Page 94 of Black Onyx

No one speaks. Loki’s mouth drops open as he finally stops pacing and just stares, his gaze pinging between Zev, Killian and me.

He scrubs a hand through his hair, “Fantastic, that answer was super mysterious and gave absolutely no answers whatsoever.”

I can’t help but chuckle at the exasperation in his voice. “It’ll all work out, and we’ll know what it means eventually when the time is right.”

“That was very insightful of you.” Reaper compliments, and I grin.

“Alright, we’ll leave that for now.” Storm agrees.

“What now?” Mayhem asks, “what did the scroll say again?”

“The same portal that brought us here should appear and take us back,” Storm replies.

“Thank fuck. I want my bed.” Zev grumbles.

“Whoa, guys, look!” Rival suddenly exclaims, and we all turn to see the green portal finish materialising and the horses calmly walking through it.

We all start to walk towards the portal, and I’m slightly surprised that it hasn’t pulled us in like it did when it brought us here. I suppose that could be because no one will want to try and escape going back to the academy, but some people are likely to try and get out of being pulled into the Warrior games.

I don’t know about the others, but I am more than ready to get back to the academy. I have several things that I want to look into, and I have the fallout from the death of my father to deal with as well. That I’m not looking forward to at all. I highly doubt that he’s left anything to me, which is more annoying than anything else because he has many books that he shouldn’t have, books that were banned or supposedly lost in the wars and ones that, with him gone I could’ve had full access to and maybe even find out some real answers about my gifts.

I’m walking between Rival and Storm, and I try to hold in my reaction when Rival reaches out his hand and threads his fingers through mine, holding them tightly. He and Mayhem are the quieter ones in the group and the ones that I know the least about; I’m going to change that as soon as we get back to the academy, I may not know them as well as I’m getting to know the others, but they are just as important to me. We all need to get to know Zev better, too, especially since he’s going to be coming into the games with us, and I know with certainty that this wasn’t a one-off.

Storm’s wing reaches out and wraps around my shoulder, seeming to be similar to Killian’s tail in their need to touch me whenever I’m near. I’m not complaining in the slightest.

We’re a couple of feet away from the portal, Rival’s horse having just walked through when it snaps shut.

“What the fuck?” Reaper exclaims.

“Did we fail?” Zev asks, looking just as confused, which is not a good sign.

“No, we can’t have. We did it in the time frame, and the Fae Realm gave us gifts to show we were on the right track,” Mayhem frowns.

“That was only our interpretation of it though,” Rival replies.

Before anything else is said, a second portal appears, and everyone breathes a sigh of relief.

“Everyone back up!” Storm suddenly yells, and we immediately stop our approach. “It’s the wrong fucking colour. It's purple. That doesn’t lead back to the academy.”

My eyes widen, and I find myself being pulled away from the portal by Storm and Rival. Our efforts prove useless though, as we all start to be dragged back towards the purple portal, there’s nothing we can do to stop it, and I feel Storm’s wing tighten around me as my hand grips Rival’s tighter as we finally breach the portal, and I’m blinded by purple light.

We better all still be together when we come out the other side, or heads are going to fucking roll. Fuck.