Chapter 26
Dinner!”
Luz bolted up at the yell. She had finished her homework (well, she wasn’t fully done but she had finished most of it.) She set down the puzzle piece. Hunter set down his piece too. His shoulders slumped.
“We can finish the puzzle once we finish dinner, come on.”
Luz charged away and down the stairs, Hunter following. When Luz got downstairs her mouth began to water. Eda had made one of her favorite dishes. Luz glanced over and saw the table looked a little too empty. She walked over to a nearby closet and grabbed a chair. She managed to wrestle the chair over to the table with Hunter watching on in confusion. When she set it down, he hesitated for a second but eventually, the occupants of the owl house were all seated leaving him to sit in the remaining chair
Eda smiled at Luz. “How was your day?”
Luz smiled back.
“Okay. Not too much happened. I had all my normal classes and got a decent amount of homework done.”
Eda gave Luz a serious expression. “Luz you should finish your homework.”
Luz wondered if she was saying that because Camila had told her to before she left or because Eda was worried about Luz’s work with Hunter here.
“You can’t say that. Cool Aunt Lilith told me you got awesome grades without even trying.” Luz pointed out.
“Lilith can’t see inside my head. It’s still important to do your work.”
“I’ll get it done. You know I take it seriously.” Luz smiled at Eda “How was your day?”
“Pretty good. Other when you terrified me in thinking you were going to get killed by a monster” Luz shrunk in her seat “Sorry”
“It’s okay kid. King tried to trick Blondie into getting him his present.”
“I’m not sorry,” King proclaimed.
“I know you’re not," she rolled her eyes and went back to eating with a slight smile.
Hunter’s eyes had been bouncing between them and eventually, he looked down at his dinner.
They were all silent for a minute so Luz tried to start a conversation. “What track or tracks would you like to be in most?" She got confused looks. “I was thinking since King hasn’t picked a track Hunter only went to school once and it’s been a long time since Eda was in school. I was curious what you would choose.”
Hunter glanced toward Eda and King. Luz looked toward them too, but Eda was looking at him and King was thinking so Hunter went on.
I don’t think it would be a beastkeeper. I don't hate it but I wasn't the best. Also not construction I could do that but it doesn’t seem right, neither does abomination. I wasn’t very good at bard magic so probably not that either”
“That just needs practice.”
“I don’t have time for that”
“Then why do you think I'd have time to add extra things to my schedule?” Luz questioned.
Hunter ignored her.
“Probably Oracle is also not helpful.”
He contemplated “That leaves Potion, plant, illusion, healing, which are all okay but I don’t know which-”
“Okay, so you’d multitrack into all four.”
Hunter glared, “You know I'd never do that.”
“But you could.”
“But I wouldn’t.”
He looked out into the distance for a moment before his shoulders slumped and he stated.
“I’d probably go with potion track, it's the most useful and it’s wide range.” He frowned slightly.
“Couldn’t you choose to multitrack? You’re in the emperor's coven.”
“You can only choose to multitrack after you graduate.” He said halfheartedly.
Luz turned away from him. She hadn’t meant for him to be upset about the reminder of him not being able to multitrack.
Luz turned to Eda and King.
King waved a hand and jumped up on the table
“Oh, I’d probably do the Bard track because it would be super cool to see what I could do with music. Also, they might be able to help me see how I can do the scream magic thing.”
Luz looked at Eda at the same time as Eda looked at her. Their worry seemed matched.
“King, buddy, I love your enthusiasm but we should maybe learn more about that before we share it with others.”
King pouted then grinned “I suppose I shouldn’t tell others about my super secret weapon yet. Okay, we learn more about it. It'll be totally awesome.”
He went back to talking about tracks. “I don’t want to do beast keeping,”
Luz wouldn’t begrudge him that. He had bad encounters more than once with much bigger beasts than him.
“I totally want to do potions. It would be so cool to be able to make whatever I want. I don’t really care about plant track magic or healing. Illusions would be super cool. I'd love to tell the future with oracle magic, build fortresses with construction magic, and raise armies with abomination magic.”
Of course, he wanted to have magic to help him conquer the world.
“That’s a lot of coursework buddy, you sure?”
“Of course, I’m sure if I get tired I can just drop classes at any time anyway.”
Luz decided not to tell him. If he didn’t change his mind she’d tell him later.
“Eda what about you?”
“I’d study everything of course. I’m a wild witch.”’
Hunter was glaring at her.
“Which track would you drop if you needed to?”
“Plant magic,” Eda said immediately.
Luz blinked at her. “Why that one?”
“Glyphs can do most things the plant track can. It's not like I’m Willow. The glyphs are less powerful than me at full power but not by too much. I could drop plant track because of that.”
“That’s a good point but a lot of the track is about the theory and action rather than just growing plants.”
Eda gave Luz a very unimpressed look.
“Alright I get it” Luz put her hands up.
Now we should eat before the food gets cold. Once they finished Luz headed upstairs to do more of the puzzle with Hunter. He had started looking very tired recently.
Luz stretched “I’m pretty tired, are you ready to head to sleep?”
“ Yeah, I'm pretty cool with that” Hunter set down his puzzle piece.
Luz went through her night-time routine. Halfway through she realized she hadn’t asked Hunter his and she grabbed Hunter some soap, face wash, a towel, and a toothbrush. It was rather stupid but she couldn’t help but feel hope blooming in her chest when she saw him set his toothbrush in the toothbrush holder. He was leaving little marks of his presence. That seemed to mean something.
She walked him downstairs and wished him a good night. Things hopefully would be just fine after all.
…
“Hey Hunter, do you see that?”
Hunter looked up from… what had he been doing? He couldn’t remember. It probably didn’t matter. He was with Luz right now; he should make the most of the time. It was evening and they were on a not particularly busy street. When had they gotten here? He didn’t remember getting here. He probably shouldn’t tell Luz that. She would be very worried. The last time he had been tired enough to be forgetting things he had barely escaped having to nap on a bed of plants made from one of Luz’s glyphs.
“Where?”
“There” Luz pointed down a dark alley
“Why there?”
“Just because. Let’s go”
He was going to tell her how terrible of an argument ‘just because’ was but she had already grabbed his wrist which meant this was happening.
She dragged him down the alley, surprisingly she hadn’t already let go of his wrist. She usually had at this point. The alley was still going on; he had probably overestimated the time this was taking. Suddenly the tunnel- no alleyway- became light. It wasn't like light had appeared at the end; they were suddenly surrounded by light.
Luz let go of his wrist.
A chill went through him. Why had she done that now?
He looked at her face; it was entirely blank; he had never seen her so unexpressive.
“Why did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Yell at that covenless witch in the marketplace. She wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
“She’s a covenless witch. What she was doing was illegal. I didn't turn her in because she wasn’t doing anything too bad.”
“For all I know. I have no idea what you do when you make it back to the castle.”
“What do you mean?”
“In the castle.” She was smiling slightly but it was eerie. Her eyes were still blank and her head tilted slightly.
“I don’t know what you do in the castle. For all I know you turn all of them in. I haven't seen her again, you know.”
“It’s a big city. That makes sense. Anyway, if you haven’t seen her, that's because someone else might have turned her in.”
“But I don’t know that.”
“You do. I told you that. I said I wouldn't turn her in unless she was dangerous so I didn't.”
“Do you have proof?”
“No, but-.”
“Then how can I trust you?”
It was harder to breathe now, where had this come from, why wasn’t Luz trusting him.”
How can I trust you? Look, she pointed to some of the brightness. A bunch of moments of every time he threatened a wild witch, almost turned Luz in, got upset at her.
He hadn’t done anything. He didn’t turn people in. He might get upset around her but he cared about her. She could tell, couldn't she? She had never had trouble telling before.
“What about Willow?” Luz’s voice asked.
He turned back to her “What?”
“Willow has been friends with you for years but she must be unimpressed. You listen to the emperor, you waste her time with stupid messages and emperor worship.”
A hundred texts showed up on the wall next to the others. Every time he had talked about the coven or other things Willow didn’t care about every time he had been lame.
“I don’t know why you even try with her, she's wonderful.” Of course she was but Luz had always claimed he was the same.
“Hunter”
Hunter snapped backward toward the new voice. Belos was standing behind him mask off
“Uncle!”
“Why do you associate with this kind of people?”
Uncle had seen him with Luz. He would be furious. His uncle sneered and then he replaced his mask. How do you spend time with this sort of person when you fail me over and over again?
Every mistake he had even made showed up on the bright surface behind his uncle. Every failing, every mess up. The missions that went wrong and the times he said and did the wrong things.
“Why are you even the golden guard if you ask like this?” His voice became icier
“I don’t know what Darius sees in you to spend any time with you at all; he was right when he said you’re nothing compared to your predecessors. You don’t want to disappoint either of us, do you?”
“Hunter!” He turned back to Luz and so much emotion was on her face now. “Why would you choose them”
“I didn’t”
“Why do you always do this? You do terrible things and don’t even regret them. You can’t even stop being the golden guard for a couple of hours.
Willow appeared. Where had she come from? “You're the golden guard” She looked horrified for a second then furious. “I can't believe I was talking to the golden guard this whole time.”
“Capitan-”
“You don’t have a right to call me that.”
He froze. Willow always seemed to like that. Why did she hate it this much now?
“Choose Hunter.”
His uncle’s voice rang out “It’s me or them. I am your family”
“Yeah, Hunter chose. It’s us or him.” Luz declared eyes narrowed. She looked so angry so unluzlike in that anger. Why would she make him choose? She said she wouldn’t.
He looked back and forth between them for several moments and then the pictures started to disintegrate.
He hesitated on his uncle for a second too long and Luz spoke “I thought you might have been a good guy but I guess that was just wishful thinking” He froze she couldn’t be saying it she wouldn’t “You’re just the golden guard” Why would she say that? That he was just that. Thought she saw him as more than that. He tried to be when he was with her.
The memories on that side disintegrated faster. Now the small pieces swirled around him.
Luz turned her back; he couldn’t lose her, he could negotiate, he had training in negotiation. He could find a way to play both roles.
Hunter his uncle sneered. The memories on his uncle’s side disintegrated faster. “You’ve done poorly. The golden guard cloak flew toward him. The cloak disintegrated faster; “you can have this back,” he heard both his uncle’s voice and Darius’s “Well never. You never deserved to be the golden guard.”
His entire outfit began to disintegrate and Luz began to walk away, Willow beside her. His uncle stood firm. Hunter went to chase after Luz and Willow. There had to be some mistake! There had to be. Suddenly an echo began “You’re just the golden guard” Luz’s voice “You never deserved to be the golden guard.” His uncle and Darius.
They repeated over and over again and the ashes of all the memories now began to swirl around him. He got some of the ashes in his mouth when he opened it to speak. The ashes tasted horrible, like failure, and every upset expression he had ever seen on Luz’s face, like every time his uncle sounded disappointed in him, like every time Willow took too long to reply and he knew it was because of something he said.
Luz turned back and he hoped he could fix this. Luz would understand. She always did.
“Goodbye Hunter.” The voice was so many voices layered on top of each other it was his uncle’s and Willow’s and Darius’ and most of all it was Luz’s filled with too many terrible things to name. It was Luz and she didn’t care. So many ashes were in his mouth and he couldn’t breathe now and the voices repeated over and over again until- he woke up.
His heart was beating a million miles per hour. He tried to ground himself in logic but he couldn’t. His hands shook and he gripped one wrist with his other hand to stop it. Luz wouldn't do this. She wouldn’t say that. She wouldn’t. Still, he needed to see her. He dashed upstairs and walked to her door. He opened it and saw Luz. She was sleeping. Of course, she was sleeping. It was fine. He could -
“Hunter?”
Luz sat up and blinked tiredly at him
“Sorry I”
“What are you doing here?”
“It’s nothing I just-”
He tried to back out of the room but Luz raised a hand “Why are you here”
“I-” He couldn’t deny it “I had a nightmare.”
“Crap, are you okay?”
“Of course.”
“Luz looked very uncertain of that.”
“I’m fine.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Hunter sat down.
“First of all, does it have anything to do with me?”
He hesitated
“Okay it does”
He hated it when Luz was perceptive. “I didn’t say that.”
Luz gave him her best unimpressed look with a brow raise combo.
“Alright, it did.”
“Was I the victim or the bad guy?”
“I don’t like the way you stated that,” Hunter told her
“Okay then did I get hurt or hurt you?”
“You didn’t really hurt me” he said carefully
“So I emotionally hurt you”
Darn it
He couldn’t help but pause again. He didn’t want to tell her everything but she was going to keep asking.
“The dream version of you told me to choose between you and my uncle.”
Luz gasped “What?”
Hunter explained and Luz hugged him.
“I’d never make you choose. I promise. I’ll do everything I can to make it so that Belos won’t make you choose either.”
“You will?” He knew he should have already known that but the dream had made him forget.
“Of course and anyway you don’t ever have to do anything to make me keep hanging out with you. I’m always going to want that.”
“But the wild witches-”
I’m not the biggest fan of you being rude to perfectly nice people who don’t deserve you acting like a jerk but I’m not about to be upset at you for it.”
“I’d love it if you gave them more of a chance but I’m never going to hold any action you do as a reason to dislike you. You are never going to be someone cruel. I know that and even if you do cruel things sometimes it doesn’t change who you are.”
Hunter relaxed. Luz had never and would never hold a grudge against him. That was just not who she was. “I also doubt Willow will be upset, surprised maybe but I bet she’ll agree that she already knows you and your identity will be far from her highest priority.”
“Getting to be the golden guard is pretty impressive Hunter but that’s not all you are. You’re my friend Hunter and you’re Willow's friend and hopefully, you’ll also be friends with Gus and Amity soon too. You’re super smart and super strong emotionally mentally and physically. You’re enough as you are and no one with any sense would ever change you. I won’t ever change you. Even if you yell at 100 wild witches.”
She paused and considered and then pointed at him “That doesn’t mean I think you should yell at them though that still is pretty mean.”
Hunter smiled. He should have known Luz wouldn’t make him choose. “Sorry about doubting you.”
“Our asleep thoughts and our awake thoughts are different. If I had awakened thoughts last night I wouldn’t have doubted you but nightmares are made of fear and doubt. It makes sense why it would happen. Do you want to sleep up here?”
“Yeah.”
He eyed the group for a comfortable position before he heard Luz clear her throat. He looked up. “Blankets Hunter.”
“Alright.” He smiled- just a little bit he couldn’t stop himself. He dashed off to grab his blankets and settled in upstairs.
“Night Hunter”
Hunter relaxed, she wasn’t angry, it was just a dream, “good night Luz.”
He saw her smile and closed her eyes. He did the same; he drifted off far too easily and everything was okay. Luz and him were okay and he had 2 more days here before life went back to normal. A weird sinking in his chest happened at the same time as the rising. He ignored it. He needed sleep. Who knew what would be in store for him the next day?