Chapter Fourteen

Farren

"W ell, okay then, it's hard to argue with that surety," he replies, "I can lead you to the vault, but killing the princes is on you."

I grin, "Absolutely. I'm not in the mood to share anyway."

"How are we getting out of here?" he asks, changing the subject.

Before I can answer him though, Oryn suddenly appears in front of me. He rushes toward me, his wings flapping to steady himself as he rubs his cheek against mine. I stroke his soft fur as he squeaks at me.

"Hey," I reply, a tiny bit surprised at his easy show of affection, "did you follow me back from the Void?"

As soon as I ask the question, images fill my mind, flooding from him to me in quick succession.

"Farren?" I hear Xerxes ask, "Is everything okay? Are you feeling weak?"

His words confuse me for a moment until I remember that no one else can see him. I never got around to asking him what Oryn is, and now isn't the time to bring up that conversation.

"Yeah, a friend showed up; he's been here the whole time apparently and must be linked to me in some way, I guess because it appears that he suffered along with me."

"Why can't I see him?" Xerxes asks and then adds, "I can see everything."

"I don't know. He came back with me from the Void before the last battle at the stronghold, but I lost track of him during the fight. I kind of assumed that he'd gone back to the Void, and then I had my throat slit and ended up here. I guess I was wrong."

I hate that he's experienced everything that I have and that I had absolutely no idea that he was here, I couldn't try to comfort him or anything. I have a feeling that shielding him would've done nothing and that, somehow, he experienced what I did when I was experiencing it. I need to know how that's possible and if it's something that I should be concerned about.

"Wow, that's actually incredibly interesting, and I couldn't tell you straight off the top of my head what kind of creature he is, but I'll look into it when you can give me some more information about what he looks like. For now, how are we getting out of here?"

I smile, "Thanks, Xerxes. Well, I have all of my magic back, and my instinct is telling me that I can use it to get out. Failing that, I'll wait until one of the fuckers turns up to torture me and then flip it around on them."

"Okay, let's try it then," he says. He shrinks down to his tiny size and adds, "For this bit and maybe all the blood and gore that's going to follow, could you maybe put me in a pocket? I've seen enough for a lifetime."

I grimace, knowing exactly what he's seen, "Yeah, I get that. Are you sure though? My clothes may be somewhat intact, but I am literally soaked in blood."

Xerxes' pages flap, and I equate it to shrugging. "I don't care."

"Well, okay then," I reply and pluck him out of the air, putting him in my pocket.

Checking over Oryn to make sure that he's really okay now, after everything that he's experienced with me, I stride up to the bars, and my magic surges, with slight hesitation since it hurt like a mother fucker last time I touched the bars, I reach out, and my magic chews through the spells keeping the door locked like its chocolate cake. It's too easy, far easier than it should be. As I step through the cell door without even opening it, I wonder if it's because my magic spent so long on the other side of the wall trying to unravel the spells that were keeping it at bay. It's almost like it got a major workout while it was trying to do it, and now it's supercharged.

As I step through onto the other side, I reach my hand into one of my pockets in the Void and pull out two of my favourite swords. Twirling them around in my hands, joy fills me. Being without my weapons always leaves me feeling vulnerable, and I hate feeling vulnerable. It makes me feel weak, and it brings up memories that I'd rather forget. Not only that, but my weapons are like an extension of myself; they're like extra limbs; I've missed them more than I probably should, considering they're inanimate objects.

The door at the end of the stone corridor opens, and instead of fear, excitement fills me; I'm mildly surprised that it's a Hellier who walks through the door. I haven't seen them since I arrived, and they haven't come down here. I'd be willing to bet that it's because they've been ordered not to. Glancing down at an excited-looking Oryn, I say, "Let me handle him; I don't want to risk you; would you like to go back to the Void?"

Oryn growls, the sound echoing through the atmosphere, and the Hellier charging me pauses. He looks around like he's confused about where the sound is coming from and looks scared as hell as well. I don't think the Hellier can see him, and it makes me curious about what exactly he is; I need more information about his species.

I chuckle as I spin my sword once again, "I'm going to take that as a no. You got my back?"

His lips curl up, and I take that as a yes.

"How did you get out bitch?" the Hellier asks, before deciding to think better of it and shooting a stream of magic in my direction.

I don't move; I don't dodge it. Instead, I reach out and catch it; my magic hums happily as it absorbs it, and the Hellier's eyes open wide, shocked, and starting to panic at the ease that I was able to harness his magic. I don't give him a second to build another attack or to get to me. I have bigger fish to fry, and this one is barely worth my time. I allow my magic to attack, and it releases in a burst, piercing through him in multiple places and making him look like a damn pin cushion.

Wasting no more time on him, I step over his corpse and head toward the door at the end of the hallway. Once again, I'm stopped in my tracks, but I am more than happy to be interrupted in my search for retribution.

"Poca!" I cry and hear a muffled voice question from my pocket; I pull Xerxes out as I crumple to the floor and wrap my hands around a smouldering Poca. My hands brush against something, and I glance around him to find Meri, "Hey buddy, I've missed you both so fucking much."

I'm immediately covered in kisses from both of them, kisses that should kill me but that just tickle. Unfortunately, our reunion can't last much longer. The princes would've felt the spike in power that we both kicked off, and while it's not unusual for power spikes to happen in the castle if they're clever enough to trace the spike and realise that it's coming from near my cell, then I'm about to be swamped with princes, and although I am strong, I think even stronger than I was before all of this happened, I'm not sure I can take them all on even if Meri, Poca, and Oryn were to help me.

"Alright, guys, I've got some princes to end and a key fragment to find. Have my back and kill anything that you see, apart from the princes and the innocent, got it?" I say to all of these weird and wonderful creatures that I've managed to gather around me.

They all show their acknowledgement of my words in some way or another.

"I'm surprised that they've managed to show up here; I mean, we're not in the realms. We're in the Underworld," Xerxes says, "they shouldn't be able to follow you here."

"Yes, but I shouldn't be able to survive here, and I do," I point out. It's something that has bugged me since the first time I was dragged here, but it's something I've never looked into. "Maybe whatever makes it okay for me to be here extends to them since they're connected to me."

Xerxes hums, "Hmm, maybe. I'll add it to the list of things that I need to look into."

He shrinks back down, and I put him into my pocket where he's safe. Then, I head out of the door, this time grateful that I'm not interrupted again. I really want to get this done. That brief moment of use to take out the Hellier has made absolutely no difference to my levels, and I'm starting to get twitchy. I get my head back into the game as I stalk the hallways. Xerxes didn't even attempt to tell me where the key is, he knows I want to find the princes first.

As I walk the halls slowly, taking out the Helliers as I go, it occurs to me that it would actually be better if they had picked up my magical signature and were coming for me. It would mean that I wouldn't need to go and find them; they'd find me with this in mind; the next Hellier that comes to me, I kill him with more magic than I need to, which pretty much announces my presence.

I ready myself as I finally leave the bowels of the dungeon and enter the castle, the smell of death and pain is replaced by the smell of clean fresh scents. The carpet runs the length of the corridor, and beautiful tapestries hang on the walls. I want to stop and admire them to study them closer as they each depict scenes of battles, new beginnings, and gods. I have a feeling that this is the remnants of Hades, and the tapestries in Grey's house are in a very similar style.

I stop as some of the things that the princes have said sink in.

Holy fuck, Grey is Hades.

Oh, we're going to have some things to talk about when I get back to them. Wait. Oh fuck, of course, that's the reason that he has the silencing spell on him. I wonder if I tell him that I know whether he will finally be able to talk about it.

"Naughty little mouse," Jomeial chastises as he appears in the hallway, and I curse myself for being distracted, although in my defence, I've just realised that one of my closest friends is a freaking god.

"You look surprised," I taunt as I slip into a fighting stance, holding both of my swords up, ready to attack.

"Not so much surprised, Little mouse," he sneers, "more like thrilled."

I need to end him quickly. Once one prince arrives, the others are usually quick to follow, and although I am confident in my skills and the anger of my magic, I don't think that I'm strong enough to take on all four of the princes together, possibly five if Azreal decides to defend his brothers. They're all demigods, and together, they're incredibly strong; I mean, they managed to trap Hades and put a dampener on his magic somehow so he couldn't access all of it. I'm actually assuming they had help because although they're strong, the things that I've heard about Hades would make him impossible to beat, especially for demigods. Unless, of course, the stories have been wildly exaggerated.

I'm not inclined to believe that, though since I know the kind of person Grey is, and even without all of his magic back, he was a freaking powerhouse and good too. If I manage to get back to him and the guys, I need to warn him about what's happening here.

I infuse my magic into my weapons just in time for him to charge, swinging his own sword; that is something that I have learned about Jomieal; he loves his weapons, and I'm guaranteed to be able to fight with my own weapons, something that I prefer to do.

Our weapons clash, sparks of magic shooting in all directions and His smug smile starts to fall as he realises that I know what I'm doing. They should believe what their research tells them and not let pride blind them. I know that they've done enough research to question me about certain things, and they obviously know about my father and what he had me do, but for some reason, they seem to skip over the part where I'm capable of assassinating all manner of creatures.

Prideful fucks.

I spin and twirl, stretching muscles that haven't been used properly for far too long. I enjoy the fight, but as I start to sense a significant power source approach and Poca growls in warning, I double down on my attack, infusing more of my magic into my swords and trying to find a gap in his defence so that I can take him down as quickly as possible. With a rush of power, my sword comes down heavily on his and snaps it in a move that not only shocks me but shocks him as well. Fortunately, I recover from my shock quicker than he does, my swords singing through the air as they slice through his neck. Poca darts forward and catches the head before it hits the ground. In a move that we haven't done since I last did a job, I open up a small pocket in the Void, and Poca swings his head and launches the princes' head into the hole, yipping and jumping around happily when he makes the shot. I grin as Merri and Oryn watch curiously. I have a feeling that they're going to want in on that trick from now on or at least to practise it.

I don't really have time to gather myself as I feel a steep rise in the magic, and I know that one of the other princes has appeared behind me. My magic hasn't waned at all; if anything, it's gotten stronger somehow. It's almost like it's excited to be able to get a proper workout, and now it's had a taste, it wants more. Because of this, I end up taking Yeal out with an ease that surprises both of us. Once again, Poca catches his head before it hits the ground, and I throw it into a different pocket of the Void than I threw Jomieal's head just in case they decide to conspire. I mean, I'm not entirely sure that chopping off their heads will kill them, but I assume that separating their heads from the bodies will at least make it more difficult for them to be put back together for a while at least.

Once the body crumbles to the floor, I pause in moving on, waiting for another prince to turn up; after five minutes of no one and no power surges, I figure they must have felt their brother's life forces go out and are planning their next move. I start forward, pushing through the doors and heading further into this giant fucking castle.

As I walk, my mind drifts to the fifth prince; as I said before, I refuse to include Azreal unless he gets in my way. He's never been the same as them, and he actually used to sneak me food before Hades turned up in the cell opposite mine. After that, he disappeared, but he never joined in with any of the torture. He never said a word either, and I kind of assumed that when the other princes didn't have someone to take their depthless anger out on that, they took it out on him for some reason. I never begrudged him for not helping me escape; I understood that he was doing as much as he could, and that was enough for me.

I honestly think that he probably orchestrated having Hades put in the cell opposite mine, whether he knew that we'd be able to escape if we were together or he just wanted to give me some company. I don't know, but I was always grateful for that.

My senses are heightened as I hear every soft step that I'm making, every creak of the castle, and the very light padding of Poca's feet; he's choosing to let me hear him so I know exactly where he is in case we get jumped. The thing is, that's all I hear; I don't hear anyone or anything else, and quite frankly, the castle should be teeming with servants and guards. It's actually more concerning to me that I haven't seen anyone than it would be if I were regularly being attacked. I mean, there were only a few Helliers guarding the prison, and there were at least twenty the last time I was here.

Of course, that may be because they had Hades in the fucking prison.

I walk past yet another set of giant double doors, and my magic pings; I'm hoping that it's telling me that there's a prince in there, one that I want to kill. I don't do subtlety, now is not the time for it, so instead, I boot the door as hard as I fucking can; the wood splinters, and I realise I may have put a tiny bit more magic in that kick than I intended. Magic is immediately flung my way, but instead of it slicing me like it has done repeatedly for god knows how long, my magic grabs the strands that are coming for me and yanks them, pulling the surprised Dagon closer to me.

"Just the arsehole I've been looking for," I grin, my need for revenge bubbling up to the surface.