Always forever age of mi.., p.57
Darkening Truth (Black Onyx Academy) Book 4, page 57
Darkening Truth (Black Onyx Academy)
Book 4
Nikita Parmenter
Copyright © 2025 Nikita Parmenter
All rights reserved
NO AI TRAINING: Without in any way limiting the author’s [and publisher’s] exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this publication to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Cover design by: Serenic Designs
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Books by this Author
About The Author
Chapter One
Farren
He just said the God Realm, didn’t he? This can’t be good. In fact, I’m going to just go ahead and assume that it’s very bad.
The bright light takes an unusually long time to clear, and when it finally does, I’m kind of surprised to see where I am. I’ve been here before. It’s the nothingness space, from when the Goddess spoke to me and told me to trust my instincts.
“Wait, this is the God Realm?” I ask as the pieces click together in my mind, and I glance over at Hades.
He nods, “Yes. Although this isn’t the entire realm, this is just the waiting area, I suppose you could call it. Where they call any souls who they want to talk to, help, or threaten, that kind of thing.”
“I know this place,” I tell them, since whoever has called us here hasn’t actually shown up yet.
Khaos' eyebrows rise, “You’ve been here before?”
“Why am I not surprised?” Storm asks with a smile.
“Do you know who brought you here?” Hades asks curiously.
I shrug and shake my head, “She didn’t say. She just told me that I had to escape, healed me enough that I could do it, not all the way, but she did take the edge off. She said that she couldn’t do any more than that, and that it was a risk to tell me what she had already told me, but she didn’t explain why it was a risk. Goddesses are very vague.”
Hades smirks, “Yes, they are. I’m surprised that she didn’t give you her name though. Gods and goddesses get their reputations for being prideful for a reason. They usually like to tell whoever they are talking to who they are, so that the person can then go back and tell everyone which God or Goddess they met and how amazing they were.”
Khaos scoffs and rolls his eyes, and I suppress a smirk. I get the feeling that he is completely and utterly unimpressed by the gods and goddesses.
“Do you remember me telling you about the voice that I heard when I was in my most desperate situations? The one that helped me?” I ask them all, although I am aware that Khaos, and possibly Hades, will have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about. I can’t remember if I ever told Hades about the voice.
Storm frowns, “Yeah, I remember.”
“It was her, wasn’t it?” Kill asks, already putting the pieces together.
I nod, “Yep.”
Hades frowns, “That’s strange. Gods and goddesses don’t tend to take such a prolonged interest in someone. They get bored.”
I raise my eyebrow, “Are you going to get bored with me?”
His expression becomes fierce, “Never.”
Blowing him a kiss, I say with a smirk, “Good. I just thought I’d check, since you’re a God.”
Khaos chuckles, “Hades has never been like the others. At least not while I have known him. I can probably count on one hand the gods and goddesses that are actually worth talking to, and there are hundreds of thousands of them.”
“So from the sounds of things, it is a good thing that Hades isn’t like the others then,” Zev points out drily.
Khaos nods, “Oh, it’s definitely a good thing. Trust me, you will all be agreeing with me after you’ve met a few of them.”
“We’re going to meet more than one?” Loki asks, his eyes wide. “I’m not sure I’m too fond of that idea.”
Hades shrugs, “There’s a strong possibility that you’re going to. It seems that a lot of what is going on at the moment involves the gods in some way.”
“Awesome,” Khaos replies with a bite.
Everyone frowns and falls silent as we think about what the hell that could all entail, and I vehemently refuse to think about what was said at the cabin and the ‘G word’ that was thrown about far too much for my liking, especially since it was concerning myself.
I’m going to live in denial for a bit with that one because that’s the healthy thing to do, and I am all about healthy habits.
It’s not.
I know that, but denial is my friend until I either manage to wrap my head around the notion, or I don’t have any other choice but to deal with it. Honestly, it’s most likely going to be the second option that I go with.
I force myself to refocus on the current situation.
Having gods involved is not a good thing, especially if it’s the God who wants to take down Hades and the Underworld.
Shit. It took me far too long to connect the dots and see the potential danger that we’re in right now.
“I’m assuming that if the God who wants Hades dead is the one who brought us here, then we wouldn’t just be standing in this waiting room?” I ask.
Hades frowns, “No. It would not be smart to bring me here if they wanted to cause me, or any of you, any harm. There is an alarm built into this part of the God Realm that would immediately start blaring, alerting all of the realm. It would then lock the God or Goddess in a cell that is strong enough to contain them, and then the guards would come and take them away for questioning and punishment.”
Reaper asks, “So even the gods need to be policed?” He pauses and then carries on talking before Hades can answer, “You know what, never mind, that makes sense actually.”
“There’s so much history between everyone in the God Realm that it’s inevitable that they need to cool off at times,” Khaos shrugs, answering Reaper’s question anyway. “Plus, gods get bored, and then there are takeover attempts like this one. Thinking about it, they probably need more policing than anyone.”
“Agreed. Even so, I think an attack in the waiting room has only happened once before,” Hades adds thoughtfully.
I’m not sure if it’s supposed to reassure us or not, but I don’t feel very reassured. If the God is clever enough, then he could attack and kill Hades all before he gets imprisoned in the cell that Hades told us about.
He wants Hades dead badly enough that it would make sense for him to have a plan like that in place.
The only thing that’s making me pause and not insist that we get out of here right this fucking second is that, if he did do that, yes, he would succeed in killing Hades, but I would imagine that killing another god comes with a pretty hefty punishment. So he wouldn’t be able to carry on with the rest of his plan, and I’m reasonably sure that the princes were just a pawn in his plan, and it’s he who wants to take over the realms and use the power of the souls in the Underworld to do so.
Of course, he could send someone else to do it for him. He likes using people to do his bidding. So he could hire some poor god who believed in his mission to take over the Underworld and convince them to take the risk, come here, and kill Hades for him, so that he isn’t the one who gets imprisoned and blamed for it.
Shit.
“How hard are you to kill?” I ask Hades bluntly.
Khaos’ eyebrows hit his hairline, and it occurs to me that although I feel like I know him extremely well because of our shared dreamscapes, we actually don’t know that much about each other. We know a lot of things that we wouldn’t necessarily share with anyone else, things that would make us vulnerable, and silly things like favourite colours, favourite meals, and birthdays, but we don't know how each other behaves in everyday situations.
I’m actually pretty fucking excited to get to know him better.
“What are you thinking, Farren?” Kill asks me, his eyes studying my features closely.
I sigh, “I’m wondering how easy it would be to ambush and kill Hades.”
Hades frowns, “You think that someone would try to kill me despite the consequences that they would face if they tried?”
I nod, “That’s exactly what I think.” I quickly explain my thought process, and the possibility that the God could hire someone else to do his bidding, and then ask, “So, how hard are you to kill?”
“I’m really hard to kill, almost impossible,” Hades replies.
I raise my eyebrow at the almost.
“There are a couple of weapons that can kill gods and goddesses,” Khaos explains, with a heavy frown. Hades gives him a sharp look, and Khaos smirks, “She would kick your arse and mine if we kept that from her, and you know that. Besides, something tells me that they’re all going to need to know that at some point soon anyway, and it’s better that she finds out about it now, and without the arse kicking.”
I grin. I love that he knows that.
Hades sighs and looks at me, “I’m sorry, I just don’t want you to worry.”
I nod, “I get that, and I appreciate the sentiment, but don’t keep things from me, okay?”
I feel like that needs to be said now. I do not like it when important things are kept from me, especially things that concern our safety.
Hades nods, “Understood, I’m sorry. I do know that, it’s just you’ve been through a hell of a lot, and I didn’t want to add to it right now.”
I smile and walk over to him. “I get it, I really do, but you should also know that the last thing I want is for any of you to start tiptoeing around me because of the things that I’ve been through.”
All of the guys nod that they’ve heard what I’m saying.
“Got it, Love,” Loki smiles.
“Again, I do know that,” Hades says with a frown. “I’m sorry for forgetting.”
I nod and pull him down to my level so I can kiss him. When I pull back, he’s grinning and looking at me like I’m the best thing since pointy weapons.
I’ll take that.
“Right, so back to the issue,” Reaper says, trying to get us all back on track since there is a pretty important issue we need to deal with.
Zev’s eyes flash white, and we all look at him expectantly. I’m hoping that this is one of the visions that he can tell us about.
He smiles, “I don’t know which God or Goddess called us here, but I do know that we aren’t under any threat right now.”
“So no one is about to pop out and kill Hades?” Loki asks, just to make sure, as he moves restlessly from foot to foot.
Zev smirks and shakes his head, “Nope. We’re all safe.”
My shoulders slump with relief. “Thank fuck for that.”
We’re all silent for a moment.
“So what are we supposed to do?” Rival asks as he looks around. There are a million questions flying across his expression, and I know he’s struggling to figure out which one to ask first.
“We wait,” Khaos says as he crosses his arms over his chest and looks thoroughly unimpressed by the entire thing.
Holy shit. He’s Hades' right-hand man.
I mean, I knew that. He told me that, but we haven’t stopped since they found me yesterday, and there’s still so much to talk to them about. It’s because of all of that, it has only just occurred to me that Khaos is old. As old as Hades is, probably.
He did tell me that he had gotten to the point where he didn’t remember how old he was in one of our dreamscapes, but there’s old and then there’s old.
“Why are you looking at me like that, Ren?” Khaos asks, curiosity shining in his eyes.
“You’re old,” I blurt out and then immediately smack my hand over my mouth.
Hades bursts out laughing, the sound so rich and deep that I can’t help smiling in response.
Khaos smacks him in the chest, abruptly halting his laughter and making the rest of us laugh too as he says, “You’re older than me.”
“Sorry,” I wince. “I didn’t mean it like that. I remember you saying that you were old enough that you stopped counting, but wrapping my head around exactly how old you are is pretty challenging.”
“She’s right, I mean, you guys are aeons old,” Mayhem adds with a slight frown, and it’s actually reassuring that I’m not the only one who is trying to wrap my head around the numbers and what it means.
Rival’s eyes light with interest as he says, “The things that you’ve seen and lived through must have been incredible.”
Khaos and Hades both smile, and it occurs to me that they’ve all gotten a lot closer to each other over the last fuck knows how long I was captured for. I actually don’t want to know exactly how long I was gone for.
My gaze lands on Poca. He doesn’t look bothered to be here, just like in the Soul Side, and I narrow my eyes at him.
He looks slightly amused, he’s clearly realised that I’ve just put some things together, like how comfortable he is with all of this, and how he recognised my axes when I first came out of Hades’ vault.
Putting my hands on my hips, I level him with a look as I say, “I think you and I need to have a chat when we get somewhere other than the God Realm.”
Everyone stops talking as they look at me with confused and slightly worried expressions before they all realise that I’m talking to Poca and the worry clears from their features.
Poca narrows his eyes playfully and lowers himself down, ready to pounce.
“Don’t you dare try to argue with me right now!” I retort as I plant my feet and get ready to catch him. It’s the same thing that we’ve done for years, so I know for a fact that he’s about to launch himself at me.
“Erm, Farren, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Khaos says, his eyebrows dipping slightly as worry creases them.
I don’t have time to reassure him that this is something that we used to do all the time, that Poca is playing, and that he would never hurt me.
Poca growls again, sounding pretty fucking menacing as he launches himself at me, and I catch him, the sheer size of him still managing to knock me over. We land on the floor with a thump, and he covers me in doggy Hellhound kisses. Meri obviously decides that it looks like fun because he flies off Poca’s back and joins in with smothering me in kisses.
When Oryn does as well, chirping and pretending to growl, I can’t hold my giggles in anymore and burst out laughing.
“Alright, alright,” I say to Poca as I push his face away. “I get it, you guys win.”
Poca moves backwards and sits back on his haunches, panting and giving me a big doggy smile, while Meri settles on Poca’s back, and Oryn gives me one last lick before glueing himself back to Poca’s side. He doesn’t seem like he’s scared to be here, but he is watching the place with more caution than Poca, who seems to be completely at ease in this situation, and isn’t keeping an eye on his surroundings like Oryn is.
When I get a good look at the guys, Khaos is staring at me in shock, and the Goddess that brought me here before is standing behind them all, looking amused, and watching me with a gentle smile.
Chapter Two
Farren
The guys have absolutely no idea that she’s there, which means that she is somehow masking her presence from not only the guys but Hades as well, because I’m pretty sure that he should be able to sense her presence. Considering that no one has noticed her, and because she winks at me like she thinks it’s amusing, I stand up and look at Khaos.
“Why do you look so shocked?” I ask him.
Khaos clears his throat, “Well, I knew that you could touch him, and the guys told me that they could as well because of their link to you, but he just licked you, and you’re not screaming in pain.”
I chuckle as Poca nudges me, and I give him more head strokes. “He’s never hurt me.”
“Farren’s not normal,” Killian says with a fond smile, which stops me from being offended. Normal is boring anyway. Kill continues, “She also got kisses from Meri, and he should kill her too.”
Khaos seems to think about it for a moment before he shrugs, his eyes glued to me, “Fair point.”
“You know you could touch him, too,” I reply, going purely off instinct. I mean, I may have had my connection to Khaos for a lot shorter time than the others, but what we experienced in that time means that it’s just as strong. If the guys can touch Poca because of their connections to me, and how close we are, then I don’t see why Khaos couldn’t.
