Chapter Eleven

Loki

"L oki!" Rival exclaims, "Focus, what do you mean you aren't hungry?"

I smile sheepishly, "Whoops. I don't really think there's anything else to explain. I'm not hungry, I'm not weak; it's like I fed a couple of days ago."

"Huh," Mayhem replies eloquently, although from the look on his face, I'd say that his brain is going a mile a minute at the moment trying to come up with a reason why I'm not hungry.

"You last fed from Farren, right?" Grey asks, having come to the conclusion quicker than the others.

Khaos's eyebrows rise.

"Yes I did," I reply, hoping that my tone carries enough warning in it that they take notice.

"I thought so. This conversation is probably best had when we're in safe surroundings, and as that may not be for a while, I suggest that we leave the conversation for now," Grey says, thankfully hearing my warning and putting the implications together.

The others all seem to catch on pretty quickly and don't ask any more questions, but somehow, they still manage to look at me with concern. It's evident that they'd all picked up on it, and I honestly don't know why I thought they wouldn't have noticed. Although, Khaos noticing too was a pleasant surprise.

"I agree with Grey. However, I just want to add that if you start to get hungry or anything weird happens, tell us before it's too late."

I nod, "Yep, I can do that."

We all fall silent as we cross the boundary into town. This one is built within a wall, so we go from a dirt road with trees on both sides of us through a massive stone archway and instantly have houses on either side instead. Unfortunately, because of how this town is set up, there's no hope of us finding a shop that has everything that we need on the edge of town.

"We've been noticed," I say quietly as a set of shutters slam loudly in the empty street.

"Are they even going to serve us?" Zev asks.

"The bartender guy at the tavern in the last town did," Rival replies.

"I feel like he may have been a one-off though," I add.

Reaper clears his throat as he tries to make himself smaller by rounding his shoulders and shrinking a bit on top of his horse. It makes no difference; he's a giant supernatural, thanks to Ryu, but it says a lot about the kind of person that he is, especially since Khaos is bigger than him and Grey is the same size, and yet he still tries to make himself smaller and less threatening.

"We can make do if we don't find anything," Reaper suggests, "it would just be better if we can find the stuff here."

"He's right. We know we can hunt for things, so it's not like we'll starve or anything," I add.

"Okay, we'll ride straight through; if we pass a shop that has what we need and doesn't shut its doors immediately, then we'll stop in; if not, we'll just carry on going," Storm suggests.

As we suspected, the town that didn't have that many people still out and about quickly becomes like a ghost town and I quickly lose hope of getting some new boots. Apparently, the ones that I have had for years decided that now would be a good time to break for good, and I can't use magic to fix them again because I've used it too much in the past, and now the fabric is magic resistant and the spell won't fucking stick.

I have wet tootsies, and I'm not a fan.

"Look, that one is still open. The lights are on and everything," Mayhem suddenly says with hope in his voice.

As we start toward it I squint, my eyes widening as I realise something, "Isn't that Monty's shop?"

Grey sits up straighter in his seat and then rolls his eyes, "Yes, that's Monty's shop."

"Are we back in the Shadowlands?" Kill asks, an edge to his voice.

Grey shakes his head, "No, Monty is just unique. He's a . . ."

"A what?" Storm asks, as Grey just stops talking.

"For fuck sake, apparently, the spell isn't gone, and there are still some things that I can't tell you," Grey groans.

"Seriously?" I ask.

"Can Khaos? Does he know how Monty's shop is here?" Mayhem asks and then immediately adds, "Is Monty in there too? How is that possible unless he's dead? Is he dead?"

I can't suppress my chuckle, "Someone better answer something because I'm fairly certain that he's short-circuiting."

Khaos smiles, "Monty is able to be here because he's a shifter and . . ."

My eyes widen, "No fucking way, you can't say anything either?"

"Of course, he can't," Monty says as he appears perched on top of the sign to his shop and grinning.

"Would you care to enlighten us as to why not Monty?" Grey asks as he gets off his horse and prompts us to all do the same.

Monty pretends to think about it for a second before shaking his head, "Nope, not particularly; I'm not dead, though." He replies, jumping down from the sign and landing lightly on his feet. "Now, come on, you need supplies, and you're running out of time."

"Out of time to do what?" I ask; although I'm reasonably sure I know the answer, I just want to confirm how much he actually knows.

"To get to Farren before she becomes a permanent member here," Monty replies, serious for once.

We leave our horses outside the front of the shop since they're unlikely to go anywhere without us and then follow Monty inside. I'm unsurprised to find that although it's pretty much exactly like his shop in the Shadowlands, it also has a section filled with stuff that we need to get to Farren. It's like he knew that we were coming. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I am absolutely certain that he knew that we were coming.

I'm just uncertain about whether him knowing is a good or a bad thing.

"Quickly gather the things that you need, and then we need to have a little chat," Monty says.

Grey raises his eyebrows as the rest of us do as Monty has instructed, "None of your usual flair or tricks?"

Monty crosses his arms, "Not this time, not about this."

Grey's smile falls off his face, "What do you know?"

"I know that you are running out of time; there isn't any. She will die if someone doesn't get to her soon, one of . . ." Monty's words get cut off, and for the first time since I met him, I see anger flash in his eyes and a growl rumble in his chest.

He's mad as fuck.

"You can't tell us, can you?" Khaos asks, clicking on before the rest of us.

Monty tilts his head to the side, "Apparently, you're not the only one that has a silencing order put on them."

"Well, isn't that interesting," Grey says.

Monty levels him with a scowl, "Not the words I would have used. Have you got everything?"

The rest of us all nod and then move to stand in front of him.

"Alright, did you have anything else that you needed to tell us?" Storm asks impatiently. All of us are feeling the added pressure now that he's confirmed that we're running out of time, more than we realised, and we knew we were pushing it as it is.

"Yes, you need to push yourselves hard; after you rest tonight, the next place is going to be the cabin; you mustn't rest until you get there."

"Only two rest stops? It's still a long ride?" Khaos questions.

"I've drawn up a shortcut," Monty starts to reply and then gets interrupted by Grey.

"This is my realm; I would know if there was a shortcut to the castle from here," Grey surprises me by being honest.

"I'm well aware this is your realm, Hades, but you know full well that if the fates hadn't deemed it necessary for you to know, then you wouldn't know that the shortcut existed," Monty replies.

I expect Grey to argue with him, so it surprises me when he just sighs like it's something he's been reminded of a thousand times and then replies, "Fair point, I suppose. Damn, fates."

"Indeed," Monty replies. He clicks his fingers, and a small scroll appears in his hand, which he gives to Khaos. "That will show you the shortcut. It should knock a day or two off your journey. You'll still be pushing it to get to her in time, but at least the odds will no longer be impossible."

My heart tightens painfully; I'm not too fond of the way he's worded that; it means that there's a very real possibility that we're going to be too late to save her, and I don't think any of us would be able to live with ourselves if that was the case.

"You must rest tonight and then not stop again until you get to the cabin marked on the map. That is very important," Monty tells us again.

"Got it, Monty, thanks," Storm replies.

"Oh, Loki, here," Monty smirks as he throws me a leather pouch.

Frowning, I pull the strings so that I can look inside, and when a delicious scent hits me, I ask, "What's this?"

"Something to make the things you catch taste better," Monty replies with a smile.

My eyebrows hit my hairline, "How did you know?"

Grey chuckles, "There's not much point in asking him that; he's unlikely to tell you."

Monty's smile gets bigger, "He's right."

Grey chuckles as he holds his hand out, and Monty grasps his forearm with the traditional respectful greeting. Before Grey can say anything, Monty's eyebrows dip as he frowns at Grey.

"What? Did you see something?" Grey asks, peeking my curiosity, unlike when Zev sees something, there were no outward shows of him seeing anything.

Monty shakes his head, "Oh, I don't think I like that at all. I mean, what are they thinking?"

"Care to elaborate?" Khaos asks.

Monty shakes his head, "Nope, you've got to get going and I need to have a word with the love of my life I have some, what the fuck, questions to ask her and her sisters."

Just like that, he completely disappears, with no fanfare or anything; he's just gone.

"Should we be concerned?" I ask in the silence of the shop.

Grey shrugs but looks just as confused as the rest of us, "I don't think so. I'm not sure that had anything to do with us."

"We'll know soon enough," Khaos replies as he picks up a few more things, and we all head out of the door.

I wait until we're back on our horses and heading out of town before I ask, "What do you mean by we'll know soon enough?"

Khaos glances back at me confused before the realisation seems to kick in and he says, "Oh, it's pretty simple, if Monty has a problem with us then we're going to know about it. He's not one for being subtle."

"Oh," I reply, "Well, that sounds like it's not going to be fun."

"It won't, hopefully, Grey is right though and it has nothing to do with us," Khaos replies, stumbling over Grey's name.

"Let's get to the first camp that we had planned, then we can look over the map that Monty gave us. I think we're going to need all the rest we can get while we can get it," Storm suggests.

"I still want to get going as early as possible," I can't help but reply. I'm worried.

Worried isn't a strong enough word. I'm fucking terrified, I'm absolutely distraught, she means everything to me, and she's in danger, in pain, and there's a real chance that she's not going to fucking survive, and the way that my mind turns dark at the thought fucking scares me, I don't think even I want to know what I'm going to do if we don't find Farren or if we find Farren and she's not okay. I do know that I will rip the people that hurt her apart, limb from fucking limb, piece by piece, until there is nothing but a bloody mess left. Even then, I know that it won't be enough; nothing will ever be enough to avenge her.

"Loki, are you okay?" Storm says, and from the way he's looking at me with concern, it's not the first time that he's asked me.

I clear my throat, I'm unable to put the happy go lucky facade on like I usually do when I'm feeling something dark, that scares me.

"I'm as well as any of us are, given the circumstances," I reply honestly.

Looks of understanding cross everyone's faces. We're putting on a good show, pretending we're okay and that we're handling the fact that she's been taken, but we're not.

If you really look at us, you'd be able to tell, even without knowing us, that we're far from okay. Mayhem has withdrawn into himself. Rival is showing his anger in more obvious ways, like his over the top reactions when tools inevitably break.

Kill and Storm are beating the shit out of each other on a regular basis and calling it training when really we all see it for what it is, a release of all their pent-up frustration, anger, and fear. The brothers were always bad at dealing with their emotions, although I'm clearly not someone who can judge.

Reaper, perhaps the most concerning, is partially transformed constantly. I wasn't even aware that he had enough power to do that. I mean, it takes an incredible amount of power to stay transformed, but he's holding it without a second thought. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that it's even more impressive because he's holding back Ryu, he's holding back a humongous fucking dragon, who is pissed as fuck and want's to rampage because his mate has been taken.

I do not doubt that Farren is Ryu's mate. Dragons never get it wrong; I'm just unsure what that means for the rest of us.

Grey is quiet, and his fuse is incredibly short. I think we're all grateful that he's aware that he has to keep his presence under wraps; otherwise, he'd be flinging god-level power around everywhere.

"I think the first rest area is just up ahead," Zev says.

Farren

I 'm fading.

I don't know how long I have left, but it's not long. It's not a case of I may not have long left; I know I'm going to die soon. It's just how soon it's going to be until I take my last breath. I keep fading in and out of consciousness. I have no idea if Xerxes is still here, but I hope he isn't; I hope whatever magic brought him here has taken him away since it's evident that I'm a lost cause and not going to last much longer. I hope he goes back to the guys, tells them how much they mean to me, and lies about how much I suffered. I hope they never find out, I hope they think it was over quickly. I hope Xerxes tells them that.

The Princes have upped their game, determined to get information out of me, information I either don't have or refuse to give them. They're now visiting several times a day, sometimes one straight after the other, and they're constantly finding new ways to torture me. I can't lift my head, I can't open my eyes, my body won't move, and although I know that it's because my body has been torn apart, it's also because I can't get into the Void.

Somehow, even though I can't access any of my magic, it's made no difference to the effect not going into the Void has on me; I'm being sliced apart, and even without the Princes, I'm being drained. Old wounds that the Void healed are starting to reappear, and its agony.

All I know is agony. Because I'm passing out, I'm not sleeping, which means I'm not dreaming, which means that my only ray of hope, the only thing that was keeping me slightly sane and distracting me from the shit show that has become my life, isn't happening anymore, I haven't see H, and I miss him.

I decide I have nothing to lose at this point; there's no way that I'm going to get out of this. I'm going to die soon.

So I pray, if there is anyone still listening, anyone at all, anyone who gives even a tiny shit, please let me see my men again, even if only in a dream, please let me dream of them, please let me see my light again, let me see H, and my men one last time before I fade into nothingness.

I get no sign that anyone has heard me, and that last flicker of hope disappears, leaving behind pain.

Only pain.

I'll be glad when the pain stops.

My thoughts pause, I'm not in pain, it's fading. I can feel panic start to rise before that too fades; I feel the cool darkness start to encroach quicker, not my usual darkness, not the comforting friend that I love. No, this is the end. I thought I would be scared, but I'm not, I'm relieved even though I know that I won't see my guys again.

If I'm granted the honour I'll watch over them, from wherever I end up, because I have a strange feeling that I'm somehow not going to end up here. The guy's and H's faces flash through my mind one last time, bringing a soft smile to my face before the darkness drags me under completely.