Chapter Twenty-Three

Farren

"W hat was that?" Reaper asks, looking more amused than disturbed.

"That is something that Farren and Poca do with severed body parts, apparently," Xerxes says.

"Xerxes, what the fuck are you doing here?" Storm asks.

"Oh shit, sorry," I tell him as I jump up and rush to the pile of straw where I put him before, picking him up.

I feel really bad that I forgot about him.

"Don't worry about it; after everything that you've been through, you need the cuddles and the safety, and I wasn't going to interrupt that for any reason."

"Thank you," I tell him softly.

As I sit back down, X answers Storm's question, "I was sent here to help Farren and tell her about the key fragment in Hades' vault."

As soon as he's finished talking, something occurs to me, "Wait, with the princes dead, why did I still need to get the key fragment?"

"I don't know. Are you sure you did? I mean, maybe whoever sent Xerxes didn't know that you'd end up killing the princes?" Mayhem suggests.

My mind spins, and it suddenly hits me: "It's because this isn't over. The princes were pawns; they weren't the person calling the shots; that was the god."

Grey holds his hands up, "Whoa, I think you maybe need to start explaining from the beginning."

"Shit, okay," I reply, trying to think where it is best to start; there's no point telling them about the torture; they don't need to know that.

"Won't the Helliers be coming after you? How did you manage to kill the princes with all the Helliers at the castle?" Storm asks, thankfully giving me a starting point.

"Oh, well, there were only a few Helliers left at the castle, and since I was all full of Void magic and mad as fucking hell, they weren't that difficult to get rid of." I explain, "I used magic from X to help guide me to the key but got to a point where the cleaning just sort of stopped; there was a definitive line. A maid sort of found me, and she explained that the commanders had stopped coming to the castle and stopped sending new Helliers up there a long time ago. They were duty bound to follow the princes orders, but that didn't include sending new Helliers up to the castle."

"So there may be hope for them yet," H mutters.

I nod, "Maybe, although they have been going into the villages and taking people to work in the castle, none of them were willing to go there. They were tortured and killed when the princes got bored."

"What the fuck," Reaper growls.

"They're sadistic fuckers," I hiss in reply.

Zev shakes his head, "I didn't see this."

"What?" I ask because he looks particularly confused.

"I saw us having to come back with armies in tow in order to take back the realm from the princes; I saw us fight; I didn't see Farren take them out by herself," Zev explains.

"Er, sorry?" I reply, slightly unsure but feeling like maybe it's something that I should apologise for.

He smiles, and shakes his head, "It's nothing to apologise for."

"What does it mean if you didn't even see it," Kill asks curiously.

Zev's eyebrows dip in confusion, "It means that Farren has done something extraordinary. She's changed Fate, and I have no idea how she's done it."

The guys all turn to look at me with varying looks of shock.

"Wait, I changed fate?" I ask, needing to clarify; when Zev nods in confirmation, I add, "Fuck, I have no idea how I did that. Is it going to have any negative consequences?"

"I don't know. I guess it's just a case of waiting to find out," he replies, which is not reassuring in the slightest.

"Didn't you say that you couldn't see us? I know that you've been able to see a few things, but is there a chance that you just didn't see this outcome?" Mayhem asks. I missed the way that his brain reaches conclusions that the rest of us haven't thought about.

"Yeah, that's true, but I was getting blank spots where I knew that there was something that I was not seeing. I didn't have that this time," Zev replies thoughtfully.

"Could you have just missed it because of how much you were worrying about Farren?" H asks.

"I suppose that it's a possibility." He replies, not sounding convinced.

"So, we need to keep an eye on things. You need to keep an eye on your visions, and hopefully, it's nothing that we need to worry about." Storm suggests.

"Hopefully," Zev replies. Clearly wanting to change the subject he looks at me, "What else happened?"

"Oh right, yeah, so I was following the magic to get to Hades' vault," I start to explain and get interrupted.

"We can head back and get the key fragment," Hades says with a smile, automatically assuming that I couldn't get the key, which, considering it was guarded by some very powerful spells, I don't blame him.

"No need," I say as I open the Void pocket and pull out the key fragment. "I got it."

"Was it not in the vault?" H asks.

"It was," I reply and then add, "Oh, and before I forget or get distracted because everything is being told in the wrong order, I picked up these on the way out; I thought you might want them since I saw you fighting with them."

"Saw me, what?" Grey asks.

I stand up and reach into the Void, grabbing the hilt of one of the swords and dragging it out. They're so fucking heavy.

Grey's jaw drops, along with H's, and I sigh, "A little help, please? These things are fucking heavy."

Grey doesn't say anything as he jumps up, takes the handle of the sword I have in my hand, and pulls it out with an ease that makes me envious as he reaches back into the Void and pulls the second one out, too.

His smile is broad as he mutters, "Hello, old friends; I did wonder what had happened to you. I should've known that you would've made your way back to the vault."

"They're sentient?" Mayhem questions.

Grey shrugs, "Sort of, it's really complicated."

"How the fuck did she pick them up?" H asks Hades.

"I mean, technically, I didn't. I tried, but they're too fucking heavy, so I had to use my magic to tip them into a pocket of the Void," I explain.

H smiles at me, as he reaches for me and pulls me down onto his lap. A quick look around at the others shows that they're all looking extremely amused, and none of them seem to be concerned that I'm sitting on his lap. I'm just going to go with it for now.

"You shouldn't have been able to touch them at all," he explains. "Although, I'm beginning to see that the usual rules don't apply to you."

"They never have," Kill grins, looking incredibly proud.

"They wouldn't have appeared to her if she wasn't able to handle them," Grey adds.

"Just add it to the growing pile of mysteries, I guess," I reply.

Grey just smiles at me as he reaches behind himself and simply places his swords on his back. They stay in place, and I know for a fact that he wasn't wearing a harness a second ago. I can't help it; I jump up, H reluctantly letting me go as I move toward Grey and walk around him.

He looks amused but lets me circle him, "They appear when I need them to."

"That's really fucking cool," Reaper compliments, looking suitably impressed.

"They look like mine. They did that!" I exclaim.

Grey's eyebrows rise, "Yours?"

"Yeah, hang on, I'll show you," I rush to the straw in the corner of the room where I left them, and pull them out, only now realising that I didn't take the harnesses off when I had a shower.

"Where in all the realms did you get those?" Grey questions, but I can hear an edge to his voice.

"Erm, that's kind of complicated, but look," I reply as I swing my axes in my hands and then place them behind my back; just as I was beginning to suspect, my harness magically appears, and my axes stay where they are.

"Whoa, that's so fucking cool," Loki exclaims, jumping up to check them out.

"Impossible," H says, his eyes wide as he just stares at me.

"I feel like that's being said a lot," I reply drily because it's true, and I don't know what else to say.

"Care to explain to the rest of us why it's impossible?" Rival asks, his eyebrow raised.

Studying him closer I realise that his hands are clenched and his leg is bouncing, he's not okay but he's trying to pretend that he is, running on instinct I head over, removing the axes from my back and then plopping down on his lap, as place them down in front of me. His arms wrap around me tightly. Loki smiles as he sits back down but his eyes worriedly watch Rival.

"The harness is gone now," Rival says.

"Before we get to the impossibility of it," Grey starts, although knowledge swims in his eyes, "how did you find them?"

"I didn't, they found me," I try to explain, and then quickly realise that my words made no sense so I add, "when I walked out of the vault, they were on my back, even Poca looked shocked."

"I'm not surprised. He knows what they are," H says.

"He does? I mean, I thought he did from his reaction, but how do you know that he knows?" I ask curiously.

H doesn't reply, he just smiles at me and I decide to drop it for now.

"They chose you," Grey mutters, sounding impressed.

Loki throws his hands up in the air dramatically, "Okay, someone, please explain to me what the hell it means; all these half-answers are annoying, and I'm pretty sure Mayhem is going to bust a vein in his head or something if he doesn't get the information soon."

I glance at Mayhem, and sure enough, he looks like he's got thousands of questions on the tip of his tongue; he doesn't dispute what Loki has said and instead just smiles sheepishly, which makes me chuckle softly.

Rival's arms tighten around me and he kisses my shoulder, making my heart hum with happiness. I'm in a state of disbelief at the moment; I know that they are here, really here, but there's still a small part of me that thinks that they're part of one of Hiromu's illusions, one that he's going to savagely rip away from me any second now. It's because of that I'm still on edge waiting for the other shoe to drop, but maybe I should just let it go. If this is an illusion, then I'm going to enjoy it as much as I can before I'm thrown back into my harsh reality, and if it's not, then well, that's awesome.

"Sorry," Grey winces and then immediately starts to explain, "those axes were formed in the god realm, much like my own blades."

"Wow, that's pretty cool," I mutter, stroking the axes.

"Yes." H agrees and then adds, "But only gods and goddesses can touch them, and they never bond to anything but a god or goddess."

"And they are clearly bonded to you," Grey's eyes are filled with the answers, but as he opens his mouth, nothing seems to come out.

"Which means you're a goddess," H says, and Grey nods in agreement.

I stare at them for a moment before the realisation hits me.

"Well, that proves it. Hiromu fucked up with that; I mean, a goddess? Seriously?" I question.

I'll give it to him though the guys stay in character as they all look confused, he's even got the realisation dawning on Hades and Khaos's features. I slowly get up off Rival's lap, pick up my axes and start to cautiously back away, moving away from them all as I grip the axes tightly, they may be a part of this illusion, but they're freaking badass, and if any of the other illusions are anything to go by, then I'm going to need them.

They're all watching me closely, concern on their faces and anger on Grey and H's.

"Farren? What's wrong?" Loki asks.

I don't say anything as I crouch down into a defensive crouch and wait for them to make their next move.

"She thinks this is one of Hiromu's illusions," Grey says, managing to keep up the act as his eyes fill with sadness.

"What?" Mayhem asks, his gaze not moving from me. "She thinks that all of this is fake?"

Grey nods sharply once.

"Why does she look ready to fight us?" Reaper asks cautiously as if he already knows the answer.

H's voice comes out as a growl, as he replies, "Probably because in the illusions we attack."

"What!" Storm practically explodes.

I tilt my head to the side. His reaction is a new one. In fact, all of their reactions are new; they all look absolutely horrified.

Storm stands up, and I automatically take a step back.

"Careful, brother, she thinks that you're about to turn on her," Killian says, shadows clouding his eyes.

I don't like the look of pain that I see there, and it makes me want to go to him to comfort him, but I know that it's probably a trick, and as soon as I get close, he'll attack.

I force my feet to stay still.

"How do we help her? How do we get her to realise that this is real?" Loki asks, his tone desperate.

"I'm not sure," H replies, his eyes scanning me from head to toe.

Suddenly, Mayhem makes a noise, and I glance over at him to see his eyes light with knowledge. He looks at Hades, "Most illusionists have a tell, right? There's usually something in their illusions that isn't quite right, something that is slightly off. So while still terrifying and traumatic, if the recipient can find that they at least know it's fake, right?"

"Yes, that's right." Grey replies and quickly cottons on to what Mayhem is getting at; his eyes move to me, and in a soft tone, he adds, "Farren, this is real. Even Hiromu isn't good enough to have infallible illusions; I know you; I know that you've found the tell, the thing that will tell you whether this is real or an illusion; what is it?"

"If she tells you, she's going to think that Hiromu has manipulated it that way and that this isn't real," Zev points out. He looks at me, "Don't tell us, Farren."

I am now incredibly confused; the illusions have never behaved like this; even Poca isn't acting how he would in the dream and is whining quietly.

I start to doubt myself.

"He's right," Reaper agrees, "Farren, we're going to stay exactly where we are. We aren't going to move, and you do what you need to do to prove that this is real."

I look around at all of them. They're all watching me earnestly, all with sadness and anger in their eyes, and usually, by this point, they would have started hurling insults or attacking me. My heart wants to believe so badly that they're real, that all of this is real, and that I got out, but they're right. I'm not going to believe them until I expose the tell.

"Farren?" Grey asks gently. He repeats Zev's words, "We'll stay still, okay?"

I nod sharply once; I really don't have anything to lose. They're either going to turn on me, or it's not going to be an illusion after all.

I hope they meant that they're going to stay still because they're not going to like this. Hiromu has everything perfect, except for one thing, and that's if I cut them, they bleed black, not the colour that they're supposed to. I found that out entirely by accident; I don't think he's aware of what his tell is since he can't see the illusions that he gives me. One tiny nick and I realised that it was real, it cemented it in my brain, and helped me stay grounded. It took me far too long to realise that though, and for some reason it only worked if I made them bleed, if they bled through any other means than by my blade they bled the right colours.

So, all the illusions of them dying were still incredibly real.

I grip my axes tightly in my hand. I know that they're overkill for this situation and that one of my knives from the Void will be more than sufficient for checking whether they bleed the right colour, but I'm terrified of what will happen when they turn on me and at least with my axes I have a chance to last for a bit longer. If the illusion doesn't last as long as Hiromu thinks it should, then he throws me into a worse one, and when I'm already feeling raw from the trauma of the first, it destroys me.

Cutting only one of them should be sufficient enough to tell me whether or not they're real, but I know that my mind won't settle until I've tested them all.

This is one of the most intricate illusions that Hiromu has weaved.

I unglue my feet from the floor as I slowly make my way back to the circle, all of the guys watching me openly, with looks of horror and sadness on their faces.

I go to the one who I think may protest the least and stop in front of Zev. His eyes flash white, and when they land on me again, he simply rolls up his sleeve and holds out his arm. I'm glad that he did because, honestly, I hadn't thought that far ahead.

"Go ahead, Farren, I promise you that this is real," he says, his eyes soft as he looks up at me.

I nod and then, taking my axe, slice his arm as gently as I can, considering I'm cutting him.