Chapter Six

Farren

U nsurprisingly, my revelation is met with silence, Xerxes understandably not knowing how to respond.

"Am I right in thinking that you have the gift for picking spells apart?"

I nod, "I do, but I can't use it to pick the spells apart when its been cut off from me," I pause, not wanting to sound crazy but wanting to get his opinion; I decide to add, "but I swear that it's trying to pull the spells apart from behind the bindings, is that possible?"

Xerexes hums while he thinks, "It could be; there are very few people that have actually had the ability, so I can't be certain. You may be able to coax your magic to work from this side of the bindings though."

"I'll try anything at this point; I know that it's going to be impossible to get out of here without some help from my magic."

"Try connecting with it like you would when you need to do a particularly difficult spell, go into a meditative state, and see if you can coax it through the bindings to start picking some of them apart. You need to be aware that some of the spells may have traps built into them that you could trigger if they're undone, and you could experience some nasty side effects."

"It can't be anything worse than what I'm experiencing or will experience here. I may as well try now since I'm being left alone, and there's no telling how long that's going to last. If I'm too deep and someone comes, hide. I don't want them finding you, that would be really fucking bad."

"Okay, I will, I'll try to pull you out first though."

"Thank you," I reply.

I hope he does what I've asked. I don't want him in the hands of the princes; the torture that they would put him through would be horrific, and the information that they would have access to would definitely mean that they could do some severe damage, considering that they are already doing plenty of damage without having access to the information makes me dread to think what they would do with it.

I take a deep breath, trying to block out all of the pain that my body is in, the thoughts of my men, H, the princes, torture, everything; I push it all away and sink into my centre, my eyes slipping closed. Usually, when I slip into my centre where my magic resides, I get this overwhelming sense of peace and immediately feel better. This time though, I'm just hit with a wave of pure anger, I can barely feel my magic, and I fucking hate it; not only that, but it's mad as hell at being trapped, as in the kind of anger that wants to destroy everything in its path.

Coming face to face with my magic makes me worry about how I will cope with not being able to get into the Void. I have no idea how long I've got before I start to feel the adverse effects of not going into the Void, but I do know that it's pretty serious if I don't get in. Not only did I experience that firsthand, but Monty was pretty sure that it would get more extreme each time.

I can't dwell on that now though, I need to see if I can convince my magic to try and pull apart the spells from the other side. I take another grounding breath and refocus myself. I don't know how long I spend immersed, but it has to be quite a while. The good news is that I managed to unravel two of the spells, and picking them apart didn't have any adverse effects; the bad news is that it took me so long and, as far as I can tell, didn't give me any more access to my magic. In order to get through all of the spells and entirely free my magic, it's going to take time, and I fear that it will take more time than I have.

For now, I'm going to celebrate the small win.

"How did it go?" Xerxes asks as I come back out and groan at the stiffness in my limbs. I was right; I've obviously been under for a while.

I explain to him that I managed to get two undone but that it's going to take me a while to get through the rest and then ask, "How long was I under for?"

"Around four hours."

"What? And no one came in that time?" I ask, needing to reassure myself. Even though if they had, I would definitely have known about it.

It's not like they would've thought, oh, she's meditating. I'll come back to torture her some more later.

"No, no one has come." Just as he finishes the sentence, I hear the telltale click of the door at the end of the corridor that leads to my cell.

"You need to hide somehow, right now," I whisper urgently. Magic encompasses him, and he shrinks until he's barely bigger than my thumbnail; he then moves to the dark recesses of my corner and stays there. As footsteps echo down the hallway, I add, "Whatever happens, do not get involved; that is an order. If you can somehow zone out what's about to happen, I'd highly suggest it."

He makes an unhappy noise but then falls silent.

"Farren," Hiromu's voice snaps out, and I feel a spear of dread trickle down my spine and settle in my gut.

I hate Hiromu's brand of torture the most. I can deal with physical pain, but his ability is illusions, and he is extremely good at them; he will create an illusion in my mind, and although I know this, it is so real, and he has done it for so long that it becomes impossible to think of it as anything but real. I feel and experience everything as if it were real.

What worries me the most is that it was bad enough when the only thing I truly cared about was Poca and Kill, both of which were used against me in the illusions, either watching them die or be tortured in hundreds of different ways or having them turn on me. Now, I have the others who I care about and who actually mean something to me, and watching them all die in horrifying ways over and over again is going to be way worse than any physical pain that the princess can put me through. The only silver lining is that, for whatever reason, he can't see what the illusions are, at least not with me. He simply throws his magic at me, and it takes care of the rest; it was a point of massive disappointment for him when he tortured me the first time. Unfortunately for me it doesn't seem to affect the potency of his gift and he quickly realised that although he couldn't see what I was seeing, it was still having the desired effect on me.

Hiromu grins, his pointed teeth wickedly sharp, the black colour of them a deep contrast with his red skin. With two sets of eyes, the fact that he's only barely taller than I am does nothing to lessen how intimidating he is. His eyes connect with mine, and just like that, I'm pulled into an illusion.

It's not real, it's not real, I chant to myself as my men come into view.

Each one of them looks at me with disgust as they begin to circle me.

"I told you that you'd be the death of us," Storm sneers.

"Not worth our time," Loki spits, his teeth flashing dangerously in the light.

"You'd be better off dead," Mayhem growls.

"I'm happy to help you kill yourself, I'd consider it an honour to rid this world of you," Rival adds.

"Save some for Ryu and me," Reaper says, "pathetic."

Grey's eyes flash with malice, "I enjoyed watching them torture you. You deserved it."

"He's right. I've seen how They sliced at you, and I've seen what they're going to do to you," Zev grins, his eyes dark and filled with a level of hatred that makes my heart hurt, "what they've got planned this time is so much worse."

They continue to throw more and more insults my way, getting more creative in the ways that they'd like to end me and how useless I am. This is just the warm-up act for what's about to come, and that's proven when their harsh and hurtful words are accompanied by hits and pain. I curl up and chant over and over again that it's not them. They'd never treat me this way, not even Storm when he hated me.

Killian

T his is taking too fucking long, we've been travelling for days now, camping in the woodlands that seem to cover most of the Underworld, or at least what we've seen so far. Apart from the first town that we arrived in, where we only stayed for a couple of hours before we set off again, we've avoided them entirely so far. Although the new terrain is interesting and nothing like I have ever seen before, it doesn't detract from the fact that Farren is missing; well, that's not strictly true. I mean, we know where she is, so I guess kidnapped would be the better way to describe it.

The point is, she's been taken, and she's being tortured; we don't even know why they want her, although from what Grey and Khaos have told us so far, I wouldn't put it past them to want her just for revenge for escaping the first time that they had her. Either way, I want to destroy some princes. I want to tear them limb from fucking limb, slowly, and watch them bleed out. If the worst happens to Farren, then I'll have nothing to lose, and the Princes will wish that they had never set eyes on her. I will torture them forever, and I know that I won't be the only one who will be doing it.

"Alright, that's it." Loki suddenly says, throwing his hands up in the air and spooking his horse.

I say horse, but these creatures are barely related to them. Instead of four legs, they have six, which allows them to move incredibly fast, although their faces are a similar shape to the Fae horses that we're used to. These horses have two sets of eyes, one set above the other, as well as wickedly sharp teeth. They could easily tear you apart and not even break a sweat. I tune back into the conversation as Loki points at Khaos.

"You are quiet, too quiet. We may not have known you for very long, but I think I've gotten to know you well enough over the last few days; something is wrong. You haven't replied snarkily or blown something up all day, so I know there's something going on; what gives?" Loki asks a slightly shocked looking Khaos.

Something that we learned within the first full day of travelling, which was only two days ago, is that if there is a problem that we come up against and there isn't an easy or straightforward solution he just blows it up. His love of explosives reminds me of Farren and makes me miss her even more. I feel like I've only just got her back after missing her for so long and thinking that she'd given up on me. I fucking loath knowing that she's in danger, and I can't murder them. I also know how much past trauma being in a cell is going to trigger, thanks to her fucking father and being there before.

Grey and Farren both told us a little bit about how they met in the cells but not really much about what happened while they were imprisoned there. I only needed to see their shared haunted looks to know that it was fucking terrible. I'm actually surprised that they both got out alive and that they can even function. Many seasoned warriors have lost themselves and become shells of their former selves or, worse, Wraiths after they have been tortured, and yet Farren, although admittedly jaded, could laugh, love, and be so incredibly gentle even after all of the pain that has been inflicted on her.

She is the strongest and fiercest person I know, and that is the sole reason why I'm not completely losing my shit right now. If anyone can survive the fucking princes for a second time, it's Farren.

Grey chuckles, bringing me out of the wayward thoughts I keep getting lost in.

"They genuinely care; you'll get used to having more than just me notice if you're alright," Grey tells the still slightly confused-looking Khaos. "He's not wrong though, what's up?"

Khaos tenses slightly and then sighs heavily, rubbing his hand through his hair, "I just had a strange dream, and I can't stop thinking about it. It affected me more than I thought it would."

It's easy to tell from the way that he shifts that he is really uncomfortable admitting that to us, and Mayhem asks, "Do you want to talk about it, or do you want us to forget you told us?"

Looking relieved, Khaos replies, "The second option, please."

"You got it, mate," Reaper replies for all of us and then adds, "if you change your mind though we're here."

Khaos just nods, not sure what to say.

Loki, as usual, comes to the rescue and changes the subject, "Where is here? How far away from the next stopping point are we?"

"We're staying in a small village just up ahead," Grey replies.

"We haven't seen any souls, just Underworlders," Mayhem says, not really phrasing it like a question, but you can hear the curiosity in his voice.

"We're only travelling through the part of the Underworld that holds the native Underworlders. The Souls are in an entirely different part and travelling through it would be extremely complicated especially since they may recognise me. It might be necessary at some point in our journey if we hit any snags, and we can deal with it then, but for now, I'm hoping that we can carry on through this part; it's a lot more like what you're used to." Grey explains.

"Gotcha," Mayhem replies, questions dancing in his eyes.

It's nice to know that some things haven't changed since the last time that I saw them all, and I'm incredibly grateful that they have just accepted me back into the fold despite how we ended things. I didn't have much choice, but they still could've given me a hard time, and they haven't. I think that their easy acceptance has to do with Farren and also because we haven't really stopped since I came back into their lives.

Storm and I haven't even had a proper chance to talk about our father and what me being back in the picture could entail as soon as he realises I'm alive and back. That's a worry for another time, hopefully far into the future.

"The castle is in this part and not in the part that houses the souls?" Storm clarifies.

Khaos nods, "Yes, so there shouldn't be any reason why we would need to go through the Soul side."

Zev clears his throat and looks slightly uncomfortable as he dodges a branch, "Can you tell if she passes when you're here?"

I tense, it hadn't even occurred to me that he may not be able to tell, and in the back of my mind, I have sort of been counting on the fact that if something went wrong with Farren, Grey would know because he's Hades and he said he knew when any living creature in all of the realms died, but what if it doesn't work here for some reason.

My heart pounds in my chest as my tail starts stabbing the air in preparation to kill whoever has taken her from us.

"My gift doesn't turn off depending on location; not even the suppression spell that I had on me could stop that part of my magic, even when it was first put on me." Grey starts to explain as the lights of the village begin to appear through the trees. "I will know if she crosses over."

My anxiety dips a bit, although the thought of her crossing over absolutely terrifies the fuck out of me, so it doesn't go entirely. I try to take comfort in the fact that she hasn't crossed over yet.

"We're here," Reaper says unnecessarily as we start to head down a dirt street, with houses and shops on either side of us.

It's only early evening, so the streets are still bustling with people going about their business. At least it was when we first arrived; as we get further into the town looking for somewhere to stay for the night, I start to notice that not only are the villagers looking at us in fear, but they start to head off the street shutting the doors tightly behind them, by the time we get to the town centre they're being a lot less subtle about the fact that they're trying to avoid us.

As the last door in the town square slams shut and we're left alone, Rival stops his horse, prompting the rest of us to do the same, "Okay, I thought I might be being paranoid at first when everyone started to disappear, but I know I'm not imagining it now."

"They're scared of us," Loki frowns, clearly not liking that they all appear to fear us so much.

"Not just scared, they're absolutely terrified of us." Mayhem points out, his gaze moving from staring at the closed doors and empty streets to looking at Grey and Khaos, "Is it because we're obviously not one of them, and we're not dead?"

Grey shrugs, "I mean, that would certainly make them curious, but I don't think it would make them scared."

"There's no way that they could recognise you right?" Reaper asks.

Khaos shakes his head this time, "It's unlikely, but even if they did, he wouldn't be met with fear; the whole Underworld was devastated when he disappeared; he's very much loved."

Storm sighs, "There's a tavern over there, let's see if we can get some more information from there and hopefully a room or two so we can get a couple of hours sleep before we set off again."