Page 12 of Forgotten Arcane (Broken Ashes #6)
Doc
“I t really wouldn’t be a good idea for them to come to you trying to cause problems when it comes to Neith,” I reply with a frown. “Surely they can’t be that stupid, and they would know that it wouldn’t go well for them if they did?”
“No, it wouldn’t go well for them, but honestly, I can see them trying to use some sort of warped logic as to why we should give them Neith, or something equally ridiculous,” Ty replies.
My eyebrows hit my hairline. “Do you really think that they would ask for Neith?”
Ty frowns heavily, “I think it’s a possibility. Especially since we know that they are giving supernaturals to the Blue Fucker, or at least we are pretty sure that they are. It depends if he was the one who wanted Neith dead, and if he still has an interest in her.”
“Fuck,” I curse as I run my hand through my hair. “This is really not fucking good.”
“No, it’s not. But we will deal with it, and Neith is about as protected as it gets,” Ty tries to reassure me.
I nod, “Yeah, that’s true, I still don’t like it though.”
“Me neither,” he replies. “We can discuss all of that in more depth when you come back. For now, go home and enjoy spending time together as a team and having a break. I have a feeling that those will be few and far between soon.”
I raise my eyebrow, “There are more updates then?”
Ty chuckles, “Yes, there are, but if I get into them now, then you will all be back to work tomorrow, and everything can wait. We’ve got it handled, and like I said, HID is staying quiet for the moment, which is one of our biggest concerns.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. Are you sure there isn’t anything that needs our attention now?” I double-check since I can’t seem to help myself, and I know that the guys will feel the same way that I do, and will be happy to go back to work sooner if we are needed.
Ty smiles and nods, “Yes, I’m sure. Now get home, I know for a fact that you all need to rest after everything that you’ve been through.”
I nod in agreement, “That’s definitely true, I don’t think I have ever been this exhausted. Thanks, see you in a week or so.”
Ty smiles and nods, and I let my magic wrap around me again, pulling me from Ty’s office and back home. I choose to appear in the front room since I know that is where everyone is going to be.
“Holy shit, you need to wear some sort of bell or something,” Griff exclaims as I appear, and I grin.
“I could probably work out a way to warn you that I’m about to pop in, but then again, where would the fun be in that?” I ask with a smirk.
“Seriously?” Reed asks, looking amused. “All of those times that you have dropped in unexpectedly and scared the shit out of us, you could have warned us beforehand that you were coming?”
I shrug, “Probably, if I really tried.”
“I can tell when he’s about to arrive,” Neith says with a pleased smirk.
Coen smiles, “That must be your angel. How did you recognize that it was Doc, though?”
Neith grins, “That part of my magic isn’t new, I’ve always been able to tell the strength of a supernatural, and who the magic is coming from.”
Coen’s eyebrows rise as his eyes narrow slightly in realization. I’m guessing from his reaction that Neith didn’t tell him about that side of her either. Although I had kind of figured that out already.
“Alright, now Doc’s here, and the food is here. Fill me in,” Coen says impatiently, clearly done with waiting now.
Evander nods, “Grab your food and start eating. This is going to take a while to explain. There is quite a lot that we need to fill you in on, so that you’re up to speed.
We will explain the most important things.
I think it would be impossible to try to explain everything in one sitting, and we’re bound to leave things out and forget things anyway.
Obviously, we will then explain things as and when they come up, and ask any questions you want. ”
“You’re definitely going to have questions,” River grins as he stuffs a slice of pizza in his mouth.
“Shall I start with how I got here?” Neith asks.
Evander nods, “Yeah, that’s probably a good starting point.”
“So, HID blew me up with a bazooka,” Neith says casually.
“What!” Coen exclaims. “Please tell me you’re fucking joking.”
Neith shrugs, “Nope.”
She then goes on to explain about her dying and how she got here and everything else that followed. The rest of us then chime in with other things, and although I’m aware that we’re leaving some things out, we would be here for days if we tried to catch him up on everything right now.
When we’re all done, Coen just sits there for a few moments, his eyebrows high on his forehead and looking surprised, and possibly slightly overwhelmed at the amount of information that was just given to him.
“That explains the tether that you mentioned when Neith and Raiden dropped,” he says finally.
Raiden nods, “Yeah, it’s all quite complicated. We haven’t even gotten on to anything to do with work, and the case that we’re working on, and the complications around that yet.”
“I think that’s probably enough to absorb for today,” Evander says before anyone can launch into the explanation on the case and the Blue Fucker, and Dimitri, and everything else that goes along with that.
“Yeah, I think that’s probably a good call,” Coen agrees, with a smile. “There’s already a lot to wrap my head around.”
“We can explain more of that during the week. We’ve got time before we have to go back to HID and work again,” Reed points out.
“Agreed,” I say. I really will be surprised if we last the whole week.
I think after a couple of days of rest, we’ll be itching to get back on the hybrid case and figure out for sure if the Blue Fucker is linked to HID, even though we are all pretty sure that he is.
“Let’s just enjoy the food, and sleeping in our own damn beds tonight,” River points out. His expression becomes mischievous as he adds, “And being able to be naked. Wearing clothes all the time has sucked.”
Coen chuckles, “I did wonder how you were coping with that.”
River sighs dramatically and shakes his head slowly from side to side, “Not good, man, it was hell.”
As usual, River’s theatrics have us all laughing.
“We can do some research while we’re at home,” Griff suggests, and then adds with a huge smile, “we also need to get Neith flying.”
Neith grins and starts wriggling on her seat excitedly like a puppy, and making me and the others smile at how fucking adorable she looks.
“I can’t wait. Can we do that tomorrow?”
Griff nods, “Yeah, I don’t see why not.”
“Awesome,” Neith grins.
“Before we switch the conversation away from everything that we have to deal with, I wanted to talk about Kyrous,” River says, becoming serious.
“Why do I feel like you know who Kyrous is?” Coen asks, catching on far more quickly than most people would. He frowns as he continues, “And why he wasn’t there? To be honest, that whole thing really confuses me, especially since even Ed said that it’s never happened before.”
Reed rolls his eyes, “That was definitely something that we should have included in the main explanation.”
“Yep,” Neith agrees with a smile, as she takes another huge bite of pizza. “It’s a pretty vital piece of information.”
“So, Kyrous is the leader of Trieneliea’s armies, and trained the Bonded Warrior teams that had gone through the Choosing. He was the only supernatural to ever go through the Choosing and not receive a team,” Raiden explains.
“Well, we know that’s not true anymore, he did receive a team, it was us,” I point out.
“Yeah, that’s true,” Raiden agrees.
“Oh shit, do you think that the scroll had our names on it when he won?” Neith asks.
I nod, “Yeah, I would assume so. That must have been really confusing.”
“Not to mention that was possibly nearly a hundred years ago. Trieneliea’s been shut for thirty-odd years, and Kyrous was training the Warrior Bonded teams, and the commander of Trieneliea’s armies before that,” Raiden points out. As usual, remembering things that we had all forgotten.
“Wow,” Neith mutters, as sadness clouds her expression.
“Is he still in Trieneliea then? Or did he get out with everyone else?” Coen asks. “I wonder if he already knows. If he watched the Choosing, then he could have recognized our names?”
“That’s a really good theory, but Kyrous is dead,” Evander says with a wince.
“He went on a scouting mission with a team during the war in Trieneliea, and they got attacked, and Kyrous was taken. Sully said that there was no way that he could have survived, but Draith and Ty went looking for him just in case, and they never found his body,” Reed carries on the explanation.
“Whoa,” Coen mutters and then frowns. “Wait, Ty?”
Neith nods, “Yeah, he was Kyrous’ second in command.”
“How cool is that?” River adds, although there’s a hint of sadness in his voice.
Coen’s eyebrows raise, “That’s really cool actually. It also explains why he’s so good at running the Training Academy and SID.”
I nod and then grin, “Kyrous was a Berserker.”
Coen’s eyes widen with disbelief, “No fucking way.”
Raiden nods, his smile dims as he replies, “Yep. He was the last one.”
“Why does knowing that he’s dead affect me? I didn’t know him, obviously, but knowing he’s dead is like finding out that a close friend has died,” Coen asks, his expression darkening with a heavy frown.
“It does for me as well,” I admit. “That’s a good way to describe the feeling, actually, it’s exactly like that.”
“Same,” Neith replies. “It did when we first heard about it as well. I think that it’s because he’s supposed to be a part of our team. So in a way, even though we didn’t know it, we’ve always had a connection to him.”
Ransom nods, “Yeah, that makes sense actually. We know that being on a Warrior Bonded team connects us in ways that we don’t really understand,” he lifts up his forearm to show his mark, and continues, “and these prove that.”
“Agreed,” Griff says. He frowns, “Do we know where they were?”
“What do you mean?” I ask, since his question is pretty vague.