Page 23 of Chaos Unleashed

He takes away enough of the pain that I know I’ll be able to get to sleep.

“Thank you,” I tell him as his magic pulls back, and I move into the corner again.

“I wish I could do more,” he replies sadly, “you get some rest and I’ll keep watch.”

I thank him again and then close my eyes.

**********

I feel ridiculously excited when I realise that I’m in my cell and I’m dreaming. My eyes quickly scan the cell before they land on H, gorgeous as I remember him sitting on the floor and frowning. Before I can let him know that I’m here, he tenses, and his head snaps up, looking in my corner.

“Ren?” he questions, hope saturating his tone.

“Hey,” I reply, trying to sound upbeat.

I must fail because his frown deepens, “You’re in more pain and not just physically.”

“How did you know that?” I ask instead of confirming or denying, either way; I don’t really see the point. I’m more honest with him than I am with myself, which doesn’t make too much sense because he is me, or at least a part of me. That’s going to get confusing fucking quickly the longer that I think about it, so I’m going to abandon that line of thinking.

He pauses for a second, most likely wondering how much he can tell me before he comes to a decision, and replies, “I’m a higher demon, kind of; I can feel when someone is in pain and how, physically and emotionally or mentally. I also feed on it, although, for some reason, my magic doesn’t want to feed on your pain. It wants to fix it.”

That explains why his magic has once again been trying to heal me since I arrived and why I’m finding it easier to move and speak than I have for what feels like a long time. I don’t care if I’ll only feel the effects while I’m in here, and when I go back to my real cell, I’ll feel it all threefold. I have a feeling that there won’t be many pain-free moments in my future or ever again, and I should take advantage of the gift that he’s giving me while I can.

Weirdly, he looks kind of nervous, and I’m at a complete loss as to why, so instead, I say, “Well, that’s got to be super helpful for your kind of enforcer job.”

His lips tick up into a small smile as his shoulders drop slightly releasing the tension, “Yeah, it was. I thought it would freak you out.”

I chuckle as I slide down the wall, and realise I can sit slightly closer to him than I could last time, although we still can’t touch.

“There’s not much that freaks me out and how a supernatural survives is definitely not something that would. Besides, I can see how that would come in handy for your job, as I said before. Can you manipulate someone’s pain levels?”

His head tilts to the side as his eyebrows raise slightly, “Yes, actually I can. I can heighten, lower it, and make someone feel it when there’s no reason for it.”

“That is so cool,” I reply and then add, probably revealing a little bit too much in the process, “less messy too; you could torture someone and get the information that you need and leave no trace of it anywhere.”

He’s silent for a moment before a sharp and beautiful grin stretches across his face, revealing his sharp teeth and making his red and gold eyes sparkle, “You’re a little bit bloodthirsty, aren’t you, Ren?”

“You have no idea,” I reply, smiling although I know that he can’t see me.

“I like it,” he replies.

“So, at the risk of ending this dream before I want to, I have a question to ask,” I start.

His eyes dart sideways in my general direction but don’t land on me, so I’m assuming that for whatever reason, he still can’t see me; it’s probably a good thing since I know that I look like death, covered in fresh and dried blood, missing a finger, sliced up and bruised. Yeah, I don’t think I want the hot as fuck demon seeing me like this.

“Okay, I suppose there’s no harm in you asking, but I can't promise that I will answer.”

“Fair enough,” I reply, knowing it's probably as good as it’s going to get, “what is it you really do? I mean, we both know an Enforcer of sorts isn’t quite the truth.”

His lips twitch ever so slightly, “I was Hades' head Enforcer, I punished the worst of the worst that came from all the realms and was in charge of the team that helped to do the same. I also oversaw the training of the Helliers when I had the time. I trained them until Hades disappeared, and then I couldn’t get back into the realm; I’m not even sure what happened.”

I’m quiet as I absorb that information; I mean, in theory, he would’ve trained some of the Helliers that kept Grey and me imprisoned and helped to torture us. If what Dagon said was true, then Grey is actually Hades, and that means that H knows Grey because H knows Hades, which also means that he still thinks Hades has disappeared. Of course, I have no idea if what Dagon said was actually true, so bringing it up now could possibly have a negative effect.

Oh, and I almost forgot H is a fragment of my imagination, and none of what he’s saying is actually true; it’s just my subconscious way of putting all the pieces together and keeping me distracted, giving me something else to think about while I endure hell. I’m pretty impressed with its inventiveness, to be fair.

“Are you okay?” he asks, and then adds before I can reply, “I know you’re in the cells of the castle. I recognise this one, I can promise you that whatever Helliers are keeping you there and inflicting this kind of pain are not mine. I haven’t been back to the Underworld for a long time, almost as long as Hades has been missing.”

Although most of what he’s said rings with truth, there’s a part of it that pings with a lie. I don’t think it’s a significant enough lie to call him out on it though and quite frankly, there are a lot bigger things that I should worry about right now. A little white lie is hardly concerning.

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