The giant beast that belongs to Farren carries on walking beside me, and I have to admit that in the whole time that I have called this realm my home, this may be the safest that I have ever felt. I doubt whether even the Abyss creatures would attempt to attack us at the moment.
We are incredibly well guarded by the creatures, Laikynn’s pack and Farren’s creatures.
Speaking of Farren’s creatures, that reminds me.
“You know that Oryn is an Abyss creature, right?” I ask casually. I’m sure they do know, they must, but I just want to make extra sure since Oryn is currently riding shotgun on the beast that’s guarding Farren and me, and no one seems to have said anything about it.
Everyone freezes and stares at me in shock.
“Or not,” I mutter as I stop walking too and turn back to face them, Farren still comfortably snuggled against my chest.
“I’m sorry, I could have sworn that you just said that Oryn was an Abyss creature?” Loki asks incredulously.
“Nico, are you fucking with us?” Rast asks, his eyebrow raised.
“You can’t see it, but I’m flipping you off right now,” I retort, earning a surprised laugh from the others. “I may have been dead for a while, but I do know when it’s appropriate to make a joke or not.”
“Well, that’s an improvement, you didn’t before,” Rast teases.
I try not to smirk, “The point is I am not fucking with you.”
“So, Oryn is an Abyss creature?” Khaos asks, double-checking just to make one hundred percent sure that he did hear me correctly.
“I thought you guys knew,” I reply. “He flies around Farren and sticks close to Poca and Meri, so you’ve seen him. Even if you don’t recognise what sort of creature he is, Laikynn and Rast know what many of the Abyss creatures look like.”
“We can’t see him,” Storm replies with his eyebrow raised slightly.
“Oh,” I reply. “That makes more sense, except it doesn’t make sense that I can still see him even though I’ve crossed back over to the living side.” Looking at Rast, I add, “You know the flying ones, he’s one of those. He’s no threat to Farren and by extension to you guys. I think if he was, he would have done something about it by now.”
“You realise that means that Farren somehow managed to bring an Abyss creature into the Fae Realm?” Rival points out immediately.
“I just,” Rast starts, pauses for a moment, and then starts again. “Every time that I think I have a grasp on what’s going on, and what Farren is capable of, something else happens that throws me through a loop again.”
“Welcome to our world, mate,” Reaper tells him, clapping him on the shoulder.
“She saved Oryn,” Laikynn says as he once again simply appears from the darkness.
“Why?” Hades asks and then shakes his head. “Scratch that, she saved him because he was a creature who was in pain.”
Laikynn nods, a smile in his eyes, “Yes. It was when she came to the realm to heal, she found him and healed him. Oryn owes her a life debt, although I do think that there’s more to it than him sticking around simply because of the life debt. He likes her.”
“Of course he does, it’s hard not to like Farren,” I reply, again without fully thinking about what I’m saying before I say it.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Nico
Kill smirks, but agrees with me, “You aren’t wrong.”
“I always thought of the creatures as mindless,” I mutter. “I’ve watched Oryn though, and he’s not. Farren talks to him, and he responds. He genuinely cares for her.”
“How could he not?” Rast mutters and then winces when he realises that he’s said it out loud.
Fortunately for him, although the others all smile, already knowing how he feels about Farren or at least guessing, they decide to let it drop and not pull him up on it.
“Is that why we can’t see him?” Reaper asks curiously.
Laikynn shakes his head, “No, I think that’s just because he doesn’t want you to see him. I mean, if Rast were to see him, he would have killed him on sight or tried to. Like all Abyss creatures, he’s notoriously hard to kill. He’s also extremely rare and usually only those who are in the realm that’s being consumed are allowed to see the creatures because, after all, they won’t have anyone to tell.”
