Page 5 of Forgotten Arcane (Broken Ashes #6)

Neith

“T hey’re dangerous?” Griff asks, tension lining his voice.

Ed frowns, “The answer to that question is a bit more complicated than a yes or no. They have been around for an extremely long time, but of course, they are now quite out of touch with the way of the supernatural world. Therefore, some of their ideas on how they can help will not be very welcome. Lucius is more in touch with the world and will hopefully inform the Elders of the newer ways to deal with things. He clearly has their ear.”

“I think a positive thing to take away from this is that they do appear to listen,” I point out.

Ed nods, “Exactly, which is why you will understand that it’s not easy to say whether they are a threat. I would absolutely keep your cards close to your chest and assume that everything that you are told may not be entirely true. Do your own research, don’t take everything as gospel.”

“We won’t,” Raiden replies, “I always do my own research.”

“Good,” Ed smiles. “Now you should probably get back to the castle, I imagine that Mabel and the others will be waiting for you. I’m sure you can’t wait to go home.

Don’t forget that you will be on camera when you leave here and most likely until you get inside the castle’s walls.

It’s not expected that you say anything, but you can smile and look pleased of course.

Just be extremely careful what you say. You won’t be able to discuss anything that happened in here that had to do with the Choosing with any outsiders, but you will be able to discuss it amongst yourselves. ”

Evander nods, “Thank you. We appreciate everything that you have done for us, and I’m sorry we made a mess and caused a bit of drama.”

Ed smiles, “Ah, don’t worry about it, child, that was quite high on the drama scale, I will grant you that, but there has been drama of the same scale before.”

“Can you have visitors?” I ask seemingly out of the blue.

Surprise flashes in Ed’s eyes, and I get the feeling that he hasn’t been asked that before. “Yes, I can have visitors.”

“Would you mind if I came back to visit sometime?” I ask. “I would like to come and visit Mabel, Ribit, and Castle, anyway. I would love to learn more about the Choosing, and how it used to be when it was several teams that competed and not just two.”

Ed’s eyes light up, “Yes, of course. You know the teams now get sent back to their homes and lives, but it wasn’t always that way.”

My eyes widen, “Wait, it wasn’t? What happened to the teams that lost?”

“They died,” Ed replies. “It wasn’t until Trieneliea got shut down that the Choosing changed, and suddenly the losing teams got sent back to their lives.

The Choosing was run quite differently. Of course, you know that usually the Choosing had several teams in it competing to be the Warrior Bonded team, and only rarely was it used like it was used for your situation. ”

“Not every team qualified to be in the Choosing, did they?” Raiden asks, frowning slightly as he tries to remember.

Ed shakes his head, “No, it wouldn’t make sense if they were.

There would be no one left to protect the realms. There was a maximum of five teams that would qualify to compete, and if you think that back then the Warrior Academy in Trieneliea had thousands of students, five teams is an incredibly small percentage. ”

“Yes, it is,” Reed replies. “So, four of those teams would die?”

“Yes, either during the trials, if one member died, then the whole team would, or when it came down to the last two teams, and they came into this chamber, the losing team would be immediately taken.”

“Taken?” Raiden questions curiously.

Ed nods, “Yes, the Gods come for them.”

“Wow,” River mutters, “that’s pretty fucking insane.”

Coen nods, “Well I’m glad I didn’t let Kylen kill Fetrick for another reason then.”

Ed smiles, “As I mentioned before, the Choosing no longer works like that.” Clearly done with that conversation, he adds with a knowing smile, “I guess I shouldn’t be at all surprised that you have actually met Castle.”

“Castle’s great, he’s kept me safe,” I reply with a fond smile, accepting that is all we’re going to get to know about the past, Choosing’s for the time being.

“I’m sure he has,” Ed smiles. “Until next time.”

With that parting sentence, he’s gone.

“Dude, sure knows how to make an exit,” Ransom smirks.

“He does,” River agrees. “That was pretty insane what he told us about the Choosing’s of the past.”

“Yeah, no one else mentioned anything about it, but then I guess we didn’t really get a chance to do any proper research into it,” Raiden replies.

“Yeah, that’s true,” Coen agrees. “He said we could come back and visit, so we can ask him more then.”

Evander nods in agreement and then changes the subject once again, “I’m more inclined to believe Ed, than I am to believe the vamp.”

“Yeah, me too,” Griff agrees. “Although I think Lucius’s warning can be trusted, he didn’t say don’t trust them, trust me instead, he just warned us against trusting anyone.”

“Agreed,” Coen says. “I can’t really get a read on these Elders either. I know we didn’t meet them, but even their message is somewhat contradictory. They seem to be helping, but I wouldn’t want to risk trusting them with any sensitive information.”

“I think that’s a good call,” Evander agrees.

“I will add it to the list of things that we need to research when we get back home,” Raiden adds, the wheels in his head turning. I know that if he gets the chance, he’s going to be looking into the old Choosing’s too. They’re far too intriguing not to.

“That list has to be down to the floor by this point,” Ransom says.

I wince, “I hope we don’t forget anything.

Like the death magic that we all have now.

I know I’m new to magic, but I can’t tell that there’s anything different, and because of the way that my brain works, if it’s not immediately evident, then I’m going to forget that it exists until it smacks me in the face. ”

The guys all laugh while River nods in understanding.

“Well, we’ll be helping you figure out your magic anyway, and Ed said that yours and Raiden’s magic was enhanced. So, you already have Death magic, which makes a lot of sense,” Griff points out.

“And other than River, the rest of us will remember that we have new magic that’s going to gradually make an appearance,” Van points out with a smile.

“If we do forget something, then I’m sure that we’ll get reminded about it at some point,” Doc points out.

“I think the death magic is more of a thing that we’re going to have to wait and see what happens rather than something that we need to look into,” Raiden replies to the other part of my sentence and agrees with Van.

I nod, “Yeah, that’s true.”

I can’t help but frown though, there is so much that I need to know about, my magic being a big one and everything else that comes along with it.

Just thinking about everything is overwhelming and I decide to focus on one thing at a time.

If I don’t then I risk curling up in a ball in the corner somewhere for a while.

“Come on, let’s get out of here and get home,” Van suggests, thankfully pulling me out of my thoughts.

The guys all nod in agreement and then start to head through the chamber and back out the way that we came in.

I stay where I am.

“Erm, guys,” I start, and they all pause, turning back to look at me.

“The Elders said that I should only practice my magic within the safety of Ransom’s wards, and while I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them, I think we all agree that I should keep the fact that I’m an angel a secret from most of the supernatural world. ”

“Agreed,” Doc says curiously.

I smile, it’s a testament to how exhausted we all are that they haven't caught on to where I’m going with this yet.

I gesture to my wings, “I probably shouldn’t be going outside of this room, where we’re going to be filmed, with my wings on show.”

Realization dawns on all of their faces.

“No, you really shouldn’t,” Reed agrees.

They all just stand a stare at me.

Raiden suddenly gets it, “Oh shit, you don’t know how to put them away do you?”

I shake my head with a smile, “Nope. Can they even be put away? I mean, I know you guys can all put your wings away, Raiden seemed to just instinctively put his away, so . . .”

“Wait, Raiden?” Coen asks. He grins, “Dude, you have wings?”

Raiden nods, with a big smile, “Yeah, look.”

Within seconds, Raiden has freed his wings, and Coen’s mouth drops open in shock. “Well I’ll be damned, I’ve never seen a reaper with wings like that. Did you finally stop blocking off most of your magic?”

It is so strange to me that they know each other, and that Coen knows the guys better than I know them. It’s pretty mind boggling actually.

Raiden nods, “It was either I unleashed and accepted that part of me, or Neith died, permanently.”

Coen’s eyes widen, as they move to me, “What?”

“It’s really complicated,” I reply.

“And it’s definitely not something that should be discussed here where we don’t know who is listening,” River adds, pointedly.

“I want to go home,” I say, the longing in my voice giving away just how much I mean it.

“Me too,” River says as he pulls me under his arm and then kisses the top of my head.

Clearly deciding that isn’t adequate enough, he tilts my chin up with his fingers and kisses me.

His lips caressing mine in a soft kiss. I smile happily when he pulls back, and then it hits me.

Coen hasn’t seen me with the guys, not like this, and although he had absolutely no problem when Dimitri kissed me, in fact, they used to love to push me to the edge and over it together. That was different.

At least I thought it was, but when I look over at him, his eyes are filled with happiness, and he gives me a soft smile.

Well then, at least that’s one thing that I don’t need to worry about.