Chapter Seventeen

Farren

"T hank you," he replies, "and sorry for the ramblings."

"I get it," I reply, and then add excitedly, "let's do this."

As I put him in my pocket, I swear that he starts muttering about crazy women, but I can't quite make out his words, even so they make my smile widen. Once he's safe, I glance over at my creatures as I twirl my sword, and my smile turns vicious.

"Are you guys ready to do this?" I ask, the excitement unmistakable in my voice as they all yip or chirp in agreement, all of them as eager as I am, "Good, let's go."

I take a deep breath and then step further into the unclean side of the hallway, heading toward the door that the string of magic is leading me to. To be honest, it makes a lot of sense that Hades' vault is in Hades' private quarters, I mean if I had lots of powerful and unique artefacts you bet you bet your ass I'd be keeping them as close to me as possible. Gathering my magic around me so it's ready to strike at a moment's notice, I push through the grimy door.

The first thing that hits me is the smell; it's pungent and not pleasant in the slightest. I know the smell better than I'd like to; it's the smell of rotting corpses. The door is harder to push open than it should be, and I have a horrible feeling that I know why. Sure enough, when I've opened it enough to squeeze me and my creatures through, my theory is proven correct.

Bodies are piled behind the enormous double doors and in the immediate area surrounding them. All of them are in varying stages of decomposition, all of them wearing different styles of clothing. Some are obviously staff members wearing simple styles left in rags over bones. Some are clearly the Helliers, their weapons still clutched in their half-rotten hands; some are dressed in fine silks with jewellery still draped on them, and I'd be willing to bet that these were once important Underworlders that didn't bow to the princes demands like they wanted them too so the princes disposed of them.

Of course, there are also bodies of shifted creatures, and I have no idea who they were originally. What is especially concerning is that mixed within these creatures are ones that are not weak by any standards, ones that I know are hard to kill, and yet here they are, dead, most of them missing limbs and all with their final expressions frozen in fear. Or at least those that still have faces are still frozen in fear; most of them are too decomposed to make out facial expressions.

From the looks of all their positions, the majority of them were either shoved through the door and killed immediately or killed while they were trying to get back out of the door; that's the only reasonable explanation for why there's such a big pile up behind the door. The light is still glowing softly and heading further down the vast, darkened corridor in front of me. I suppose it was too much to hope that the vault was in one of the rooms directly behind the door.

The magic is giving off just enough light to see in front of me but not much else, and I briefly toy with the idea of throwing up a brighter magic light of my own. The magic is going to attract whatever creatures that stalk these hallways anyway, so I may as well. Just as I'm about to cast it though, doubt makes me pause, in this kind of situation I think it's best not to ignore any niggling feelings that I have, and because of this I hold off from launching my magic light, and instead grip my swords tighter.

Without any words needed, all of us head forward, leaving the macabre pile of bodies behind us as we venture further down the long hallway. While staying alert, I have to admit that I am incredibly curious to see if I can recognise any part of Grey in this part of the castle. I probably shouldn't go looking for anything though considering there's something that stalks these hallways that clearly likes to munch on people and judging from the freshest corpse in the pile hasn't been fed for a long time.

As I move forward, my eyes adjust to the darkness easily, and it's evident that the creature has been fed exceptionally well over the years; more bodies, mainly of Helliers, line the hallways although there aren't nearly as many as there were piled against the door and most of these are piles of bones, with crushed skulls and covered in rags that were once clothes.

Thanks to the layers of dust that coat everything, my footfalls are muffled, although I'm almost certain that the creature that uses this area of the castle as its personal buffet is already aware of my presence here, and if by some miracle, it's not, it will be soon.

With this in mind I pick up my pace as much as I deem able to do quietly. Fortunately, I'm used to needing to move quickly and quietly, which means that while most people would probably be only able to move at a fast walk, I can run fairly swiftly. I don't even need to look back to know that my creatures are keeping pace with me easily; I can sense them. Which is definitely a new development; I can tell exactly where each of them is.

Meri moves from behind me to scout ahead and seeing her now small form fly up in the air gives me an idea, the hallway has a lot of beams and things high up on the walls that would make travelling up there easy enough. It would also keep me out of the reach of any creatures that are stalking the hallways. Of course that would only be an advantage if the creature is bound to walking on the ground and can't get up high. I decide that if something approaches me on the ground, then I'll go up to avoid it and start to map the beams and things that I can use to travel up high so that I can head up as quickly as possible.

Meri seems to sense somehow that I'm now worried about being attacked from above because she flies higher and grows in size. She makes a single chirping noise, and Oryn replies in a similar way, launching himself higher into the air with his leathery wings and flying at the same height that Meri was before. Poca stays behind me, and I instinctively know that he's guarding my back and making sure that nothing sneaks up on us from behind.

They are an amazing team, and I wish I had them all with me for those times when I had to do assassinations or rescues that I then disguised as kills. Not only would I have been a lot less lonely, but I could have gotten out of a lot more situations with fewer injuries if I had them.

A sound to my left has my senses perk up, and all of the creatures become tense, although none of them seem to be overly worried; it's more like they're cautious. I almost wonder if they know what the creature is. I keep moving forward as I allow my eyes to dart to the left, and I see a huge dark shape running through the rooms that I'm running past; it's keeping pace with me and moving through the walls between the rooms with no effort at all.

It's fucking huge, but it isn't attacking yet.

Motion on my other side draws my attention and I realise that Poca has tripled in size, and that is what is hopefully keeping the other dark creature away. I can't even work out the vague shape of the creature; it's moving so quickly that it's just a giant blur of darker shadows. I'm relatively sure that the only reason that I'm able to tell that it's there is because of the Void and how long I've dealt with the wispy shapes in the dark depths of it.

It's obvious to see why the supes that came in here either willingly or unwillingly didn't stand a chance against this thing. It's really hard to fight something that you can't fucking see, even more so when it can travel through solid objects with ease and knows this half of the castle better than anyone because it's not only its hunting grounds but its home as well.

Since it's obviously aware that I'm here, I give up on trying to be quiet and instead focus on speed. I chase the magic string, and although the creature keeps pace with me still, increasing its own speed to match mine, it doesn't attack. I have no idea if it's waiting for something, maybe a hunting partner, or if my own creatures that surround me are a big enough threat together that they're stopping it from attacking or at least making it pause. Whatever the reason is, I'm going to take advantage of it for as long as I can.

Finally, after many twists and turns, the magic string seems to go through a set of double doors that are ornately carved and dotted with gems that glitter even now. I don't think that this is the vault. I mean, it would be pretty stupid to make the vault so obvious, even if it's got an insane amount of spells on it to guard it and stop people from getting into it by promising grizzly and pain-filled deaths. I mean, that would be incredibly arrogant of Hades, and unless the Grey that I know is an entirely different person, then I don't see him doing that.

I only have a brief moment to wonder if this ornately carved door has spells on it that I should be aware of because in the next second I'm careening through the door anyway, because of course I fucking tripped on something. Landing on the gold-veined marble floor in a painful heap, I roll back to standing and pause, gathering my bearings. I somehow managed to turn myself around in the room when I fell, and I'm facing the door that I just came through, the door that is now wide open. Pacing outside of the room is the shadow creature, and even now that it's so much closer, I can't make out its shape or what it is. It's just a mass of darker black that is pacing outside of the door.

"Holy shit, it can't get in here," I mutter out loud without meaning to. The realisation was just a shock and it came out.

My words clearly affect it though and it stops and lets out a bone shaking roar, before I can even think about reacting, all of my animals growl and roar together the sound so immense and powerful that it shakes the room, and makes goosebumps rise over my entire body.

Holy fuck.

The creature doesn't run away or pause but does stop roaring at me and instead goes back to its pacing. I have no idea how we're going to get back out of here, but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. I'm sure Hades has more than one exit out of here. Dusting myself off, I pick my swords up since I dropped them when I went ass over tit and take a look around. The glowing string of magic leads straight across the vast room and through the wall. Because of its light, I can see the sheer size of the room that I'm standing in and that there's some kind of raised platform to the left where the glowing string disappears.

The room is so big though, and the light of the magic is not that bright, so I can't make out much else, and since the creature is still pacing outside of the door and apparently can't seem to get in here, I allow my curiosity to get the best of me and using my magic make a huge ball of glowing light, throwing it high up into the air and ordering it to stay put.

"Wow," I can't help but say aloud again.

The ceiling is doomed and decorated in mosaics that depict various times throughout history, from what I can guess, is pretty much the beginning of everything. There are wars mixed in with serene scenes of waterfalls and woodlands, creatures that look both cute and terrifying, there are so many different creatures from all the realms that I could spend hours looking up and still not see everything. It's incredible, and it's only a small nudge from Oryn that reminds me to get back on track. We finally have a key fragment to find, and we need to get out of this place. I have no idea if the fact that the creature can't get in here is only a temporary fix, and any minute now, he's going to come racing in here and tear me to pieces.

However, I can't resist having a quick glance around at the rest of the room as I follow the magic string slower than I probably should. It turns out I should've probably looked down before I looked up. The floor is littered with bodies, dried blood covering almost every surface. The sight is enough to make me pause. There was clearly a battle here. One that happened a long time ago, none of the bodies are fresh; all of them are nothing more than just bones. I'm incredibly grateful that I didn't accidentally stand on any of them and that I decided to light this place up.

A noise from the door catches my attention, and when I turn around, I'm shocked to see two glowing green eyes staring at me from an impossible height. It suddenly occurs to me that the creature may have been guarding this room and the fallen in here. I know that he's likely guarding the vault and whatever else Hades has hidden in here too but I get the overwhelming urge to say something to him.

I bow my head, "I am sorry. I promise you that I mean them no harm, and I will do my utmost to respect them as I move through the room."

It tilts its head, and the only reason I know that is because its eyes move. The mass seems to nod, and I simply turn back around; I have no idea if that was the right thing to do or not, but he didn't roar at me again, and he's no longer pacing, just watching. I'm going to take that as a good sign, but it's not like I'm going to trust him not to eat me if he gets the chance.

I slowly move forward, following the magic and being extremely careful that I don't stand on anyone. As my eyes drift to where the magic disappears through the wall, I realise that the platform that was barely visible before is actually a dias where a massive throne sits. There are two large slices in the ornately carved back that confuse the shit out of me until I remember that Hades has wings, and that must be so that he can sit comfortably.

Compared to the opulence of the rest of the room, and actually, even the castle itself, while huge, the throne is much simpler in its design, much more modest although still exquisitely made. For the first time since walking these halls I find something that reminds me of the Hades I know, my Grey. Something settles inside me, something that I should probably look closer at, but I don't want to right now.

I can't help moving up the steps and approaching the throne; something about it draws me to it, and when I see the blood splattered across it, I have to push down the irrational fear that starts to rise. He's okay, well he was when I last saw him.

Nope, that line of thinking needs to stop right now, or I'll start to panic, and that's not going to help anyone. It's strange, but even in this room, surrounded by the dead, being up here on this platform and looking over it all just seems very lonely. When I first met Grey, he struck me as extremely lonely, but I just put it down to being a prisoner. I mean he'd been there for a long time before I showed up and Azreal managed to get Hades moved so his cell was near mine.

Maybe it was more than that though, perhaps he had been lonely for a long time before he became a prisoner. I imagine that being the god of the Underworld and all of the responsibilities that it brings would be pretty lonely. As far as I know, there aren't any other gods that reside down here, but then again, I know that the Underworld caters to those of all religions, so would that mean that those gods exist? If they did, then why aren't they down here, too? Why is it left only to Hades? I find myself getting indignant and pissed off on Hades' behalf for something that may actually not be an issue and I realise that I need to let it go for now and deal with it when I can ask the man himself.

"I wonder what happened here. I wonder if this was where those prince fucks managed to capture Hades?" I ask, no one in particular since the creatures can't answer me, and the beast at the door won't even if he could.