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He’s running.
He’s not-
He doesn’t have anywhere to go-
It doesn’t matter. All that matters is getting away, away, away from Luz- the human- and that Wild Witch.
It’s-
He shouldn’t be around them. He shouldn’t have ever talked to them in the first place, he knew that, knew it was a betrayal of everything his Uncle ever taught him-
Oh, Titan.
He gasps for air and none of it manages to claw down his throat, but he can’t stop he can’t stop he can’t stop-
Branches slash at his face and catch on his clothes and try to tangle around his feet but he just crashes through them. The cold night air bites at his arms and out of habit he wishes for his cloak – familiar, heavy, warm – until the Golden Guard emblem flashes in his mind and he can feel the cloak wrapped around his throat choking him, choking him, he can’t breathe-
All those masks! All of them had laid tangled in the gnarled roots of the old, dead trees in Belos’ mind, and all of them – every single one – represented a Golden Guard who betrayed Belos and were killed. All of them were exactly like him. Exactly like him. He’s not- He’s-
He’s not even real.
“Out of all the Grimwalkers, you looked the most like him.”
He’s a Grimwalker. All these years, he thought he was a witch, he thought he was real, but he’s just-
He’s just-
He’s a plaything. He’s a tool to get the job done, to throw away when he was no longer useful. Belos never cared about him. Belos never cared about him.
He stumbles over a shrub and yelps as it scrapes his ankle. The scratch burns with every step he takes, but he’s had worse and he has to get away-
He can’t let Belos find him. He can’t, he can’t, he can’t! Belos knows. He knows Hunter was in his head, he knows that Hunter knows all of his plans. Oh, Titan, Belos will kill him!
He doesn’t want to die.
He doesn’t- he- is he even alive?
Something catches in his hair and Hunter lets out a strangled yell, batting at it until his hand hits it. It goes flying and he hears a crack and a thud, but he doesn’t stop, he can’t stop, he can’t- he can’t-
Dark spots swim in his vision and his lungs burn, but he can’t take a full breath. Each attempt burns in his throat and never fills his lungs and he can’t breathe, but he gasps at the night air anyway because he has to breathe to run and he has to run to get away-
He has nowhere to go. He can’t- he can’t go home- the castle is full of coven guards and they’ll grab him and take him to Belos and he’ll kill him-
And the Owl Lady is a wild witch and wild magic is dangerous. Belos told him to stay away from them, they’re criminals, they’re dangerous, they’ll get him killed just like-
But wild magic didn’t kill his family, did it? He never had a family in the first place – Belos lied to him-
Hunter gasps for air but he can’t breathe. He claws at the tunic at his throat but his gloved fingers can’t find purchase and he can’t get it loose-
He trips and barely has time to shout before he hits the ground hard. The impact knocks out whatever scraps of air he’d managed to drag into his lungs and the sticks and rocks on the ground dig into his chest. He gets his hands under him and tries to push himself up on shaking arms, even as his breath comes in wheezing gasps.
He can’t stop, it’s not- he’s not safe.
There are voices between the trees. There are voices and they’re getting closer and Hunter’s arms won’t stop shaking, and his breaths scrabble for purchase in his throat-
“Just leave it, we’ve got to go-”
“No, I heard something, it was just through here-”
And then, as if Hunter’s scrappy excuse of a life couldn’t get any worse, Darius steps through the bushes. His eyes glint under the shadow of his hood, and he straightens up, looming over Hunter the way he always does in the castle.
He’s going to take Hunter back. He knows Hunter betrayed the Emperor and he’ll turn him in and then Belos will kill him-
Hunter can’t help the strangled sound that escapes his throat. He throws himself back, the damp soil caking under his fingernails as he scrambles back, back, back-
His back hits a tree.
He can’t-
He can’t-
Darius just stands there. Toying with his prey, maybe? It’s what Hunter was made for, after all; he’s just something to be messed with until he’s no longer interesting.
“Please,” Hunter gasps. He can’t fight Darius, can’t run away, can’t even get up. Darius is a powerful coven head and Hunter is just a Grimwalker without a staff or even a palisman-
His palisman!
He frantically darts his gaze over the surrounding area but Flapjack is nowhere to be seen and Hunter doesn’t know whether to cry or be relieved. Flapjack is safe from Belos’ greed, but now Hunter is alone and defenseless with Darius looming over him in taunting silence.
“Please, I can’t-” He tries to pull in a breath but he can’t get the air down his throat. “I can’t go back, I can’t, I can’t- Darius, please don’t take me back!” He begs.
There’s no use in begging, he knows that. He learned it years ago, had it drilled into him since before he could walk. You don’t get second chances in the Emperor’s Coven. You’re lucky if you get a first one. Begging will do him no good. But what else can he possibly do?
“I don’t wanna die. I don’t- I can’t- he’ll kill me, please, I don’t want to die! I don’t wanna die, I don’t wanna die, I don’t-”
“Hunter-” Darius steps forward, one arm raised, and Hunter shrieks. He scrabbles at the mud, scrambling sideways across the tree trunk. Darius will turn him in to Belos and then he’ll be dead, and there’s nothing he can do about it-
He doesn’t even make it to his feet before thick purple sludge wraps around his ankles and drags him back. “No!” Hunter digs his hands into the ground, leaving deep scores in the soil and caking mud under his fingernails. “No, no, no, Darius please-”
The abomination goo snakes up his legs, wraps around his chest, pins his arms to his sides and he can’t move, he can’t breathe-
He can’t- he has to get out- he can’t- not again-
He can still feel the spongy grass giving way beneath his feet, sucking him under like quicksand, down, down, down into the dark subconscious. It was so cold there, and so dark, and there were horrible things there and he can’t go back, he can’t-
“Darius!” Another voice snaps, and Raine comes crashing out of the bushes. “What are you doing?”
Oh, Titan, he’s doomed. He never stood a chance against Darius, but two coven heads? He’s going to die tonight and he can’t-
He can’t-
He can’t breathe, he’s-
“He was going to run away! He was freaking out, what else am I supposed to do?”
Hunter struggles uselessly against the cocoon of goop. It’s a pointless action, Hunter knows that, but he can’t just lay down and die, he can’t, he-
“You’re not helping, Darius! Loosen the restraints!” Raine glares up at Darius and Hunter sees their hands balled into fists at their side. Oh no, oh no, no, no. He’s gotta get out of here now- right now-
Raine Whispers doesn’t get angry. They’re far more likely to stumble over their words apologizing for things that weren’t even their fault. If they’re this angry – angry enough to oppose Darius, who stands nearly a full head taller than them – then Hunter needs to get away before they pick someone easier to take out their rage on. He struggles harder against the goo but it just tightens around him.
“You cannot be serious, Raine! He’ll bolt!”
“Darius, look at him!” Raine’s hand comes up to jab in his direction and Hunter can’t help but flinch. He’s not supposed to, he knows that – any punishment he receives is one he deserves, he shouldn’t try to avoid the consequences of his own actions – but he can’t move and the abomination is crushing his lungs and if he doesn’t escape he’s going to die-
Both coven heads are looking at him, Darius’ abomination goo squeezing him tight, and Hunter wonders if this is what the palismen felt like in the moments before they were consumed.
“Oh,” Darius says simply. The goop loosens and now Hunter has room to breathe but he still can’t get the air down his throat. It claws and scrapes and burns in his chest and he struggles against his prison with renewed vigor now that he can actually move his arms.
“Please, please, just let me go- let me go- he’ll kill me- you don’t- he’ll kill me!” Hunter begs again, the words catching on every failed breath he tries to take. He needs air, but he can’t breathe and he’s getting dizzy and he can’t run if he’s dizzy-
“Hunter,” Raine says.
“I’m sorry!” Hunter yelps. It’s immediate – it’s instinct; sometimes his punishment is less severe if he apologizes – accepts responsibility for what he did. Maybe if he apologizes, he’ll have a better shot at escaping. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry! It was an accident, I swear!”
“Hunter, what are you-” Darius tries to cut in, but Raine silences him with a pointed glare.
“It’s okay, Hunter. We’re not angry.” Raine takes a step toward him.
“No!” Hunter shrieks. He throws himself back against the abomination prison but it pins him in on all sides, squeezing him tight once and then relaxing again. “Stay back!” Hunter warns. He can’t let Raine take him back to the castle – he doesn’t want to die.
“Okay.” Raine says simply, and steps back. It’s almost enough to startle Hunter out of his panic. Coven heads don’t do what he tells them – no one does. In fact, he should be getting punished for snapping at them when they’re clearly in the position of power here.
And then it hits him.
Raine is toying with him. They’re messing with him, playing with their prey before hauling him back to the castle to be killed. He strains against the goo holding him in place again.
“I’m sorry.” He gasps, wrestling to get his arms free. He can’t quite pull in a full breath and his lungs burn. Black spots dance across the forest, partially obscuring the faces of the coven leaders. “Please, I know- I know you have to- to- please don’t take me back, please-”
“Hunter, you need to breathe,” Darius says, leaning closer. Hunter gasps for air, squinting to try to see the witches in front of him. He can just barely make out the glow of Darius’ spell circle.
“I- I can’t, I can’t-” Hunter tries. He’s dizzy and he can’t see and he can’t move and they have him trapped and they’re going to take him back and Belos knows Belos is going to kill him- “Please, I can’t- can’t go back, he’s going to kill me, he’s- I’m- I don’t want to die, please-”
“We won’t take you back, Hunter, I promise,” Raine says. They hold their hands up where Hunter can see them, managing to make out their shape past the spots in his vision, and slowly lower themself to the forest floor. “But I need you to breathe.”
“I can’t-” Hunter heaves in a breath but it comes short, catching in his throat long before it reaches his lungs. Oh, Titan, he’s going to die here before Belos even gets his hands on him. He can’t breathe.
“Yes, you can.” Raine promises, and their voice is doing something weird. Their voice stays soft, level, seeping into Hunter's bones like appleblood jelly and wiping away some of the fuzziness in his brain. “I know it feels like you can’t, but you can.”
“No, no, I’m- please, I’m-” Hunter struggles weakly against his restraints. He manages to tear his gaze away from the coven heads – it’s not like he could run if they attacked him anyway – and scans the forest around him wildly for anything that could help him escape.
He finds nothing. The trees tower over him and the moon stares down from a gap in the foliage, cool and uncaring. Even Flapjack has finally left him. Hunter twist and turns to try and break free. The abomination sludge shudders, snaking around his legs and arms and chest- “No, please, I’m sorry- I- please don’t kill me-”
“Hunter, look at me.” Darius commands, and Hunter snaps his gaze to the coven head. Even through the haze in his mind, he knows better than to disregard orders. You’re very good at doing exactly what you’re told. Darius’ face swims in his vision, but Hunter manages to make out wide eyes and the hand still raised to draw the purple spell circle. “Listen to Raine.”
Hunter looks at Raine, where they sit on the forest floor, cloak spread on the ground around them. Raine stares back, something intense furrowing their brow. Hunter gulps desperately for air. He can’t run. He can’t get away. But maybe… maybe if he follows directions, they’ll go easy on him. Maybe they’ll make it hurt less before handing him over to Belos.
Raine tilts their head toward Darius. “Free his arms.”
Oh, great. They’re still toying with him.
“But-“
“Just do it!” Raine hisses.
Darius huffs, but the abomination goo slips down to settle around his waist and Hunter heaves in the closest thing to a full breath that he’s gotten since escaping Belos’ mind. He chokes on the air and the coughing robs him of whatever benefit he would have gotten.
“Easy, Hunter. Easy.” Raine is still doing that thing with their voice, pulling his attention to them. He watches them as they slowly bring their arms up to rest on their collarbones, crossed in front of their chest. “Bring your arms up like this.”
Hunter copies them, resting his gloved fingers on the edge of his padded tunic. It’s thick, meant to protect him on his patrols, but he can still feel the weight of his hand through it and presses down.
“Good. Now tap your hands like I’m doing.” Raine starts tapping their hands against their collar – left, right, left, right – and Hunter mimics them, still heaving for air. The gentle thud, thud, thud of the action reverberates through his entire body.
He doesn’t understand the point of this. He can’t escape them, so why make him go through this pointless game of mimicry when they could just hand him over to Belos and be done with him? He’s sure Darius, at least, would be glad to go back to getting his beauty sleep.
“Okay, now try to breathe in count with that. In, two, three, four – hold, two, three, four – out, two three, four. Try that.”
“I c- can’t. I can’t.”
“Try.” Darius barks, earning a glare from Raine.
The commanding tone lands, though. Hunter sucks in a breath out of instinct – do what you’re told – and just barely remembers to hold it as Raine resumes their count.
Just do what they ask and maybe his death will be a little less painful. He exhales on their count as best he can and breathes in the next. His breath hitches and he loses the count, but Raine just starts it over and Hunter gradually finds the rhythm.
Slowly, his lungs stop burning and black spots stop swimming in his vision. A third figure has joined Raine and Darius – the little tufts of fur revealing them to be Eberwolf. Hunter watches them cautiously as Darius deactivates the spell circle and the abomination dissipates.
Hunter’s legs give out from under him almost immediately. He hadn’t even realized that his prison was the only thing holding him up. Eberwolf darts forward as Hunter falls and he has just enough presence of mind left to throw himself back and throw his arm up to shield his face. He’s seen those teeth; he knows what they can do.
“Eber!” Raine scolds, and Eberwolf skids to a stop a few feet away from Hunter. They back up, paws raised and open, eyes wide. “Eber, we just calmed him down – give him space.”
Eber scampers back to sit between Darius and Raine. Slowly, Hunter lowers his arms and peers warily at the three coven heads. Raine sits cross-legged in the dirt, arms still crossed over their chest the way they demonstrated for Hunter. Eberwolf looks right at home on the forest floor. And Darius… well, Darius crouches without quite touching the ground, sitting on his heels while glaring at the dirt with his lip twisted in disdain as if the mud itself had somehow offended him.
They seem a little less than threatening. It's enough to let Hunter throw his guard back up. “Whatever you’re planning to do, just get it over with already. This is needlessly cruel.” He pours all the authority of the Golden Guard into his voice – or tries to, anyway. His voice cracks and wobbles and the thought of what his old title really meant makes him feel sick. He wants to cast it aside, tear off his coven brand, get away-
“Hunter,” Darius breaks into his thoughts, voice uncharacteristically soft. “What do you think we’re going to do?”
“You- you’re here to collect me- to turn me in.” He’s confused now. That’s what they’re here for – it’s the only logical explanation for their presence. They’re coven heads, for Titan’s sake! What else would they be here for?
But Darius, Raine, and Eberwolf just look at each other and back to him in silence. Hunter’s terrified subconscious seems to pick up on their hesitance because he’s talking again before he’s even realized he’s opened his mouth. “Please, you can’t- you don’t have to turn me in. I know- I know it’s your mission, but you don’t- you don’t understand! He’ll kill me. He’s actually- he tried to- he’ll kill me! You can just- you can- tell him I escaped using wild magic, or- or something, anything- just- just- please don’t bring me back there! I can’t go back – I can’t!” Hunter pleads, internally cursing himself for his weakness. He had been doing so well at following their directions, but it seems he really can’t do anything right, and now he’s lost any good grace he might have earned from their little charade-
“Hunter, we’re not here to take you back,” Raine says. Hunter shakes himself out of his spiral – he doesn’t have time to panic. Not when the coven heads are being so terrifyingly unpredictable.
“What?” Hunter blinks at them a few times. They’re a terrible liar, with blushes and ear twitches and lip bites galore to tell the world when they’re twisting the truth. But he can’t find a single tell on them right now no matter how hard he looks. There’s no tell on any of them. Raine’s ears droop in some facsimile of concern and they stare at him with wide, watery eyes. Eberwolf kneads the grass under their paws and averts their eyes.
“We’re the rebels, Hunter.” They continue, ignoring Darius’ glare and indignant sputtering. Eberwolf stands up to smack a paw in Darius’ face to shut him up. “We were the ones in the night market trying to invade Belos’ mind.”
Hunter’s head spins. “That- that can’t be right-”
“We’re only here because we heard you got caught up in the spell by accident. We wanted to make sure you made it back safely.” Darius interjects. Eberwolf gives a mournful trill.
Hunter shakes his head, but he finally takes in their appearances. All three of them have on heavy brown cloaks and dark grey tunics – the same outfits as the rebels from the market. Hunter gapes at them. There’s no way – no way – three coven heads could all want to rebel against Belos. Not when he’s- not when- he's-
“He’s lying to us.” Hunter blurts. He has to say it. He has to. He wishes it weren’t true but it is and he has to say it, cause no one would know if he doesn’t tell them. “He’s been lying to all of us, he’s-”
“Slow down, kid.” Raine holds their hands up, palms out. “Breathe. We want to listen to you, but we can’t understand what you’re saying if you’re too panicked to speak.”
Hunter gulps in a breath. Belos is- he’s a master at manipulation. Hunter knows that now and he hates that it took him so long to see it – to accept it – but that’s exactly what his uncle wanted, isn’t it? He has to make them see it now, too, because if he couldn’t figure it out on his own then how could anyone else? Hunter was closest to the Emperor and he was still tricked. He has to make them see.
“Belos is lying. About the Day of Unity. It’s not- it’s-” He tightens his hands into fists, ripping up clumps of grass and dirt. The mud sticks the blades to his gloves even after he releases the tension in his fingers. “He’s going to kill everyone- with- with the sigils- he tried- he-” He brings his hands up to clutch at his hair, pulling and pulling, the sharp pressure holding him in his stolen body. “He tried to kill me!” He wails.
Raine starts humming, the sound sitting low in their throat as they start tapping their collarbones again. Hunter’s hands move on their own, gently detangling from his muddy hair and lowering to mirror their motion – left, right, left, right, left, right, left. The thudding shakes his whole body, still keeping him grounded, but this time without the pain.
Darius looks like he’s seen a ghost. “What do you mean he tried to kill you?”
“He- he just-” Hunter begins to rock back and forth. The grass beneath him is cold and damp and he just wants to go home. “It wasn’t wild magic. It wasn’t wild magic that killed our family, it was Belos, it was- it was all Belos-” His throat burns with tears but he can’t cry – he can’t afford such weakness. Not now, not when the Emperor wants him dead.
“Hunter-” Darius holds out a hand, but Hunter flinches back.
“I knew too much and he tried to kill me and he said he’d have to make another-” He chokes. Oh, he’d almost pushed that away but- but- he’s not even real, is he? He was never real and there was nothing he could have done to make sure he wouldn’t be replaced because he was built to be replaced. “I’m not even real.” He whispers. He stops tapping and digs his nails into his shoulders, but with his gloves on all he feels is pressure. He twists his fingers into his hair again and pulls, the sharp pain the only thing keeping him tethered. “I’m- I’m not even- I’m not real!”
Raine whistles low and sharp. Hunter's hands suddenly release from his hair and slam down into the grass. He didn’t do that. He didn’t- he-
His arms flicker red and gold as Raine’s whistle sputters out. Eberwolf darts forward and before Hunter has time to react, they’ve pounced into his lap. They circle a few times and then settle, a warm, heavy weight across Hunter’s legs, leaning solidly into his chest so he can feel them breathing. They look him in the eyes and huff, and then start to make an odd rumbling sound. The sound settles over Hunter like a blanket and he feels his shoulders relax almost against his will.
“Thank you, Eberwolf.” Raine nods at them and Eber chirps in response, still rumbling softly.
“I… apologize, little prince. I did not realize… I didn’t think. I should not have asked about such a fresh wound.” Darius wears an expression Hunter has never seen on him before. He looks almost… mournful, with wide eyes and drooping ears, the weight of some unspoken tragedy heavy on his shoulders.
Raine punches his shoulder with a frown, then turns their attention back to Hunter. “You’re clearly not ready to talk about it.”
Hunter opens his mouth, twisting his fingers into the fur of Eber’s mane. He’s not ready to talk about it, but they need to know. Belos is going to kill everyone and they need to know so they can stop him-
“We know, Hunter.” Raine says, effectively shutting him up. “We know about the draining spell already. We have a plan. You don’t have to talk about it yet; it’s okay. You’re not ready to talk about it, and that’s fine. But we do need to find you somewhere safe to hide.”
“I have a safehouse,” Darius says suddenly.
“But what if Belos-”
“The last place he’d think to check is in my old house. I’m a coven head – I live at the castle. For all intents and purposes, that house is abandoned. It’ll be safe for you, little prince.”
“I don’t- I-” It’s a trap. It has to be a trap. There’s no reason for them to help him. He shakes his head slowly.
Eberwolf sits up and places their paws on his shoulders. Their wide eyes shine in the darkness, an intensity behind them that he rarely sees from them. They chuff and pat his shoulders, then chuff again.
Hunter looks at them, and then at Darius and Raine, and back to Eber. He can pick up some form of reassurance in their words, but he never spent enough time with them to learn their language. He knows Darius and Raine understand them, though.
“Eber says they know it must be scary for you,” Darius says, noticing Hunter’s plight. “But that they promise no harm will come to you in our care. You can trust that you will be safe with us.”
“A-and I know it might be hard to trust us right away,” Raine cuts in. “But that’s okay. We don’t expect you to trust so easily after… well, everything… but we want you to understand we really are trying to help you. We want to keep you safe and we want to make sure you’re okay.”
“Come back with us to the safehouse, at least, and we can help you figure it out there. It’s at least warmer and drier there than it is in the middle of the woods.” Darius’ words tilt with annoyance toward the end, but he still sounds more genuine than he ever does at the castle. It’s close to that day on the beach when he praised Hunter for standing up to him for his team.
Maybe… maybe he can believe Darius won’t hurt him.
Not for this, at least.
Hunter pulls in another breath. Safehouse is more defensible than the woods, anyway. “Okay.” He says quietly.
All three coven heads breathe a sigh of relief. Eber jumps off his lap and stretches out a paw to help him up. Hunter stares at it a moment. Blight had offered him her hand and he attacked her. Luz offered him her hand and his world fell apart. And now Eber…
Hunter takes their paw. Blight and Luz had just been trying to help him. Any consequences were his own fault.
Eber hauls him to his feet – surprisingly strong for such a small body – and circles him, sniffing.
“What- what are you doing?”
Eber huffs and stops in front of him, brows furrows and head tilted in confusion. They make a chirping sound, ears flicking.
“What?” Hunter shakes his head and looks up at Darius, then back at Eberwolf.
They snort and make the chirping sound again, this time shaping it into something more familiar, ears flicking and head tilted in a way that makes it more recognizable as a question.
“Oh! You’re asking about Flapjack, aren’t you?” Hunter wraps his arms around himself. Flapjack left him. It’s for the best – they’re out of reach of the Emperor whenever he finds Hunter, and at least now they can find a real witch-
But no-
That’s not right.
Flapjack’s been practically glued to his side since they first showed up at the castle. They’ve always been there when Hunter freaked out, bringing him back to reality with chirps and nips and nuzzles. They wouldn’t have left him. Something is wrong.
“I don’t- I don’t know where they went. They wouldn’t- wouldn’t leave me,” He says, frantically looking around. All he sees are tall, dark trees and creeping vines and tangled shrubs and dripping moss. There’s no sign of his palisman, no flash of red feathers, no sarcastic chirping. “They’re gone. They’re gone! We’ve gotta find them, before Belos-!”
“Easy, kid.” Darius steps forward, setting a hand on Hunter’s arm. Hunter flinches hard, cursing his traitor body as he does, and Darius immediately pulls his hand back. “We’ll find them. Belos isn’t here. There’s not even a scout in the area. Your palisman won’t have been found by them, and they can’t have gotten far.”
“But what if-!”
“We’ll find them.” Darius looks him in the eye, locking Hunter in place even as his body trembles with the need to charge into the woods and search and search and search until he finds Flapjack. “Eber, can you track a Palisman?”
They growl an affirmative and charge off into the bushes before Darius has even finished asking them to look for Flapjack. Hunter tenses, watching them go. What if this really is all just a big joke? What if Eber is just going to grab Flapjack so Belos can have both of them? What if Belos makes him watch Flapjack die?
“Breathe, little prince. They’ll be back soon.” Darius says, his voice a low rumble beside Hunter.
Hunter forces himself to take a breath. He reminds himself that Darius, Raine, and Eberwolf are rebels, working against Belos – he saw them at the night market when they didn’t even know he was there. There’s more evidence for them telling the truth than there is for this being an elaborate scheme against him.
He grabs his panic by the throat and shoves it down deep inside him.
That was, arguably, the most useful skill he was taught in basic training.
It feels like hours, waiting there in the forest for Eber to come back, although it couldn’t have been longer than a few minutes. The trees loom over them, stretching up, up, up into the pitch-black sky, and Hunter can’t see very far into the darkness below the canopy. He wraps his arms around himself to try and stave off the chill.
Something lands on his shoulders and he jumps, whipping around to see Darius standing just behind him, suddenly missing his rebel cloak. “Easy, kid. I just thought you looked cold.”
Hunter slowly reaches up and finds the cloak laid over his own shoulders instead, and for a moment he can’t breathe – remembering the Golden Guard cloak he left back at the Owl House. But then he takes the fabric in his fists and pulls it tighter around himself. The material feels different – lighter, but just as warm. It doesn’t clap shut near his throat, either, leaving him room to breathe.
“Thank you, Darius.” He mumbles, clasping the coak so it doesn’t fall off.
Eberwolf crashes through the bushes a moment later and skids to a halt beside Hunter, Flapjack held gently in their mouth.
“Flapjack!”
Hunter snatches his palisman back almost before Eber has released them. Flapjack shrieks and struggles out of his hands, chirping up a storm and beating their wings-
No, beating one wing.
The other stretches out at an awkward angle, a long crack running up the wood toward their shoulder, and Hunter gasps.
Flapjack, for their part, barely seems to notice it. “Hunter! Hunter! Safe! Love you! Safe! Found friends! Safe and calm?” They chirp frantically, beating their good wing against his hands.
“You’re hurt!” Guilt bubbles up in his chest. He shouldn’t have left them behind. He shouldn’t have assumed they left him behind.
“It’s okay! Safe and calm? Love you!” He still can’t fully understand Flapjack, but what he does get makes him want to cry. Flapjack is the one who’s hurt and they’re more concerned about whether or not he’s okay? They deserve better and yet they still chose him. He doesn’t get it.
Darius hums as he leans over Hunter’s shoulder. “Nothing a little Palisman-Patch and wood glue can’t fix. I think you’ll find palismen are remarkably resilient creatures.”
Hunter thinks of the palismen souls trapped in his uncle’s mind reaching out to him even as he’s sure he’s responsible for many of their fates.
He swallows down his guilt and holds Flapjack a little closer, running his finger over the crest of feathers atop their head. They chirp and tilt their head up toward the touch, eyes narrowing in affection.
“Darius, we’ve got to go.” Raine cuts in suddenly. “Terra will be checking my room soon and I’ve got to be there.”
Darius huffs and rolls his eyes. “Terra Snapdragon, always a thorn in our side.” Still, he nods, and Eber scampers off to lead the way out. “Let’s go, kid. We have to get you somewhere safe before we can go back to the castle.”
“We can fix them at the safehouse, right?” Hunter asks, keeping his focus on Flapjack and their damaged wing.
“Of course. We’ll pick up some supplies on the way there.” Darius says, gesturing for Hunter to follow.
Flapjack chirps cheerily despite the undercurrent of pain Hunter hears, and cups Flapjack a little closer to his chest, shielded away by his borrowed cloak. “Then let’s go.”