Page 31 of Chaos Unleashed

Reaper clears his throat as he tries to make himself smaller by rounding his shoulders and shrinking a bit on top of his horse. It makes no difference; he’s a giant supernatural, thanks to Ryu, but it says a lot about the kind of person that he is, especially since Khaos is bigger than him and Grey is the same size, and yet he still tries to make himself smaller and less threatening.

“We can make do if we don’t find anything,” Reaper suggests, “it would just be better if we can find the stuff here.”

“He’s right. We know we can hunt for things, so it’s not like we’ll starve or anything,” I add.

“Okay, we’ll ride straight through; if we pass a shop that has what we need and doesn’t shut its doors immediately, then we’ll stop in; if not, we’ll just carry on going,” Storm suggests.

As we suspected, the town that didn’t have that many people still out and about quickly becomes like a ghost town and I quickly lose hope of getting some new boots. Apparently, the ones that I have had for years decided that now would be a good time to break for good, and I can’t use magic to fix them again because I’ve used it too much in the past, and now the fabric is magic resistant and the spell won't fucking stick.

I have wet tootsies, and I’m not a fan.

“Look, that one is still open. The lights are on and everything,” Mayhem suddenly says with hope in his voice.

As we start toward it I squint, my eyes widening as I realise something, “Isn’t that Monty’s shop?”

Grey sits up straighter in his seat and then rolls his eyes, “Yes, that’s Monty’s shop.”

“Are we back in the Shadowlands?” Kill asks, an edge to his voice.

Grey shakes his head, “No, Monty is just unique. He’s a . . .”

“A what?” Storm asks, as Grey just stops talking.

“For fuck sake, apparently, the spell isn’t gone, and there are still some things that I can’t tell you,” Grey groans.

“Seriously?” I ask.

“Can Khaos? Does he know how Monty’s shop is here?” Mayhem asks and then immediately adds, “Is Monty in there too? How is that possible unless he’s dead? Is he dead?”

I can’t suppress my chuckle, “Someone better answer something because I’m fairly certain that he’s short-circuiting.”

Khaos smiles, “Monty is able to be here because he’s a shifter and . . .”

My eyes widen, “No fucking way, you can’t say anything either?”

“Of course, he can’t,” Monty says as he appears perched on top of the sign to his shop and grinning.

“Would you care to enlighten us as to why not Monty?” Grey asks as he gets off his horse and prompts us to all do the same.

Monty pretends to think about it for a second before shaking his head, “Nope, not particularly; I’m not dead, though.” He replies, jumping down from the sign and landing lightly on his feet. “Now, come on, you need supplies, and you’re running out of time.”

“Out of time to do what?” I ask; although I’m reasonably sure I know the answer, I just want to confirm how much he actually knows.

“To get to Farren before she becomes a permanent member here,” Monty replies, serious for once.

We leave our horses outside the front of the shop since they’re unlikely to go anywhere without us and then follow Monty inside. I’m unsurprised to find that although it’s pretty much exactly like his shop in the Shadowlands, it also has a section filled with stuff that we need to get to Farren. It’s like he knew that we were coming. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I am absolutely certain that he knew that we were coming.

I’m just uncertain about whether him knowing is a good or a bad thing.

“Quickly gather the things that you need, and then we need to have a little chat,” Monty says.

Grey raises his eyebrows as the rest of us do as Monty has instructed, “None of your usual flair or tricks?”

Monty crosses his arms, “Not this time, not about this.”

Grey’s smile falls off his face, “What do you know?”

“I know that you are running out of time; there isn’t any. She will die if someone doesn’t get to her soon, one of . . .” Monty’s words get cut off, and for the first time since I met him, I see anger flash in his eyes and a growl rumble in his chest.

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