Page 30 of Chaos Unleashed

I start to open my mouth but am interrupted by a smirking Khaos. “Sorry, Mate. I don’t think we’re going to be able to stop and get any food while we’re here.”

My eyebrows dip in confusion as I ask, “How did you know I was going to ask about food?”

Khaos’s chuckles are joined by the others and he replies, “Because you’ve mentioned it at least once a day since we had it back at the tavern, and you made us promise to go back there after we got Farren so long as she was okay but then made a point to add that even if we were being chased by the princes, we should still stop in.”

I try to hold in my smile but don’t succeed, “Oh, fair enough. Maybe I did say that.”

Kill rolls his eyes at me. We all know with one hundred percent surety that I absolutely did say that.

“Guys, go on ahead a second. I just need to have a word with Loki,” Kill says, surprising me. I haven’t seriously pissed him off, have I?

“Sure, but is this about the fact we’ve been here for over a week, and he hasn’t fed at all?” Khaos asks.

It surprises me that he’s noticed, but there’s an unmistakable note of concern in his tone that makes me smile. We’re growing on him, the grumpy bastard.

I glance at Kill in question, and his eyebrows raise, “Yeah, actually.”

“Well?” Storm asks me as they all glance at me.

I shrug, “I don’t know what to tell you guys. There’s no big secret. Nothing's wrong. I’m just not hungry.”

“What do you mean you’re not hungry?” Reaper asks, sounding entirely confused by the sentence, but then the guy is always fucking hungry. Case in point: he’s munching on beef jerky right now.

It’s actually something that he used to do a lot when we were younger. You’d never see him without a snack; he’d always be eating, but as he got older, he stopped doing it as much. I had thought that it was something that he’d grown out of, but seeing him do it again now, I’m starting to wonder if it’s got something to do with reconnecting with Ryu.

Chapter Eleven

Loki

“Loki!” Rival exclaims, “Focus, what do you mean you aren’t hungry?”

I smile sheepishly, “Whoops. I don’t really think there’s anything else to explain. I’m not hungry, I’m not weak; it’s like I fed a couple of days ago.”

“Huh,” Mayhem replies eloquently, although from the look on his face, I’d say that his brain is going a mile a minute at the moment trying to come up with a reason why I’m not hungry.

“You last fed from Farren, right?” Grey asks, having come to the conclusion quicker than the others.

Khaos’s eyebrows rise.

“Yes I did,” I reply, hoping that my tone carries enough warning in it that they take notice.

“I thought so. This conversation is probably best had when we’re in safe surroundings, and as that may not be for a while, I suggest that we leave the conversation for now,” Grey says, thankfully hearing my warning and putting the implications together.

The others all seem to catch on pretty quickly and don’t ask any more questions, but somehow, they still manage to look at me with concern. It’s evident that they’d all picked up on it, and I honestly don’t know why I thought they wouldn’t have noticed. Although, Khaos noticing too was a pleasant surprise.

“I agree with Grey. However, I just want to add that if you start to get hungry or anything weird happens, tell us before it’s too late.”

I nod, “Yep, I can do that.”

We all fall silent as we cross the boundary into town. This one is built within a wall, so we go from a dirt road with trees on both sides of us through a massive stone archway and instantly have houses on either side instead. Unfortunately, because of how this town is set up, there’s no hope of us finding a shop that has everything that we need on the edge of town.

“We’ve been noticed,” I say quietly as a set of shutters slam loudly in the empty street.

“Are they even going to serve us?” Zev asks.

“The bartender guy at the tavern in the last town did,” Rival replies.

“I feel like he may have been a one-off though,” I add.

---