Page 7 of Chaos Unleashed

“Whoa,” Loki mutters, “it’s glowing.”

Khaos smirks as he wastes no time striding toward the heavily and intricately carved door and simply opening it; behind the door is a swirling gold and black abyss; in a move that Farren would love, he salutes us with a smirk and then just steps into it.

“Well, I guess that’s it then,” Rival states, looking a bit apprehensive about stepping into the unknown, in an entirely different realm, and one that we’re not supposed to see until we die.

“I’m going to try and do this as quickly as possible, but as I said before, I can only take one of you at a time. If I take more than that, my power is going to flare, and it will be like announcing to the Princes that I’m in the Underworld and have my magic back.” Hades explains quickly.

With no discussion, Hades grips Reaper’s shoulder and walks him through the door, disappearing from sight and making me nervous. I really don’t like us being split up, even if it’s only for a few minutes. Not only that, but Reaper is on the other side in the Underworld, which is an unknown to us, and with Khaos, who is another unknown. My magic isn’t negatively reacting to him; in fact, it’s curious and far too calm about his sudden presence if you ask me, but it is allowing me to trust him a small amount, that and I trust Hades, my trust in Hades was easier because Farren trusted him, and that was good enough for me.

With each one of my brothers that goes through the gate to the Underworld, I get twitchier. My wings move agitatedly behind me, but then I don’t think they’ve really stopped moving since Farren got taken. I can’t get the picture of her bleeding and slumped from my mind and whenever I focus on it for too long, my magic rises, wanting out, it wants to destroy the fucker who hurt her and I have to use all of my strength in order to keep it contained. As soon as I find the fucker, Prince of the Underworld or not, I’m going to fucking rip him to pieces, have Loki put him back together, and then do it all over again.

“Are you okay?” Zev asks me, pulling me out of my murderous thoughts; when I raise my eyebrow in question, he smirks, “You’re floating, and your horns have a raging ball of red fire between them.”

I look down, surprised to see that he’s right and my wings have lifted me into the air, I gently lower myself to the ground as I realise that the others have already been taken through and it’s only Zev and I left.

“I was just thinking about what I’ll do to the fucker that took her and every fucker that harms her.”

Zev’s face becomes serious as his eyes darken, just as he opens his mouth to reply though his eyes flash white, “Shit, Wraith’s incoming.”

That’s the only warning he can give me as we suddenly find ourselves surrounded by four Wraiths.

I grin, my smile dark and dangerous.

They’re going to wish they hadn’t come for us. We’re both itching for a fucking fight.

Both of us draw our weapons, and I call on my shadows as I watch Zev dive head-first into the fight; he’s a damn good fighter, and I know that there’s no need to worry about him. As I find myself being circled by two of the Wraith’s that have decided to come for me I realise that there’s something different about them. I spin out of the way as a stream of black fire that is unmistakably hellfire.

Shit, that explains why I didn’t immediately recognise the kinds of supes they are. They’re from the Underworld, and this is the second set that we’ve come across, we need to figure out how they’re coming across and whether they’re turning into Wraith’s here or in the Underworld and then coming into the realms. I thought that Wraith’s didn’t exist in the Underworld, but Hades has been gone for a long time now so there’s a really good chance that things have changed, the princes could have discovered a way to turn Underworlders into Wraiths.

I swing my sword at the one attacking me while I use my shadows at the same time to attack the other Wraith, who has turned into a creature that I have never seen before; all I can really take in right now is sharp teeth and lots of them. It takes me barely any time to dispatch the first Wraith, despite him trying to roast me at any opportunity, and his head thumps to the floor satisfyingly, my blade slicing cleanly through his neck.

Turning my focus to the creature, I switch tactics so that my shadows are no longer just distracting the Wraith, and instead, I use them to flood in through the mouth, nose, and eyes of the creature; I stay back as I watch the Wraith start to panic as it inhales more and more of my shadows. When he’s inhaled enough, I give the command, and the creature literally bursts into thousands of tiny pieces.

“Nice,” Zev comments as he wipes his sword off in the grass.

“Thanks,” I reply. I have to admit that I’m impressed at how quickly and efficiently he took out the Wraiths; it just goes to show how seriously he takes his training at Black Onyx.

I do think that he has something else going on that maybe he doesn’t even realise. With everything that’s been going on, I haven’t managed to talk to him about it, and I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon, but it is definitely something that we need to look into, you know since we have all of this spare time.

“What the fuck happened here?” Hades asks as he steps out of the portal behind us. Before we can answer though, he strides forward and nudges one of the bodies; frowning, he asks, “Shit, they’re all from the Underworld. This is a big fucking problem. After we’ve saved Farren, I’m going to need to figure out how exactly they’re getting here and whether they’re turning into Wraiths because they should be here or if something is changing because they shouldn’t be able to turn into Wraiths at all.”

“Not by yourself. We will help, but Farren is our top priority,” I reply, and he nods readily, clearly in agreement.

“I couldn’t agree more,” Hades replies. “We better get back through the door, we have no idea if there are more heading this way.”

Chapter Three

Storm

Hades' words make my wings shuffle uneasily behind me, showing my distress. To be honest, I don’t think I’m going to feel settled again until Farren is safe and with us. I feel hollow, like she has literally taken a part of me with her, and quite frankly I have no idea how I’m remaining calm or calm adjacent. I'm by no means actually calm; I think that would be impossible in this situation.

I refuse to lose hope that she’s going to be okay and that we’re going to find her. As soon as I do, I’m going to lose my shit, and goddess help anyone or anything who is near me when that happens.

“Hang on,” Zev says as his eyes flash white, “we need to move the bodies further into the tree line or dispose of them effectively enough that there is no trace of them left behind. If we don’t, more supes are going to become aware of this entrance, and that could have more catastrophic consequences than good ones.”

“Shit, you make a good point,” I say, my horns joining my wings in their agitated movements and lighting up with fire; we really need to get going.

“No problem, I can use hellfire,” Hades suggests as he moves over to the one closest to him.

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