cute in an odd way, with huge purple eyes, a small snout and a mouth filled with sharp teeth, its body is almost cat-like but smaller, with a tail that’s twice the size of its body, and its feet have some wicked long claws on them.

Laikynn follows my gaze and his eyes fill with knowledge as he nods.

“See you soon,” Laikynn says affectionately, and I watch as he leads all of the creatures further into the darkness.

“Well that was interesting,” Grey mutters.

I turn to face him as I ask my magic to provide me with a door to get back to the castle and the guys, just like Laikynn there is knowledge in his eyes, and for some reason, he looks shocked. I ask, “Was I speaking a different language again?”

He nods, “Yes, you were. Where did you learn to talk to the Void beasts?”

“I didn’t learn it so much as it just happened. Laikynn was a part of the first trial for the Warrior games, I brought him home. Did you understand them?” I ask curiously.

He just looks at me but doesn’t say anything as we step through the glowing door and back into the kitchen. Either he doesn’t want to answer that, or he can’t, whichever reason it is though; at least I don’t have to talk about the whole mate thing and whether he knows what Laikynn called me.

“How did it go?” Storm asks as Kill pulls me into his arms.

“Well, Farren can get in and out, but I can’t,” Grey replies as he strides into the kitchen and grabs a glass before filling it with some pretty fucking potent fae liquor. He downs it in one and then immediately fills up the glass again, making the others all look at me curiously.

“Are you okay, mate?” Reaper asks.

Grey nods, “Yep.”

“Wait, you were left in the Void without Farren? Did something happen?” Rival asks.

I quickly explain what I walked back into the Void to, and Grey just nods along. I’m starting to think that he really did understand what was being said and now knows something important. The thing is if he isn’t willingly sharing whatever that information is, then he can’t because of the silencing spell on him.

“Okay, I feel like there’s more to it, but we really need to talk about how we’re going to get into the next faction's stronghold. We are now certain that breaking the dark magic objects will weaken the spell holding the Shadowlands hostage,” Mayhem adds changing the subject.

“Before that, we need to discuss something else,” Grey starts, seeming to have calmed down now.

“Okay?” Loki asks.

“Are you all aware that Shadowlands is central in the Fae realm, and from it you can access all of the courts?” Grey asks them.

“What?” Reaper asks.

“No, I had no idea, but that would explain why my father has always been so interested in the Shadowlands,” Storm replies.

“That’s actually where I was heading with this, Farren pointed out that her father was heavily into dark magic,” Grey starts, and I interrupt.

“He was also working on something, and he spouted all of that shit about me not being in the games, or it would lead to war and his death.”

“And he was close with our father before you killed him,” Kill replies.

“It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if Lucien were involved with the Princes. He’d be more than happy to give them any information that they’d need so long as he was getting something out of it,” Storm adds.

“So, that’s something else that we need to try and figure out. We need to know if Lucien is definitely involved, what he had planned with the princes and who else in the rest of the fae realm knows about what the princes are trying to do,” Zev replies.

“Hopefully, it’s more of a coincidence than an actual threat,” Reaper says.

“Before we can look into it, we need to break the remaining two cursed objects and break the spell holding the Shadowlands hostage, and then we need to find the rest of the parts of the key and make sure that the borders of the Shadowlands aren’t being guarded.” Loki replies..

“Don’t forget that we also have the whole Warrior games thing. This is a task, but there are some inconsistencies surrounding it and why it’s so much longer than any known task in the history of the games.” Rival reminds us all.

“You know, I almost forgot about the whole Warrior games thing. The first task was a breeze compared to this one,” Loki replies and I nod in agreement.

“Me too,” Kill replies.

“I can get us a meeting with Remiki, he’s wanted to do business with me for a while and has been requesting a meeting. I’ve put it off for a while, but I’m reasonably certain that he will still be up for a meeting.".” Grey announces.

“Great, okay, so you get a message to Remiki to see when you can have the meeting, you aren’t going in alone, and I will not send Farren off to break the spell by herself either,” Storm starts and then looks at me crossing his arms over his chest, “don’t even try to argue with me, Farren, you aren’t doing it alone after what happened last time and don’t try to argue that you have Meri and Poca now because I’m just not risking it.”

I glance over at Mayhem and Rival, who both nod, we shared something special last night, and I will never forget that they were there for me when I needed them most. They also showed me that it’s okay to have help and I don’t have to do everything by myself.

I shrug, “I’m not going to argue. I don’t want to risk running into someone else from the Underworld. Besides, I’m starting to realise that it’s actually more fun to do things with people rather than on my own.”

“Well, that’s a first,” Storm smirks, and I promptly stick my tongue out at him. Killian chuckles underneath me and kisses my neck, making me jump slightly.

“Do we need to do the location spell again?” Loki asks.

“No, we’ll wait and see how quickly they respond first.” Grey replies. “I’m going to go and get this message sent.”

Once he’s gone, we turn and look at each other, “Alright so what do we do now?”

“I don’t know, we’ve got at least today. It feels weird not to have something else to do,” Zev mutters.

“Well, let's find something to do. I think we could all do with some down time after the last week,” Storm suggests.

“We could shoot stuff?” I suggest with a smile.

The guys look at each other, before Zev asks, “Why is it that your first choice to chill out is violent?”

I shrug, “I like violent stuff.”

“I know; why don’t we start clearing stuff at your place? Get it ready to start fixing up?” Loki suggests excitedly, and I’m surprised to see that the others look equally as excited as he is.

“Seriously? We finally have a few hours of free time, and you want to go back to the house?” I ask incredulously.

“Yes,” Rival replies for everyone, sounding enthusiastic.

“What are we talking about?” Grey asks as he walks back into the room.

“We’ve got some time to kill, so we thought we’d go back to Farren’s place and start clearing it out and seeing what needs to be done,” Mayhem replies.

“That’s a great idea.” Grey smiles and then turns to look at me, “Now that Xerxes has told us that the house is actually sentient, you’re going to need to be really careful about who you hire to work on it.”

“Oh shit, I hadn’t even thought about that,” frowning, I reply.

Reaper stands up with a small smile, “You don’t need to hire anyone. I reckon that between us all, we have enough skills that we can get the house how you’d like it.”

My eyes widen, “Seriously?”

“Yeah, we all have various skills there’s no reason why we couldn’t get it done,” Killian replies.

“That would be great,” I reply. “I’m sure there’s a couple of things that we might need help with, but I want to respect the house as much as possible, and the fewer people that know about it, the better.”

“The only problem is going to be time, but I’m sure things will calm down at some point,” Zev says, as his eyes flash white for a second.

“If you guys really want to do this, then let's go. I’m kind of wondering what other secrets the house and grounds hide,” I reply.

“Speaking of, I’m going to run and see if Xerxes wants to come too,” Loki adds as he quickly leaves the room, and the rest of us follow, heading toward the yard.

It’s not long before Loki joins us with Xerxes, clearly having filled him in on what’s going on, and we fly straight through the wards at my place and land in front of the house. When we all get out and approach the door, it opens by itself, and the lights inside the house, which I’m fairly certain didn’t work, turn on, letting off a welcoming glow.

“Well, that’s new,” I mutter.

“I told you that the house clearly likes you,” Xerxes replies. “All of you.”

Walking inside, I pat the wall gently, “Thank you, house. We’re going to be making notes on what needs to be fixed and all that sort of stuff. Don’t worry; we’re going to do it without magic, so we don’t mess with yours or change the original house. Is there anything that you would like us to start with?”

“Is she asking the house?” Zev asks, sounding slightly confused.

“It’s a wise move.” Grey replies.

“How is the house going to tell us what it wants us to start with?” Killian asks curiously.

Before any of us can guess what it could do, glowing silver arrows appear on the floor leading further into the house, and I grin excitedly, “I guess that’s how.”

Without waiting for any of them I take off at a sprint after the arrows wondering where they’re leading. The guys very quickly follow behind me, and Poca appears ahead of me skipping along happily as Meri takes off from my shoulder, grows in size and then flies ahead with Poca.

I’m surprised when the arrows lead me to the kitchen.

“Huh, this is not where I thought the house would want us to start,” Grey says from behind me as he follows me into the big space.

“Me neither, but if this is where it wants us to start then this is where we’ll start,” I reply.