Page 72 of Chaos Unleashed

“I have no idea, but it sure as hell packed a punch,” Storm replies, playing along flawlessly, “is everyone okay.”

When everyone answers that they are, although we already know that, we all slowly stand up and look at Hades.

“I’m sorry, my magic has been apart from me for too long, and it was a bit over-eager to do as I asked. Fortunately, you were all sitting on the floor so you didn’t have far to fall,” Hades explains.

Khaos rolls his eyes as we all get up, “Yeah, because that makes a difference.”

“Did it work?” Mayhem asks, which is a good job because I’m pretty sure they were about to devolve into a fake argument about something that didn’t actually happen.

Hades smiles and nods, “Yes, I put all of the ones that were causing the unrest into a special slice of Purgatory. They’re already heavily regretting being easily influenced, I also have a list of the missing souls. If you leave it with me, we will locate them and send them back Wraiths when they die; get sent back here.”

“Thank you, Sire, that’s a massive relief,” the taller one replies, the relief evident in the droop of his shoulders.

“You can now reopen the heavens as normal,” Hades replies, “send everyone back to their usual posts. I imagine that there are some very confused Helliers on the punishment side right now, so I’d suggest that you get over there as quickly as possible and tell them what’s going on, along with the rest of the information about what is going on.”

“Yes, Sire,” they reply together.

“I will give the realm as much of my magic as I can before I leave, and I promise that I will be back soon. I won’t be gone for too long,” Hades adds.

All of the Helliers nod that they understand, and then they disappear.

Once I’m sure that they’ve gone, I say, “This is all starting to get a bit messy, isn’t it?”

“I think that might be the understatement of the century,” Reaper replies.

“It's certainly up there,” Hades agrees, and I smile.

Loki shrugs, “In all honesty, I couldn’t care less how messy it is or how messy it gets. I’m just glad that we’re all together.”

All the guys hum in agreement and look at me with soft expressions. To have all of these incredibly strong men look at me like that, well, it’s pretty fucking amazing, and for the first time in my life, I feel my cheeks heat with the telltale signs of a blush.

If any of them point it out, I will kill them; their soft looks quickly turn into amusement as my smile turns into a scowl of warning.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Farren

“She’s cute when she’s mad,” Khaos mutters out of the corner of his mouth.

All of the guys burst out laughing, and although I try to keep my scowl in place, it doesn’t last, and I end up laughing along with them.

The buzz of magic going throughout the whole realm stops our laughter.

“Should we be concerned about that?” Zev asks.

Hades shakes his head, “No, it’s just the heavens unlocking. They should have never been locked in the first place. Although I understand that it was to keep everyone safe, and they didn’t really have much choice.”

“They've done a really good job in our absence,” Khaos says as we start to walk forward again.

“Yeah, they have,” Hades replies thoughtfully, “I’ll have to think of a way to thank them properly, especially since I’m about to take off again.”

“I think it’s a testament to how well you ran the place,” Kill says to Hades and then looks at Khaos, “and how well you trained your Helliers. I mean, they didn’t even question anything; they just accepted that you were back and accepted that you were leaving again.”

“They spoke to you with the utmost respect, too,” Storm adds.

Hades shrugs, “You must remember that I’ve been doing this for longer than I care to admit, and Khaos has been here almost as long. In fact, none of those Helliers were new, and we still consider a Hellier new if they’re a couple of hundred years into the job.”

“Wow, okay.” Storm replies, “Yeah, it makes sense why they just go with the flow.”

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