XXVIII ||| The Many Layers of Hel(l) || Oliver-Sean pov

A heavy silence stretched out around us for what felt like a year.

"She knew it," I broke it, annoyed with the silence, and they all turned to me. "I mean, she imagined this was the case the second we met. I didn't notice back there, but now I realize."

They kept silent, knowing I have more to say.

Sigh, "That's what caused our initial fight, I guess. When our eyes met, I felt something, but I didn't knew quite what it was, but she took a step back wary. And when I provoked her like Mia told me to, just to try her out, and she snapped, she jerked away when I tried to touch her face, the only place that wasn't covered by her eccentric fancy clothes."

That make her look even hotter, I have to confess.

"And she kept avoiding my touch in a way she didn't quite avoided the others. It was like she was terrified that if I touched her, the mating bond would snap into place. Which happened on dinner," hah, this is infuriating.

"Fuck," Rio cursed after another silence took over.

"Fun-fucking-tastic," Irene added dryly. "What do we do now?"

"Do we bring her to our side?" Shiryu asked.

"We have to!" Igor snapped. "She's Oli's mate. We need to get her with us. But now how? We know nothing about the girl, Crone above. It's the first time we are so damn clueless."

Agost gulped so loud that we heard it, "What if she's too far gone on grandma's clutches? What if she doesn't has her own will anymore?"

"Don't jinx the situation, babe," Kalisha snapped exasperated. "We have to hope that's not the case. But now that she fought you twice and is all worked up, it'll be hard to even talk to her, no? I mean, didn't she have a breakdown and a panic attack after that?"

Sigh, "That's why I'm worried."

"Are you worried she won't accept it?" Rio arched is eyebrows.

"That can't happen. It's impossible to go against the bond, babe," Irene added. "What I'm worried about is the girl sanity. I'm telling you, she looks like she has lost it."

Out of nowhere, my brother popped up with the others, all looking as if they had seen a ghost, "Stop what you are talking about," he exclaimed. "I need to ask. Have any of you ever gone into Felix's lair?" What? "I love you, brother, but that place might potentially be the coolest place in this entire castle. I always thought it would be boring, but it's insane, and it's enormous. I don't know how long it took him to bring all of that stuff in here, but the dumbass did an insanely good job planning and decorating."

"Why the fuck were you in Felix's lair, River? Why the fuck were you with him at all?" I snapped, annoyance taking over.

Slowly they sat down in their places, all still looking weird, and then I saw my brother, Priya, Samantha, Yumi, and Dorothy carrying new weapons that look strangely similar in style to Hel's.

"It's a long story," he sighed. "In sum, Hel was in the room with Felix when we got there, in the closet, and then we ended fighting verbally, and then she lost it and began to lose control over her purple flame, which apparently she didn't have it until today, as well as her sound magic. She freaked the fuck out because she couldn't control it and it was taking over her, and if she hadn't used her telekinesis to quickly get off the ground, she might have burned their dorm to dust. She yelled to Felix do his thing and nullify her magic, but he couldn't go up there as he can't fly, so Yumi took him up and when he touched her, she blacked out. I caught her before she fell and hit her head, and Felix told us to bring us to his lair."

What the fuck? "What in the bloody fucking fuck?"

My brother gulped noticing my anger, "They are cousins, bro."

"They are WHAT?" We all gasped.

"Our reaction, exactly," Savannah scoffed. "But apparently, ten years ago she was supposedly adopted by Cosmos, who raised her and also trained her. By the way, he called her when we were there, and she didn't even try to tone it down."

Dimitry clicked his tongue, "She didn't try to tone anything down. She was brutally honest with everything she said. Though she stiffened up and stopped talking every time she seemed to remember who we were." He pointed at the weapons my brother and the girls are holding, "And also, the bastard got his as a thank you for catching her when she fell, and the girls got theirs as a thank you for unwillingly accepting to be her roommate."

"Really fucking weird," Yumi mumbled, elbowing her brother with a enormous grin. "But I got a Shay Miralanthor weapon for free. Getting strangled was worthy after all. That girl is all hot and cold, 8 and 80."

Shiryu got all wary, "She strangled you? What did you say to her?"

Yumi grinned, "Using her telekinesis. She got pissed off after I kind of suggested that she had stolen the weapons and was pretending to be a Miralanthor!" Of course, she did that. "But I don't know if it's because they are cousins or not, but she already gave two weapons to Felix, the bastard. A bladed fan and a bow with arrows, all made of emerald. I'm envious."

I clenched my fists and jaw, suddenly angry by the idea, and the ones who already know the reason to my temper side-eyed me. "Tell me everything. From the beginning. Everything you heard her saying when she didn't see you around, and everything she told you. No matter how useless it may sound!"

My brother narrowed his eyes, "It's going to be unpleasant."

"Tell me!" I said firmly.

"Okay," Priya let out a sigh. "The first thing happened when we left the dorm all for her to settle. When we got back, we heard her yelling at her Wolpertinger about a lot of weird shit, and we all just stayed there on the door, listening to everything. Trying to see if there was something useful."

"That's our fairy," Irene grinned leaning closer. "And?"

"That's my fairy," Savannah exclaimed possessively. "We began to hear her when she yelled at the Wolpertinger who I bet was complaining that she was listening to a Lana Del Rey song non-stop, then she told him it was an anthem and some type of shit."

"And?" Dora asked as curious as all of us.

"Then whatever the Wolpertinger told her made her insanely angry began she began yelling at him something about him knowing why she will never look at herself in the mirror," Yumi frowned. "She said she lost her mind when Oli called her beautiful because he was mocking her. Then she began to fight with the Wolpertinger about the fact that she was ugly," she gasped. "Which we all can agree is absolutely ridiculous."

"Bloody fucking hell, I knew it!" Irene jumped for a second. "I told you she seemed scared of my mirrors, damn it."

"When you punched her?" River asked and when she nodded, he pressed his lips together, "Indeed, she freaked out saying something about herself being distorted. I never thought she had a low self-esteem. She don't look like that type at all. If one thing, I thought she was narcissistic!"

"That's the problem," Danielle's crossed her arms over her chest. "She doesn't has a low self-esteem. Let me quote what she said; 'I love myself, I just feel disgusted by the idea of seeing my body, is it so hard to understand? I know people only care about beautiful things, Cosmos warned me, that's why I'll stay covered for now. I'm not embarrassed, I'm disgusted. I don't care what they think, but I care about what I think.'"

"What? Why would Cosmos say that to her?" Ivan gasped. "Isn't he supposed to be her foster father?"

Danielle shrugged, "There's more. Also quoting her, 'I know I'm strong, I know I'm badass, and I love it. But I also am aware that looks weight people down. And it's something I lack. That is why I got so mad because Oliver called me beautiful, because I know he was mocking me. That's what hot people like him do!'"

I couldn't help my grin, "So, she thinks I'm hot!"

Rio burst out laughing at me, "Oh, dear Crone. This years is about to get a whole lot more interesting!"

"Elle, there's no need to quote her, I recorded what she said," then Dorothy put her phone on the table. "It's a whirlwind of emotions, okay? First she was mad, then she got really fucking angry, then she cried, and got angry again. So, let's just listen and think about her words afterwards."

And as I heard her words, I began to grow restless, hating it all.

"Fuck. I hate this. I can't break again. I need to be strong. To swallow it all. I promise mom's spirit that I would get revenge for all grandma did to me and to her. For how she was murdered," she cried. "She'll pay for it. She'll pay it with her life. I'll repay her ten fold for all the misery she put me through," she gulped loudly. "I'll kill Meredith."

Then there's a sound of door opening, followed by silence.

"With my love," she added. "I'll kill her with my love!"

Then she proceeded to threaten the girls and it ended.

"Kill her with love," Rio burst out laughing out loud. "Fuck, I hate that she's funny without intending to be. Seriously. It was a quick thinking though," he kept laughing. "Shit, I'm sorry," he gasped as we all stared at him. "I can't help it, you know I can't hold my laughter. Can you believe that? Kill Meredith with her… love?" Again he burst out hard.

And we glared at him until he stopped. Only to Agost break the silence, "Did she just said Meredith is her grandma?" He gasped. "Doesn't that make her my half sister?"

"Is that why mom told us to stay away from her?" Nicolette turned pale. "Because she's our sister? But… how? I mean, fucking hell, how?"

"I think you all forgetting the part where she said her mother was murdered," Ivar mumble eerily. "Oh, and that she's older than two thousand years, and was locked up and tortured by her dearest grandma for twenty centuries."

Noah passed his hand through his hair, "Or that she also has the ability to control spiritual energy, and that she can see her dead mother, who, somehow, told her that she'll play a part on killing Meredith, and that she should gather the strongest kids in BABS," he pointed at us.

"But…" Dora gulped. "What if she knew you were coming and put up an act? What if we are falling for her plan?"

To my surprise, it was my brother who spoke for her, "I don't think that's the case, Dora. I know, we spent the entire day against the kid, and she is also against us, but we saw it."

I frowned, my heart running laps, "You saw what exactly?"

He clenched his jaw and turned to me, "Her scars."