Chapter 23
Luz had left. That was both good and bad. She was at school which was a positive however Hunter was alone which was a negative. Although he had made a deal with the owl lady to ignore each other for Luz’s sake, did that deal still hold up with Luz not here?
The owl lady was dangerous and that was foolish of him. Should he leave The Owl House until Luz got home? No. That didn’t seem to be fair in their deal and who knew if he was even able to leave. Could he leave when the deal was over?
Focus. The owl lady would come to talk to him any minute. Any minute now. He looked at the door. No owl lady. Maybe she wouldn’t bother him. That was good.
Should he do more of the puzzle? No, he and Luz had been doing it together; he probably shouldn't continue on his own.
He pulled out the puzzle book. Halfway through his second puzzle, he heard a noise. He lowered the book and saw the tiny demon in front of him. The tiny demon - King was staring at him.
Even after Hunter looked up the demon kept staring then he stared more. Hunter fidgeted a bit. He was still staring. Why was King still staring?
“Is there a reason you’re in this room right now?” There was the entire house. Why did he want to be in here?
“You have entered my domain" The tiny demon declared. You must pay tribute.”
“Pay tribute?” Hunter questioned.
“Yes”
Why did Hunter need to pay tribute? Did Hunter need to pay tribute? He was just a kid and Luz had acted like demands like this were just nonsense with no need to be followed. But what if it was real? Better safe than sorry.
“How do I pay this tribute you’re talking about?”
The little demon’s face put a hand to his chin. “Hmmm, I don’t know yet. I’ll figure it out.”
The tiny demon started picking up puzzle pieces and trying to figure out where they were supposed to be.
Well, there went not doing the puzzle when Luz wasn’t here after a moment Hunter started picking up pieces. If King was doing it, Hunter might as well too.
The demon didn’t seem like he’d figure the tribute thing out soon so Hunter decided to start a conversion. The demon was so young and already so strongly influenced by the owl lady if he could figure stuff out about him, maybe he could remove King from under her influence.
How did you meet the owl lady? King put his puzzle piece down and looked away.
For a long time, I thought I was the king of demons. I ruled armies and had huge banquets eventually I realized that wasn’t true.
“What is true then?”
“When I was a baby, Eda found me on a hidden island and brought me here. I liked the idea of being the king of demons so she let me believe it was true. She took care of me for years and eventually, I went back and learned the truth.”
“She lied to you”
“Yeah, because being King made me happy. Being King made me feel strong. She told me the truth eventually and promised to never lie to me again.”
He looked up at Hunter with his big eyes. “And she hasn’t. That's what matters." He shrugged and returned to the puzzle.
“She still lied to you. Why would you stay with someone who lied to you?”
King looked up at Hunter again “Because I'm happy with her. Yeah, she lied a couple of times but she told me the truth eventually. She does everything in her power to make me happy. That's the most important thing and she does it.
Hunter couldn’t help but stare. The owl lady lied to him and he still thought it was for a good reason. That she cared. She was the owl lady of course it wasn’t for a good reason. She had to have some motive.
“It doesn’t matter that I was never the king of demons”
The tiny demon pulled himself up onto the table with a small grunt. He stood on it scattering pieces everywhere. “I may have never been the king of demons before but I will be someday.” He stomped his tiny foot.
"One day I will become powerful and become king of the demons. I will be feared and respected and so will Eda and Luz. Eda won’t be an outlaw anymore and maybe we’ll find a way to give her back her magic. Luz will be able to share her magic. She will be respected.
Everyone will realize how awesome she is. I’ll rule with them by my side. I will be respected and feared and they will be loved. I’ve even got new powers so I can do it easier now!”
The little demon hopped down from the table and started to try pieces again. Hunter grabbed the fallen pieces and placed them back in their piles. King didn’t seem to notice.
Hunter probably couldn’t convince King to leave Eda. He seemed very happy with her but his powers were a problem. Hunter remembered seeing them at Eclipse Lake.
Hunter didn't know the extent of the little demon's powers. They might be more dangerous than wild magic and definitely dangerous for King in many ways.
If his powers were like wild magic then they could hurt him or someone else and the emperor hated people with uncontrollable magic running around.
He was young. Hunter didn't want anything bad to happen to him. He realized his nails were digging into his palms and he relaxed. It was alright. All he needed to do was convince King to enter the emperor's coven and everything would be okay.
“If you want to gain power the emperor’s coven would be a good place to do it. If you have a special power you sign over to the emperor. I’m sure you could get a lot. You could probably get triple the time off most people do and maybe even a pardon for the owl lady if you work for the coven for a couple of decades.”
“Ick no why would I want that.”
Hunter stared at him. He stayed with the owl lady but did he seriously not understand the power of the Emperor's Coven? Had the owl lady poisoned his mind to it? It was a great honor. How was he not even a bit tempted?
“It’s the biggest honor you can earn. You can have power and influence!”
“I can get power my own way, a way that I don’t have to give anything up. Just like Eda taught me.” The demon struck a pose. arms crossed. feet spread, head held high. His eyes shined.
He sounded a shocking amount like Luz right there. He supposed that made sense the owl lady taught them both.
Listening to the coven isn't any different than listening to the owl lady.
“It is too! Eda gives us choices! She enrolled Luz in Hexside because she wanted to learn magic and she let us forge our own paths. She trusts us to not trust the coven system. She wants us to be able to do anything we want to do. Eda is a million times better than the coven system because she respects us enough to trust we'll make the right decision.”
He seemed so certain but he was still wrong. Hunter had to keep trying to explain. He got ready to protest again then-
“King!” The owl lady burst into the room As soon as she saw him she practically melted in relief. “King there you are.”
“What’s going on Eda?” King asked.
The owl lady smiled at him waveringly “Nothing”
She wasn’t fooling Hunter. She seemed obviously upset.
“What was happening before I got here? You can put your staff down, kid.”
Hunter looked down flapjack’s staff was in his hand. He had subconsciously turned flapjack to staff form. He let him back to palisman form but kept him very close.
“I was just telling him that the emperor’s coven is super icky.”
Hunter wanted to make Flapjack go back to staff mode again. It was a terrible idea trying to recruit a king underneath the owl lady's nose. The only person here was King and he wouldn’t stop her. It was okay he could handle whatever she threw at him.
The owl lady stared at him for a beat too long and then she clapped her hands.
“How about we move this downstairs?”
Why did she want them to go downstairs? What was her game? It was smarter for her to have them stay upstairs.
"Okay!" King scampered downstairs. So that was her game. Trick King downstairs then do whatever she wanted. It was clever. If King was downstairs he wouldn’t know and neither would Luz what would she- Hunter looked up and the owl lady was disappearing downstairs.
Huh. Hunter followed them.
Hunter eyed the owl lady out of the corner of his eye. She was doing something in the kitchen which didn’t make sense. He hadn’t even been reprimanded for his talk with King. He hadn't had much time to think about things though, because the little demon had kept him busy.
When he saw the new bedsheets he demanded Hunter take him to where he had found them and then he made Hunter carry everything upstairs. He kept making Hunter hold up blankets while he secured them.
Hunter was slightly impressed that the structure of the fort was holding up rather nicely; he seemed to know what he was doing. King had told him he was allowed and that if they got in trouble he would take the blame. That wasn’t very helpful in Hunter’s mind since he knew he wouldn’t let him take it but it was good enough.
“Oh!”
Hunter barely managed not to jump at the sudden sound as he looked down at the demon. “I just figured out what you can do for me to pay tribute! Once you do it you will have paid enough.”
“Okay.” He squinted at the demon. What did he have planned?
The little demon had a look on his face Hunter couldn’t quite read. It was somewhat like the look Luz got on her face when she was trying to get him to break a rule but they were really different. It wasn’t like he knew what this was.
The little demon quietly made his way across the house and to a closed door. Before Hunter could stop him he swung it open and pointed upward. “I need you to grab that for me”.
Hunter looked up. It was something covered in something colorful.
“Why is that up there? Are you allowed to have it?”
“Eda is keeping it from me. I'm allowed to have it and it’s mine.” The demon’s voice faltered on the last word but he didn’t seem to be lying.
Hunter stood on his toes and grabbed the package he held it out to the demon then he heard a voice
“King Clawthorne!” Hunter jumped back at the yell clutching the item to his chest.
The owl lady stood several paces away from them, spoon in hand.
She walked up to him and held out a hand “Give it to me”
Hunter hesitated clutching it closer to his chest “What is it?”
"A present for King that he is not supposed to have yet” Her voice raised at the last couple words and she glared at the small demon.
Hunter stepped in front of him.
"King thought he could trick you into giving him it and apparently he was right.”
"It’s my fault. I was the one tricked, don't blame him." Hunter felt like he was going to throw up.
The owl lady rolled her eyes. "No, it’s definitely his fault,"
“It isn’t! Really”
Hunter looked around. They were in a hallway and there were no windows nearby. He had left Flapjack in the other room he almost definitely wouldn’t have time to grab King and get out. He had no real chance if he got Flapjack. Flapjack would want him to grab King but he couldn’t leave Flap!”
“You aren’t in trouble kid.”
The owl lady interrupted his thoughts. "Really." She added at the look on his face.
“King didn’t do-” The owl lady had probably made up her mind but he could at least keep trying.
“Neither is King." I support my kids fighting the system. I can't just change my tune when the system is me.”
"Let’s go back to the other room, kid. You’re going to join me cooking so King can’t trick you into following more of his plans.”
She returned the present - if it was what she said it was. To the top shelf of the closet and closed the door. She headed toward the kitchen. Hunter followed.
EDA
To say the kid was confusing was an understatement. Not only was his behavior confusing but so much else around him was too.
He was the golden guard even though he was only in his mid-teens.
He was enemies with Bli- Amity and friends with Luz. More than that Eda still thought Luz had called him her brother. She hoped that was a mistake but likely it wasn't. Eda wouldn't be surprised if there were more that she didn't even know about!
Eda was still cursing herself for her mistake earlier. She had thought leaving King alone watching the CB for 20 minutes while she went to drop Luz off at school would be okay. King almost never passed up screen time.
She had been terrified when she had returned home and he hadn’t been there. She was so relieved when she found him unharmed, talking with the golden guard. She wasn’t too worried about their talk about the coven. Her kids were far too smart to fall for the coven system but she had been surprised too.
He was being pretty nice to King and it made her feel a weird feeling in her chest when she realized that the blondie was gullible enough to fall for King’s trick to get the present and an even weirder feeling thinking of what Luz would say about it.
Something about the interaction made Eda want to listen to Luz but if Luz had called him what Eda thought she did then Eda couldn't trust Luz's objectivity in this situation. Especially since Eda didn't know if he felt anything at all for Luz or if he was just trying to trick them.
Anyway, it didn't matter right now. Now he was cooking with her and she was pretty sure he had doubled her cooking time instead of halved it.
He kept being stupidly precise with the recipe. He had spent way too long trying to quantify the pinch of salt specified and hadn’t stopped until Eda grabbed the shaker and did it herself.
She was trying not to freak at the fact he had jumped a foot when she grabbed the shaker. Luz had said he was hurt and how much she cared about him. It was getting really hard to be properly defensive with how jumpy this kid was.
She remembered how Lilith talked about him. She wouldn’t talk about him like that if he was some hurt little kid. If the golden guard was hurt people would know! He might be a kid but if Eda got worried about him that might stop her from protecting her kids. He didn't seem dangerous but neither did plenty of dangerous things like fairies or legos.
She would send a letter to Lilith to see what she knew about him. The kid was smart. Maybe he was acting or this was some sort of tactical move to make her worry about him.
A voice in her head she was far too used to growled that no teen was that good at acting and that the kid didn’t seem like gaining her sympathy was even a thing he could do. She tried to ignore the voice. Her kids came first and if he was hurt… she took a deep breath she would cross that bridge when she came to it.
If he was hurt... well she was most definitely not equipped for the situation. What had Luz been thinking bringing him here? With a sudden pang, she wished Raine was here. They were better at being delicate than she was. They would know a lot more about the teen than Eda did. They could be a calming presence. They were also not a known criminal so the kid would probably like them more than her.
If nothing else, being with Raine just made her feel calmer. It wasn't her against the world when she was with them. It was the two of them against the world.
Eda reminded herself Raine didn’t remember seeing her. They thought she hadn't seen them in years. It was okay. She could try and be calm. Of course, she couldn’t be for very long but she could be for a while.
She needed to focus. She needed to learn more about this kid and she needed to do it fast.
“So kid” Eda started “I know what your job is but do you like it?”
“What kind of question is that?”
“A normal one.” Eda had kept her tone measured and everything! What had she done wrong?
“I believed I had made it clear that I would not talk about my job beyond the basics”
His face scrunched up then as though he was thinking back. It reminded her of Lilith a little when she had trouble telling if she had been clear enough about a rule back when they were kids.
“I don’t even tell Luz about my daily activities for the coven, why would I tell you?
Eda flung up her hands “I asked if you liked it. Not if you would tell me about it!”
"Well, you were obviously trying to trick me into revealing info."
Eda dragged her hand down her face. "Kid, I asked you a question that could be a yes or no answer. You could elaborate. You could not. Your choice.
He glared at her for a second before opening his mouth then closing it then opening it.
"Of course, I’m grateful for it. I have such a wonderful opportunity that few other people on the isles could dream to have."
“I didn’t ask you to give me a speech, I asked you if you like your job.”
“Yes”
The boy looked down right after he said it. She decided not to push it.
"You did surprisingly decent with King. Do you interact with kids often?"
He looked at her suspiciously again “Not much. I only come into contact with young demons and witches occasionally.”
“How did you and Luz meet?”
“Why do you want to know?” His posture was stiff.
“I’m just curious kid. The first time I heard about you was a couple of days ago you and Luz’s meeting must be quite a story.”
She tried to act careless but she cared far too much to do that. What had happened between them that would make Luz say what she had said about him?
He looked torn for a moment before seeming to come to a decision.
“Technically the first time I met her was at the pirate ship situation you were there too. But I'm guessing you don’t mean that.”
“Nah”
“The first time I met Luz for real was the day I got Flapjack.”
The kid gestured and Eda glanced toward the little bird that was resting several feet away from Hunter.
"I had been assigned by the emperor to find the palismen and take them back to him. I grabbed the palismen container thing. What I did not know was that Luz was hiding inside.
“What?” Eda yelled
The kid flinched again. Eda really needed to stop startling him.
“Flapjack snuck home with her and she left to return him to the other palismen. She told me she decided she wouldn't leave until she figured out her future and a palismen joined her. She got interrupted by me. Then she used a glyph to shoot me off the ship”
Eda didn't know whether to be impressed or worried about Luz at that.
“I got back on with my staff then used it to create ropes to bind her.”
I told her I’d lock her up for assaulting a coven official and she used the dust covering the ship to create a glyph to knock my staff off the ship."
He grinned at that one. The smile reminded her of an old memory of Lilith smiling at her after she won a tricky match. The grin fell off his face when he caught her looking.
"What neither of us knew was that Kikimora sent a pet monster to destroy the ship and kill me."
Eda stared. He may have been the golden guard but he would have been like eleven then? Why the heck would a fully grown woman attack a small child?
Nope, Eda did not need to picture him at that age. That was a bad idea.
I was knocked unconscious and Luz woke me. His eyes darted away at that so Eda guessed there had been something else. Probably nothing too bad but she’d check later.
We argued a bit then had to escape the monster again.
I tried to alert the guard office but they didn’t believe me when I tried to tell them who I was because Luz hid my staff.
Eda doubted that was the only reason but she let him have it.
Luz ran and I chased her down. I realized she wouldn’t really attack me and pointed that out. I realized that Kikimora had been plotting against me and Luz offered a truce since we both wanted to thwart Kikimora. Luz didn’t even shake with me and did the ‘too slow’ thing”
Eda snickered
He glared. "Seems fitting you have the sense of humor of an eight-year-old.
"Like Luz wouldn’t do something like that now"
He glared again and continued.
Luz explained her glyphs to me and showed me how her fire and ice glyphs would create mist with sleeping nettles so Kikimora would land and we could get the palismen back.
“Hold up kid”
He stopped
“You and Luz based your entire plan on the fact you thought Kikimora would follow proper driver safety protocols
He blinked “Yes”
“Alright just wanted to see if you really did. Go on”
After squinting for a moment he did “I told her that wild magic is dangerous and no matter how interesting it is it shouldn’t be tampered with.
We enacted the plan and it worked, Kikimora went down and Luz checked on the palismen and she turned her back to me”
“What did you do” Eda growled.
The kid seemed to remember who he was talking to. He looked a little too scared - or maybe it was a normal amount of fear. Hopefully a normal amount of fear.
His shoulders slumped “Nothing, nothing at all she gave a Luz typical speech about how she thought I seemed like a good person but how I was really only the future golden guard, and then” he hesitated “I gave her my name.”
He hurried on in the story.
"Then Kikimora woke up and started attacking I went into defensive mode on reflex"
"Luz got ahold of the whistle used to control the thing. She almost left but I wasn’t doing amazing in the fight” His eyes flicked to her and he added, “I was holding my own and now I’m sure I could have beaten her easily but I couldn’t then."
Luz flew the dragon at Kikimora and it threw her off enough for me to beat her. I wanted to believe it was an accident but I couldn’t. Luz and I met again and again after that. For a while I chased her until eventually I didn’t anymore.
For a while now we have had a time and place to meet. Because Luz is Luz no one can hold out against an irresistible force for long. When I told her my name I sealed my fate.
They sat in the silence of the moment and Eda contemplated his words. He didn't seem to be lying at all about the story. The story of their meeting was pretty sweet and the last couple of words stuck with Eda. Some people could hold out against Luz but those were the people who didn't care about her. If he was that certain there was no way to hold out against Luz then he probably cared about her a lot.
Eda considered for a moment more before the water started to boil over and Eda ran to grab it
Luckily it still looked good. Eda had a lot of practice seeing if food was salvageable
“Time for lunch.”
...
Eda glanced at the kid as she sat to eat. He was trying to act casual but he looked like he really enjoyed the food.
“Is it good?”
“Yeah. the recipe is amazing” He gesticulated a bit with the fork he was holding. Luckily he was sitting far away from her and King.
Eda laughed.
“Okay, kid. Do you want to go back upstairs to work on your stuff?”
“May I?”
Eda blinked. She had brought him down here because she was worried about what he’d do and she didn’t trust him. Was it any different now?
A little. She knew his story with Luz. Luz had won him over just like she did with everyone else. She was genuinely starting to think he might care for Luz the way she might care for him. He hadn’t threatened anyone and he hadn’t done any damage to anything.
On top of that, she might be imagining it but she was pretty sure she woke up with less dust and less clearing supplies than she went to sleep with.
“Yeah, you can.”
The kid gave her the biggest smile she’d seen yet and dashed upstairs.
So he could be a kid.
“Eda!” King yelled
“Hold your snake horses kid! I’m coming.
King was fine. Luz was fine. The kid - Hunter was fine right now too but was he fine usually?
She looked within herself past all the reassurances and hopes that the coven was at least better than that past all the worries she had with the deep connections he held to Luz and the bias she might have toward him.
An image of Luz’s desperate eyes and pleading voice came back to her.
“He’s covered in scars Eda”
All she could see was his face and the one scar there. A lot of kids had a scar or two from a scrape that didn’t heal right but his? On his face like that? That wasn’t normal.
She’d deal with this later when she didn’t have a kid still calling for her. If Hunter needed help… Titan, she hoped he didn’t need help. She had no idea how to help him.