Chapter Thirty

A s the conversation starts back up and Mayhem sends people to collect the last of the ingredients needed for the spell, Loki steps away to see if he can help, squeezing my hand in reassurance before he lets go, and I glance around, looking for Poca, Meri and Oryn, and finding them all curled up on the colossal rug in front of the fireplace, once again snoozing in a heap and looking cute as hell.

While the others are all busy, my thoughts start to spiral slightly, and before I can fix my expression, I realise that Storm is watching me closely. He frowns slightly, glances at the others to make sure that they’re all busy, and then walks over to me, wrapping his arm around my shoulder as he pulls me in close, and kisses me on the forehead in such a gentle and affectionate gesture that I almost melt into him.

“Thank you for doing that for Loki,” he mutters quietly, sincerity in his tone before he adds, “Now, why do you look so worried? Did you not like it? Do I need to smack him?”

I grin, “No, of course not. It was my idea. It’s just I feel a bit weird.”

“Bad weird?” he asks, sounding concerned.

“Not in a ‘he took too much blood kind of way’ more, an I really fucking like you all, and it doesn’t feel weird to do something like that with Loki and then be standing here underneath your arm, but then that’s complicated in itself because of the warrior bond and the weird bond of mine that seems to have connected to some of you, and I know if given the chance would connect to the others as well.”

Storm doesn’t answer straight away but instead steers me further into the library and away from the others before he moves me so I’m standing in front of him and ducks so he can look into my eyes.

He kisses me in the sweetest most gentlest way despite what I just told him and fills my stomach with butterflies.

“Farren, you are overthinking this. I truly believe that everything is going to work out how it is supposed to. I can also promise that none of us mind in the slightest that you like the others too. I, for one like seeing you with them,” he smirks, and then adds seriously again, “Trust yourself and stop second guessing everything, or you’re going to drive yourself crazy.”

I move up on my tiptoes to kiss him gently in thanks; as his wings wrap around us both, making me feel safe and secure, I mutter, “Thank you, I never thought it would be you that would be reassuring me when I have a girly meltdown.”

“Oh, I’m going to tease you for this at some point, but I needed you to hear me first,” he smirks, and I smack his chest lightly, although I can’t help but smile.

“Fine, I’ll give you that one,” I reply.

“Storm, Farren, we’ve got the location,” Rival calls out.

Storm sighs and reluctantly lets me go as we head back out of the shelves and towards the others.

“The cursed object is kept in what appears to be the main ballroom,” Grey tells us with a frown.

“Okay, so what’s the plan then?” Zev asks.

“I don’t want us splitting up here, Khaos is far too dangerous, and I’m not risking it,” Grey replies firmly, his eyes flashing with memories, and I can’t work out if they’re happy or sad. All I do know is that they’re heavy.

“So we go in, prepared to fight. We try to sneak in, which hopefully Farren will be able to help us with?” Reaper asks, looking at me.

I make my way over to him and wrap my arm around his waist just because I can, and I miss him. His arm goes around my shoulder and holds me tightly.

Answering his question, I say, “Yes, I think I can get us all into the stronghold using the Void, and then once we’re all inside the walls, we should be able to sneak in using our various skills. I can then pull apart the spell as I have done at the last two factions, and then we get the hell out of dodge.”

“Could you not use the Void to get us straight into the ballroom?” Killian asks.

I shake my head, “No, that would be too complicated. There could be wards or spells guarding the room that we could trigger if we use the Void to get straight in, and it could be a trap. Grey said that Khaos was clever, so there’s a chance that he’s heard about what has happened at the other two factions and has put extra security in place.”

“Along that same line, the princes could have also added extra security to the place since they absolutely know that something is going on. We’re going to have to be extremely careful.” Rival adds, looking excited by the challenge rather than worried.

“Sounds like a good time to me,” Kill grins and Reaper high-fives him as Loki and Zev bounce on their toes and share an excited look. The others all look just as thrilled by the challenge, and Grey chuckles.

“You know, I have never met a group of people who like a dangerous challenge as much as I do. It’s refreshing,” he comments.

“We’re all not quite sane, mate,” Loki smirks, “you’ve just never met your brand of crazy before.”

Grey’s smile widens, “Very true.”

“I say we go now and get this done?” Storm questions, and when he’s met with huge smiles, he returns them with his own smile and says, “Go and arm up then, and we’ll meet back here so that Farren can transport us into Khaos’s stronghold. Does that work Farren?”

“Yeah, that should be okay. It would be better if I could have a visual of what the place looks like, mostly because I’m transporting so many people at once, and I don’t want to leave anything to chance.”

Storm frowns, “I should be able to draw you up a rough sketch from memory. Will that work?”

“Perfect,” I reply, and as everyone else leaves to arm up, I stay behind and watch him draw. What he calls a rough sketch is actually stunningly detailed, and he shows real talent.

“Don’t you need to go and arm up?” he asks me after I’ve spent a full five minutes just staring at him. He doesn’t even bother to look at me as he asks me this just carries on drawing, with a smile playing around the edge of his mouth.

“Nope, I armed up before I left my room. I was hoping this would be the outcome of the meeting,” I reply with a shrug.

“Of course you were,” he replies drily and then he adds quietly, “I’m armed too.”

I try to hide my smile as I think of a retort but he doesn’t give me the opportunity as he moves the piece of paper he was drawing on over to me. “Wow, this is amazing. If this is what you consider scribbling, then holy shit, I’d love to see it when you actually try.”

To my utter shock, his cheeks tint ever so slightly pink, and I find it utterly adorable.

“Is it enough for you to be able to get us inside?” Storm asks, ignoring my compliment entirely.

I nod, “Absolutely.”

“We’re ready,” Zev announces cheerfully as they all walk back into the room, having armed up surprisingly quickly.

“Great,” Storm replies, standing up, “Let's get going then.”

Poca, Meri and Oryn all gather around us, having woken up from their nap and clearly deciding they’re coming with us.I'm surprised, to say the least, that Poca is readying himself to come with us, but maybe having met a creature from the Void he's actually willing to try and travel through it. I give him a reassuring pet, letting him know that i'm proud of him for trying.

“I’m going to try and get us there all at once. I’ve never tried moving this many people through the Void before, so it might not work, and if it doesn’t, then I’ll have to do it the usual way, which will take longer. Everyone, hold on to the person next to you and don’t fucking let go. I’m not searching the Void for any of you. Well, I will but that’s beside the point,” realising that, thanks to my excitement I’ve started to ramble, I don’t bother saying anything else as I call on my Void magic and put some extra ompff in it, enough that I’m hoping that I can get us all through.

As I step through into the Void, my creatures going ahead of me and holding Storm’s hand, which is then holding on to Rival’s and so on so that we’re all linked, I am reasonably surprised that I pull it off, and my magic doesn’t seem to be tired which is a damn good thing. I’m aware when Oryn splits off from the group and heads further into the Void, and I guess that this was all just a bit too much for him to handle. I know I’ll see him again and that this isn’t a goodbye.Poca stays glued to my side the entire time, his whole body tight with tension.

“Wow, Little goddess,” Grey compliments as we step through the Void and onto Khaos’s grounds, “I really thought you were going to have to make several trips.”

“Thanks, I think,” I mutter, repressing my smile as he realises what he’s said, and his eyes widen before he opens his mouth to apologise and then, seeing my smile, flips me off instead.

“Alright, let’s focus and get inside,” Storm orders and the rest of us become serious. “It’s going to be easier to get to via the main doors, which isn’t ideal, but we’re prepared to fight. Farren, you need to get to the object and break the spell as quickly as possible.”

I nod. I know the plan.

I have to admit that I am surprised that we haven’t run into any guards. I didn’t sense any wards when I brought us here too, which is also strange, especially for someone who is supposed to be so incredibly intelligent.

It’s suspicious, to say the least.

Much like the other strongholds, this one is also a vast castle, surrounded by an impossibly high wall that I’m assuming usually has wards on them. Unlike the other factions though, Khaos doesn’t have his people either staying inside the warded walls or cast off to one side; in fact, I’m not even sure there are many people here at all.

“How many followers does he have?” I ask quietly as we make our way through the trees and towards the main entrance.

“I think there were around forty, including himself, and they all live in the castle with him. His is by far the smallest faction but incredibly powerful.” Grey replies, his black, red-ringed eyes scanning our surroundings suspiciously.

As we all get to the edge of the treeline, I expect to see some soldiers guarding the front entrance at least, but instead, there are none, and the huge door is left standing ajar. An uneasy feeling starts to stir in my gut.

“Somethings not right,” Reaper mutters, sniffing the air for hints of what is amiss.

Everyone draws their weapons as we share a serious look, although there is an undercurrent of anticipation too. Storm takes the first step out of the safety of the treeline, Meri and Poca flanking him as the rest of us all step out after him. Nothing happens, no one approaches, no alarms go off, and we aren’t attacked.

I hate going into anything completely blind when I know that something is most definitely off, so I step into the Void and open a Void door for the ballroom where we know that the object is. I keep myself cloaked as I peek through it to see what we’re up against. As I suspected, all forty of them are armed to the teeth and waiting in silence for us. I don’t see anyone that could be considered in charge though. Towards the back of the vast ballroom, and just to the left of the long table laid out with food, some of it is still covered by cloche’s, which is odd and arrogant of them to assume that there will be enough of them to eat that giant meal after we’re done. Regardless, next to the food table is a pedestal with a golden goblet embedded with jewels perched on top of it that even through the veil of the Void, I can feel the dark magic emanating from it, and I’m comfortable in assuming that’s the object that the princes are using to control this last faction. For some reason, it’s kicking off a hell of a lot more dark magic in order to control these supes, much more than the objects that were controlling hundreds of supernaturals. It would appear that Khaos has an extraordinary amount of really strong supes here.

Well, that’s going to make this even more interesting—time to go.

“Where the fuck did you go?” Mayhem practically hisses as I reappear next to them, and they all look really worried.

“Sorry. Listen they are all waiting in the ballroom, all of them are facing the doors though. I suggest that we use the Void and appear behind them; it will give us an element of surprise, and I think it will also bring us closer to the object that I need to pull the spell apart on.” I explain.

Killian nods, “Good idea. They think they have the element of surprise right now, so it’s going to throw them off and give us an advantage if we show up behind them.”

“Everyone in agreement?” Reaper asks.

When everyone nods, I pull open the Void, everyone links hands, and we step through. Poca once again coming through the Void as well, although he doesn't look very happy about it. As soon as we step through the other side, all of the men start fighting viciously as Poca dives through the crowd doing his bit to kill as many as he can, and Meri swoops through them, nipping them and instantly poisoning them.

Grey sticks close to my side as we watch the others dive straight into the battle, and the once quiet and still ballroom erupts with a cacophony of noise.

“I’m going to watch your back as you pull the spell apart, I suggest you hurry though Little Goddess, Khaos isn’t in here, and that can’t be a good thing,” Grey tells me quickly, an undercurrent of tension in his tone.

“I’ve got this,” I reply, as I locate the goblet and start to make my way over to it.

A Fae woman spots my trajectory and, using magic, sends a flurry of vines in my direction. I slice through them all easily enough and then pull a dagger from my belt and launch it in her direction as she tries to ready another spell. The dagger strikes true and hits her straight in the eye, dropping her immediately, and I push forward.

Grey gets left behind me slightly as several supes decide that he needs to be dealt with at the same time. I know that he can handle it though, and so I push forward. Sure enough, he gets to the object only a few seconds after I do, and I raise my eyebrow as I look over at him to find him covered from head to toe in blood splatter. He shrugs with a smile as he swings his sword and effortlessly takes off an approaching attacker's head.

“Watch my back,” I tell him, and he nods, fire in his eyes as he scans the room.

I allow myself a brief moment to find my guys and smile as it looks like they’re having the time of their lives. The enemies' numbers are dropping rapidly, and there’s enough space in here that Ryu has come out to play and is having a whale of a time playing with his victims before he ends them.

Now that I’m reassured that they’re all safe, I focus on pulling apart the spell. As I suspected, this one is more complex than the others, but thanks to my practice at pulling apart the others, I find the parts that I can tug on with my magic and unravel the rest of it fairly quickly. The spell fights me, and I put some zap into my magic so that when the threads of the spell try to attack me via my magic, it gets a sharp shock of its own and also helps to pull apart the string of the spell.

With a final tug and then a quick blast of my combined magic just to make sure the spell finally disintegrates, letting out a shockwave of magic that is unlike any of the others. Those that were still alive in the room, and there weren’t many, suddenly increase their fight tenfold. Confused and mad as hell as they become aware that they’re fighting for something, but they’re unsure what it is.

I practically dance through those that are left, my sword singing through the air as it burns with my magic and slices through those who try to approach me, I take a few hits, and a couple of swords manage to make slices on my skin, but they’re so small that they are inconsequential and by the time that I make it over to where a couple of my guys are fighting the very last people alive, I have left a path of destruction in my wake.

“I don’t think I will ever get tired of watching you fight,” Grey whispers in my ear, the low tone sending a delicious shudder down my spine.

I turn to look at him, deciding to be honest, “You’re mine, Grey, just like the others. You're mine.”

His eyes widen, and I take advantage of his momentary speechlessness and press my lips against his, our magic clashes rushing towards each other and intertwining as he growls deep in his chest, pulling me closer as our tongues fight and dance. The Bond snaps into place between us and glows brightly before dulling again, and I can sense that there’s something being held back on both of our sides.

Our kiss is fast and hard. We are in the middle of a battle, for fuck sake, but when he does pull back, his face is lit up with happiness, and he says gently, “I hope you know that you are it for me, I have never felt about anyone the way I feel about you, and I desperately hope that you can remember that if the spell ever gets lifted.”

“I know who you are, where it matters. I promise that nothing will ever change that.” I reply honestly because I can't think of anything that could ever change my mind.

My magic warns me of something fast approaching, and I turn rapidly, casting out a net of my magic and catching the fireball that has a built-in trigger that would have exploded on impact. I tut as I realise this, glare at the person who threw it at me, and they stare in horror as I smile wickedly and throw it back. They are unable to catch and reabsorb it since I’ve wrapped it in a layer of my own magic that they aren’t familiar with. I also weaved my magic so it would contain that spell and not hurt any of my men.

“Fucking spectacular,” Killian mutters, and I smile proudly.

Loki is fighting the last of the supes left alive, and I watch as he loses his sword, grabs a cloche off the table of food, unceremoniously dumps the pastries off of it and then, using his vampire speed and strength, grabs the cloche top in one hand and the base in the other and brings them up either side of the attackers head, smashing them together as hard as he can. The cloche edge must have been sharpened because the body of the guy drops to the floor as Loki rights the platter, holding the cloche on top.

“It sliced right through the fuckers neck!” Zev exclaims.

Grey smirks, “Khaos believes that everything should be ready to be a weapon.”

I narrow my eyes at him, about to ask how he could possibly know that about Khaos, when Loki distracts me.

He gets down on one knee, the cloche still in his hands, and wiggles his eyebrows at me, making me giggle as he reveals the head sitting on the platter and says dramatically, “For you, my princess.”

Trying to hold in my laughter, I courtesy and reply, “Why thank you, kind sir, how very generous of you.”

Loki chuckles as he starts to get up and discards both the platter and the head. However, Ryu is watching me curiously; his massive dragon head tilted to the side before he bounds off, looking determined.

“Where’s he going?” Zev asks curiously as he comes and stands next to me.

“It’s Ryu, fuck knows,” Mayhem replies with a chuckle.

“Oh shit really?” Rival exclaims as we all watch him go to his pile of bodies and gather several of the heads in his mouth.

He trots over to me, looking incredibly proud of himself as he drops them on the floor by my feet.

“I got you more heads,” he says, and the guys must hear him this time because they all burst out laughing especially as Ryu gives Loki an ‘I won’ look.

I step over the heads and stroke his nose gently, “Yes, you did. Thank you, Ryu.”

“As amusing as this is, I didn’t see Khaos in here, which means he’s somewhere else and getting angrier by the fucking second that he’s been controlled. We need to leave right fucking now, or he's going to blame us, and there will be no fucking convincing him otherwise.” Grey interrupts urgently.

Storm’s smile drops slightly as he takes in Grey’s expression, “Good point, let's go.”

We all start to make our way out of the vast room littered with the dead, and I trail behind slightly, my shorter legs not as capable of reaching over the various obstacles now littering the floor as the others get to the door, a tingle of immense magic prickles the back of my neck, and my own magic blares its own warning.

I manage to call out to the guys intelligibly just as I feel a clamp go around my magic, rendering it useless as I feel the sharp sting of a blade touch my neck, glancing down I also see one pressing against my stomach as a tall and broad body stands behind mine and holds me immobile.

Fuck.

Rival

F arren’s yell has us all whipping back around to see what’s wrong, and none of us is prepared to see someone that I recognise from my research as one of the princes holding her hostage and wide and dark grin decorating his features. Almost as one, we all race forward, but before we can get much closer, the prince flicks his fingers, and we find ourselves completely immobile, Poca and Meri as well. I try to call on my magic, but it doesn’t respond like it’s been knocked into a deep sleep that I can’t even wake it from.

Fuck.

I can glance around just enough to see that Grey is almost entirely obscured by Storm and Killian, and I know that they’ve done that one purpose so that the Prince doesn’t become aware that Grey is here as well. We all know that would be bad. Grey, however, doesn’t look pleased by it at all, and if he was able to move, I am certain that he would be pushing past them, trying to take the attention off of Farren.

“Let her go,” Reaper growls darkly, having changed back just as we were leaving because Ryu wouldn’t fit through the door.

The prince laughs at Reaper’s words, “I don’t think so, you see, we’ve been looking for Farren for a really long time.” We watch in helplessness as he drags the knife against Farren’s throat, blood beading along the slice. “No one escapes the Underworld. There’s something special about you, and we want to know what.”

As he speaks, I can feel a different power force slowly start to rise, but it’s not one I recognise. Meri and Poca are a cacophony of growls that sound truly terrifying as their anger is practically palpable.

The Prince ignores them entirely as he sniffs Farren deeply, “You’re powerful, too powerful.” He glances up at us all, no doubt seeing the anger and pain on our faces that we can’t help her. All emotion bleeds from his eyes as he grins and announces loudly, to Farren, “You’ll be easier to interrogate when you’re dead. We’ll find out all of your secrets then.”

We all watch in desperate horror as he slices her neck, her eyes going wide with shock and pain before they both disappear from sight, leaving a bloody puddle in their wake. The spell holding us hostage breaks, and we all collapse to the floor. I hear the screams of pain and anger coming from some of the others, but I can’t help but stare. My heart feels like it’s being shredded, completely and utterly destroyed; she can’t be dead, surely? She just can’t; none of us can handle that.

Poca is howling with grief, his anger almost as strong, and Meri is spitting fireballs every five seconds, destroying what’s left of the room. The whole room is in absolute chaos, that is, until the very ground starts shaking, lightning flashes outside the windows, as rain pours and the winds howl. We all glance around the room only to find Grey glowing and looking murderously angry.

More and more magic builds around him, a staggering fucking amount of magic, more than I have ever felt from a person ever before. It’s an insane amount of magic.

“Is that because of him?” Storm yells, asking me since I usually know these things.

“Yes, I think so,” I reply.

“Fucking hell, look,” Reaper exclaims.

Grey is calling on a lot of his magic, and it's making his glamour waver, which means we’re getting a glimpse of horns, wings and just a giant fucking size, except every time his glamour flashes, it shows us something different that doesn’t fit, with the other things.

“I think he’s trying to break the silencing spell,” Mayhem mutters.

“He’s going to kill himself,” Zev warns worriedly.

The ground starts to shake harder, and Grey lets out an almighty roar, one that I feel in the depths of my soul, magic explodes from him as he manages to shatter the extremely strong silencing spell that was holding him in check.

“Fucking hell,” Killian mutters.

Grey grits his teeth triumphantly as he stands up from the crouch, “She isn’t dead. I’d know if she was dead, and she’s not fucking dead.”

“How the fuck could you possibly know that?” Storm asks, and I know that in about two seconds, he’s going to seriously regret talking to him like that.

“Because he’s fucking Hades,” I manage to gasp out.