Chapter Twenty-Four.

Silviar watched as Eden drew his guns and fired off several shots. A wind barrier between them stopped the bullets in their tracks. The fae followed that up with a gesture that raised vines from the ground, and the two boys jumped out of the way. They were weak from their lessons, their magic spent and minds tired.

It was the perfect opportunity.

Silviar continued to manipulate the vines as he summoned up wind and water to strike at and contain the boys, who continued to do their best to evade, the barrier continuing to react to attempts at breaking free.

After several minutes, Silviar frowned. He should have had the boys already, and while this was a setback, it proved they were more adept at fighting than they'd let on in the past. The younger one had even launched into a series of punches and kicks that hadn't been reported as being in his skillset. No one had ever seen him fight in hand-to-hand combat.

The boys were slowing down, however, with the younger one sooner than the elder. No matter what he tried to claim, Cameron had lived on a small diet for two years. A couple of months of eating his fill wouldn't fix his inherent weakness. It would take longer than that.

Seizing the opportunity, Silviar shot several blasts of water and air at Cameron as the boy attempted to dodge, only to find the spells dissipating once they hit him. Before he could process that, Eden jumped over the kitchen counter, both feet aimed at Silviar's face.

The fae caught him by the feet and threw him into Cameron as he realized what had happened.

The boy had a Thornton Crest. As part of the deal between the fairies and the Thorntons, that lineage of demigods and nephilim were given coins made of fae gold and enchanted to prevent fae magic from working on them.

It was a complication, but the two boys had been bested by that last attack. Judging from the research, the boy had been in foster care since birth, which meant he was an unwanted Thornton. If he'd been born and not given up to the fairies despite being unwanted, that meant his parent was likely a regular human, and that his magic hadn't been registered as strong at birth. Not worth giving to the fairies.

Walking over to them, Silviar reached for the younger boy, the elder gasping for breath while the younger just lay there, eyes closed, breathing rhythmic. He'd passed out from exhaustion.

"No," Eden gasped, struggling to move. "Leave… him… alone!"

The Fairy Lord ignored the spatial mage as he reached for the mind mage's throat… only for the boy to suddenly leap at him, grabbing not at his wrist or arm, or attempting to punch and kick, but at the rings.

Before Silviar realized what was happening, Cameron had pulled the rings off. The fairy slapped him, throwing the boy across the room, and watched in amazement as the child landed with inhuman reflexes in a crouch.

Cameron slipped the rings into his pocket and smirked at the fae.

"Got you," he said, his right ear twitching.

The boy had figured out that one of the rings was nullifying the voices' ability to detect Silviar. The fae wasn't sure how the boy knew it was a ring and not the-

Silivar reached up to his chest, where the amulet should have been, only to find it in the boy's other hand, slipping into his pocket as well. The boy had gone after all three, just in case.

It was no matter, though. The boy was too exhausted to continue, and-

"ARGH!" Silviar screamed as his mental defenses were suddenly breached without mercy, the boy hammering away furiously, driving the fairy to his knees.

"I'm not that exhausted!" Cameron exclaimed, charging forward.

Silviar attempted to fight through the onslaught, finding the boy moving faster than any normal human should be able to, even one with a nephilim or demigod parent. Cameron reached the fae and kicked, his foot connecting with the enemy's chin as he continued to hammer away.

The fairy fell backwards, and Cameron landed on top of him, punching at the fairy's face repeatedly. Normally, Silviar would have been able to handle that, even with the mental onslaught. Except the boy was strong, too strong, and the fairy's magic failed to work on him. He couldn't summon up a spell to grab Eden, either, as he felt his life slipping away.

Cameron continued punching until his exhaustion slammed into him like an eighteen-wheeler, and he fell to the side, breathing hard while struggling to maintain his consciousness. He looked at the blood on his hands, the literal blood on his hands.

He'd seen blood plenty of times, but never from his own fists. It shocked him, and all he could think was that he'd beaten someone up to the point that he was bloody. That, and that at any moment, the fairy was going to grab him and turn him into a tree.

Only that moment never came, and when Cameron looked at the fairy, Eden was checking his pulse.

"Dead," Eden looked at him. "Holy fuck, Cam. That was… silver hair. This is a Fairy Lord. You killed a Fairy Lord. Holy fuck."

Cameron sat up and looked at Eden, who seemed in shock as well, and it took nearly a minute for the words to process in the younger boy.

"I killed someone."

"He was going to kill us," Eden crawled over to Cameron. "It's okay, Cam. It was self-defense. You fought in self-defense, and killed to avoid being killed. It's okay, I promise. You did the right thing."

"I killed someone."

"Yes, you did," Eden said. "You killed someone who would have killed you if you didn't. It's okay, Cam. Let's get your hands cleaned up, okay?"

Eden got up and grabbed some paper towels, wetting them and giving them to Cameron's, who just stared at them. Eden started washing Cameron's hands, who began to recover after a few minutes and got up to wash his hands in the sink, then looked around.

"The apartment's a mess."

"Yeah," Eden said. "But we're alive, Cam. Because of you, we're alive to fight another day."

"I really killed him, didn't I?"

"Yes," Eden smiled at him. "Fairies are physically weak, though they have potent elemental and nature magics. That's their shtick. They can't do force, enchant, scourge, blood, and necromantic magic, and their only lone school is silkspeech, but they're still strong, and a Fairy Lord is stronger than most. As a demigod, you're a lot stronger and faster than you look. Once you have real muscle on you, you'll be punching through walls. The fairy couldn't withstand your attacks. How did you do that? You seemed even more exhausted than me, especially after how hard Adam pushed both of your schools."

Cameron blushed.

"I just acted," he admitted. "I… kind of was exhausted. But the voices told me that he was probably wearing something hindering their ability to read him, so I figured, it was probably one of his rings or the amulet, right? I'd gotten a few moments to catch my breath after he threw you at me, and decided to take it. I think it was that adredin stuff?"

"You really had me fooled," Eden grinned. "I thought he'd knocked you out, you seriously seemed it. Even breathed the right way and everything."

"I figured out how to do that awhile ago," Cameron smiled shyly. "How to pretend to be asleep when I wasn't, and to pretend convincingly. We weren't that quiet, and you shot a gun a lot. Why aren't there cops here?"

"Probably the barrier that hinders spatial magics," Eden answered. "I didn't see any tokens, which means he probably hid them under things or in them. Check under the cabinets."

Cameron began looked in the cabinets under the counter, locating a strip of paper that probably didn't belong and pulled it out, holding it up to Eden.

"Yep," Eden said. "That's a barrier enchantment, based on the runes I can read. Rip it."

Cameron did, and a moment later, Eden appeared beside him.

"The barrier's broken," Eden said. "Though I can't teleport out or warp space, and I'm extremely limited in range, and fuck, that was exhausting to do. I'm going to check for the others."

Cameron nodded, then walked around to the fairy. He was a tall man, and an extremely beautiful one, with silver hair and eyes. No wings, though, but Eden had explained to him that much like nephilim, fairies could manifest and unmanifest their wings at will.

His pocket started vibrating, and he looked down, then pulled on the chain, pulling the amulet out. The amulet was a delicate pair of golden wings with a silver jewel set between them, though the voices had told him after he'd grabbed them that the amulet wouldn't damage in his pocket.

"Touch it," one of the voices said. "It's a communication amulet."

Cameron touched the amulet.

"Silviar!" A female voice exclaimed. "What's taking so long? We have every potential threat to the plan engaged! Hurry up and open the gate."

Eden looked up and frowned at the amulet.

"Silviar?" The woman asked. "Silviar, respond! What's going on? Why haven't you returned with the boys? Did the barrier fail?"

"No," Cameron responded. "The barrier worked. So did my fists to his face. He's dead. Very, very dead. Do you know a necromancer? He might be able to help you ask him about his failure, though I'd like to ask you a few things, first."

"You must be Cameron," the female asked coldly.

"I am," Cameron stated. "And I killed your Fairy Lord. How did you know I could hear the voices?"

"What voices?"

"Answer my questions," Cameron said. "And I will return your fallen fae to you. Otherwise, I'll cut him up into itty bitty pieces and feed him to random dogs."

"You're probably still in shock," the fairy responded. "I know you, Cameron. We've been watching you for two years, now. You don't have it in you to do something so cruel. Killing someone has startled you. You're going to have nightmares over it. You'd never do something like that."

"You're right," Cameron said. "I wouldn't. However…"

He looked at Eden.

"I would," Eden stepped up next to Cameron. "And considering that I've had no issue putting bullets in fae and anything or anyone else that came after me, I'm sure your studies will tell you that I would. Wouldn't they?"

"Yes," the terse reply came several seconds later. "What do you want to know, Cameron? Do not think I will not personally come hunt you down, if you do not uphold our end of the bargain."

Cameron knew that it was likely she'd hunt him down personally anyway. In fact, he knew she was probably preparing some sort of force to come take him in and make him a tree, and he knew from Eden's face that a plan was already forming in the older boy's mind.

"First," Cameron said. "You've revealed you studied me. I'm guessing that's how you knew I could hear the voices?"

"That is correct."

"Which ring made him invisible to them?"

"The silver ring."

Cameron pulled the rings out and handed the silver one to Eden, who slipped it on.

"Can you see him?" Cameron asked, and the voices confirmed that he'd vanished. He nodded, and Eden returned the ring to him. "Thank you for the honesty, Eden's decided to not cut off your fairy's junk."

Eden snorted.

"What does the other ring do?" Cameron asked.

"Push magic into it, and it will open a gate directly to the Fairy Forest," she responded.

"That must be why he destroyed it when I was about to kill him," Cameron lied. "So I guess returning his body to you directly to where you want us won't work. Who are you?"

"Tabiris," she responded. "One of the Fairy Queens. Did you two defeat him by yourselves?"

"Yes," Cameron stated. "And that was while exhausted. You planned on us both being exhausted, didn't you?"

"We did," she said.

"Call off the attacks," Cameron told her. "You said that there were threats engaged. Only after that ends will we consider returning the fairy to you."

"Do you really think we care that much about him?" She asked. "I've only been stalling you."

"And we've only been stalling you," Eden said as Adam appeared in the room, looking out of breath and covered in injuries. "You're probably going to get word shortly that Adam's no longer engaged. He's here, with us."

"And I have a godstone," Adam spoke.

The Fairy Queen went silent, and Cameron and Eden both gave him an inquisitive look.

"What's a godstone?" They asked at the same time.

"A stone that will allow me to instantly summon the god who imbued their essence into it," Adam stated. "It's a one-time use thing, and they can't refuse the summons. If you come here, Tabiris, I will summon Narui."

"Call off your attack," Cameron stated. "And we will return to you your dead fairy. You have thirty seconds."

"Keep him," she laughed. "You win this round, boys, but I'm still going to make a dent in your world's supernatural community."

The amulet's magic went dormant, and Cameron let out a huge breath, then looked at Eden.

"I… think I need a nap."

"Go take a shower, then a nap," Eden told him, and Cameron nodded, then went off to his room, taking the amulet with him "Adam, Cam lied to the Fairy Queen."

"About what?" Adam asked.

"The fairy had the amulet and two rings," Eden told him. "A silver one that blocked the aether voices, and a wooden one that can apparently open a gate directly to the Fairy Forest. Cameron told her that the fairy destroyed it when he realized he was about to die. It's in his pocket, right next to the silver ring."

"We've never had a way to the forest before," Adam's eyes widened. "Cameron may have just given us a way to hit them with a heavy surprise. If she thinks the ring was destroyed, then they likely won't look at things as if there's a gate that can be opened by someone other than a fairy. They probably can't stop an enchantment like that, only make sure there are people waiting."

"Yeah," Eden nodded, taking a shaky breath. "How's the secrecy breach?"

"Very well-contained," Adam answered. "The angels created a veil. One benefit to having a bunch of them hanging out? Odds of large-scale supernatural problems being noticed by mortals are extremely thin.

"Now," Adam said. "I'm guessing by the blood on the two of you that Cam was the one who killed Silviar. He's probably in shock, based on what I saw. Get cleaned up, then joined him."

"For the nap?"

"For the comfort," Adam corrected. "He needs someone he's close to right now, and at the moment, that's you, and only you. I'll clean up the apartment."

"With your time magic?"

"Maybe," Adam shrugged. "It'll fix everything, so you won't have to worry about cleaning up or replacing things. I'll handle the corpse, too."

"Send the head to the DoSS headquarters," Eden told him. "Cam and I promised that I'd cut him into tiny pieces and feed him to dogs around the city, and I intend on doing that just to piss her off more."

Adam rolled his eyes, but agreed, and Eden started for the hall, but paused before entering it. He looked back at his mentor.

"There's one more thing," Eden said. "During the fight, the fairy's magic didn't work on Cam. I don't know if he noticed it or not, but anytime a spell hit him, it just faded away."

"Remember that token?" Adam said. "Cam's coin?"

"Yeah."

"In the hands of a Thornton," Adam said. "It renders fairy magic ineffective, proving his heritage. Now hurry up. He might take a bit in the shower as he starts to overcome the shock, but he'll still need you once he's done."