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“Don't you dare look out your window, darling, everything's on fire. The war outside our door keeps raging on. Hold onto this lullaby even when the music's gone…Gone…Just close your eyes, the sun is going down. You'll be alright; no one can hurt you now. Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound.” - Safe and Sound, Taylor Swift
Camila always dreamed of having a big family. She came from one, Manny came from one; they were in agreement that they wanted a whole bunch of kids.
Things didn’t work out that way. Manny got sick and that became the focus of Camila’s life. She tried to shield Luz as best she could, but Luz was growing up, growing wiser every day; she could see the dawning horror in her daughter’s eyes, the knowledge that Manny wasn’t getting better.
Manny died holding her hand and their dreams of a huge, loud family died with him.
Fate had other plans.
First, there was Vee. Sweet, strong, amazing Vee. The second daughter she never expected to have, not after everything that had happened. Vee was gentle and wise beyond her years and she’d lived a life of horrors that Camila could barely comprehend.
There was no question about it: Camila was going to protect her. As Vee wept and apologised for taking Luz’s place, as she tearfully explained just what kind of nightmare she’d escaped, Camila knew she’d willingly lay down her life for this girl in a heartbeat. Just like that, Vee was hers. She had two daughters now, both of them kind and brilliant and oh so brave.
A human daughter and a basilisk daughter. It wasn’t quite like Cosmic Frontier, but Camila could imagine Manny finding a comparison anyway.
Two daughters and endless worry for them both. What if Jacob Hopkins stirred up trouble again? (He’d face the wrath of la chancla if he so much as looked in Vee’s direction.) And this Demon Realm…Vee told her about Emperor Belos. Luz was stuck in a world run by a vicious tyrant and who knew how she’d get home?
Camila spent so many days and nights looking out the windows of her house, waiting for Luz to come home. At every small, unexplained sound, she’d look up and wonder if her daughter was about to magically appear, home for real this time. Maybe today, Luz would come home. Maybe today, she’d reappear in a flash of light in the kitchen. Maybe today, she’d walk through the door as if she’d never left.
And then…
“Hi, Mom.” Luz stood there in the pouring rain with four other kids huddled behind her. Her smile was weak and there were tears in her eyes. A gash through her eyebrow was sluggishly bleeding. Luz shrugged helplessly and her voice broke as she said, “I’m back.”
Just like that, her daughter was home, safe in her arms again.
Just like that, Camila was suddenly the caretaker of six children, the very amount of children she’d dreamed of once-upon-a-time, in such different circumstances. These kids were all injured, soaked to the bone and clearly in various levels of shock.
It made her heart swell to see Vee and Luz run to each other, hugging each other tightly, with such ease you’d swear they’d been sisters all their lives. Vee shyly presented Luz with a card that read Welcome home, we missed you. Luz sniffled, wiping her eyes, holding the card like it was something precious and fragile.
The other kids didn’t seem too surprised to see Vee after the initial double-takes. Luz must have told them about her. These were…Her friends. Her baby had friends; a group of kids that orbited each other and, even within those first few minutes, Camila could see how much they cared about each other.
First there was Amity Blight, as pretty as a doll, who stuck to Luz’s side like glue. They held hands other the table as Camila pretended not to notice. If her suspicions were correct, Luz would tell her when she was ready. There were scratches on Amity’s face and arm, a few tears in her dress, but she mostly seemed exhausted, not in any pain.
Not physical pain at least.
(“Em and Ed,” Camila heard her whisper to Luz and Willow later that night. “My dad…”
“They’re all tough,” Willow said, squeezing Amity’s shoulder. “They’ll be fine, I’m sure of it.”)
Then there was Willow Park, who kept trying to smile despite everything. Her hair was falling out of its ponytails, her clothes were torn and filthy; like her friends, she was covered in scrapes and bruises. She kept looking at the two boys of the group like she was worried they’d disappear if she wasn’t watching them.
Gus Porter, who was so small and so terribly young, barely thirteen. He kept crying on and off, clinging to the other boy, the clear eldest, like a lifeline. Gus looked the least injured, but he couldn’t stop shaking and he let out panicked little noises every time his friend moved.
Finally, there was the eldest, Hunter. He didn’t provide a last name and he tensed up whenever Camila came near, twisting around so that Gus was shielded from view (from her?) and he kept scanning the exits, frowning at the doors and windows like he expected the fighting to continue. Maybe that’s exactly what he expected.
Right from the start, Hunter stuck out.
Vee stared at him, head tilted to the side, her face carefully blank. Hunter stared right back, so still he could have been a statue. Camila had no idea what was going on there, but there seemed to be some sort of silent conversation going on between them. Vee gave a tiny nod, Hunter breathed more easily and neither of them said a word.
(Luz looked between them and winced. Camila took note of it.)
Hunter’s injuries were…More severe. He didn’t say a word while she checked his friends over; he bandaged up Gus himself and kept looking over at Luz, biting his lip as Camila cleaned and bandaged the gash through Luz’s eyebrow.
Maybe he would have kept silent if it wasn’t for Gus suddenly speaking up just as Camila asked who wanted the shower first.
“Hunter’s still hurt,” he said and all eyes snapped to him.
“I’m fine,” Hunter said, so stiff, so expressionless. “It’s superficial.”
“The Draining Spell,” Willow suddenly gasped. She grabbed Hunter’s arm and she looked horrified when he twisted away from her with a panicked gasp.
“Sorry!” She held her hands up in surrender. “Sorry, sorry!”
He didn’t look to be in pain, but his response set alarm bells ringing in Camila’s head.
“Is it your arm, sweetheart?” she asked gently.
“And his chest,” Gus said, speaking louder and more firmly, giving Hunter a warning look.
“...Tattle-tale,” Hunter muttered.
“Hunter,” Luz said and he folded like wet tissue paper.
“The sigil stings,” he said, holding up his arm. “But I don’t see what can be done about that beyond rest.” His arm was pale and thin and there was a dark bruise by his elbow. Camila didn’t see a ‘sigil,’ whatever that meant. He was still wearing his gloves.
“And the rest?” Luz’s eyes narrowed. Her arms were folded and her foot tapped anxiously on the ground.
Gus pulled away from Hunter for the first time that evening and Camila gasped at the bloody tears in Hunter’s shirt, right across his chest.
“Dios mio!” she cried. “Sweetheart, you should have said something!” She reached for the first aid kit and he eyed her like she was a wild animal.
“I’m fine,” he repeated. “I’ve had worse.”
That did absolutely nothing to reassure her.
Willow stared into space, a glazed look in her suddenly wet eyes. Amity glared at Hunter’s injuries like they were a personal insult. Gus still clung to his arm, tightening his grip as Hunter shifted in his chair. Vee winced at the dried blood.
But Luz? Her expression, previously so dull, suddenly warped with fury. She hissed like an angry cat and snatched the first aid kit off the table. Camila watched in bewilderment as Luz pulled Hunter to his feet, dragging him from the room. He seemed too surprised to fight back.
“You,” Luz said firmly. “Are showering first and resting, damn it.”
Camila followed after them anxiously. “Luz, honey,” she said, because she may not have known who did that to him or what exactly had happened yet (What was a Draining Spell? Did it drain magic? Did it drain life? Or something else entirely?), but she was sure that dragging Hunter around like that wasn’t a good idea. Not when he was injured and not when he looked so ready to flee at a moment’s notice.
“One of you should go first,” Hunter was insisting, clearly past his surprise, as Luz pulled him towards the stairs.
Luz exploded.
“I can’t lose you too!” she suddenly screamed and, just like that, she was crying. She dropped the first aid kit and shook Hunter by the shoulders, sobbing all the while. “Would you please just put yourself first for once!?”
Horrified silence descended. Camila froze, hand still outstretched. Behind her, Willow let out a strangled sob. When she looked, the kids were all gathered in the kitchen doorway, looks of varying horror and grief on their little faces.
Slowly, cautiously, Hunter wrapped his arms around Luz. She sobbed against his shoulder, punching at his bicep, clinging to him like a koala.
“Okay,” he said quietly. He cleared his throat and spoke more clearly. “Okay.”
Camila stepped forward, gently untangling Luz from Hunter.
“I’ll show you how the shower works, sweetie,” she said. Hunter still looked at her like she was wielding a weapon, but he nodded. Amity pulled Luz into her arms and Luz pointed at Hunter, mumbling a vague threat about putting worms under his pillow if he even thought of rushing himself.
Camila led Hunter upstairs and all the fight drained out of him. Pale and shaking, he looked so much smaller.
“Please be honest with me,” Camila said, handing him a towel. “How bad is it?”
His smile was half-hearted at best, devoid of life at worst.
“I’ve had worse,” he repeated, which still wasn’t a reassurance at all.
Hunter worked for Belos, Vee told her. She looked baffled. The Golden Guard, she said. She recognised his voice, because she’d never seen him without his mask before.
“Did he hurt you, baby?” Camila asked, instantly on high alert.
“No,” Vee said. She looked up at the ceiling and they both listened to the sound of the shower running. “No, he didn’t.” She blinked slowly, like she was coming out of a daze. “Belos hurt him though.”
Camila looked at her, horror creeping up her spine.
“What do you mean, baby?” she asked, though she suddenly knew.
Hunter was a child. ‘Guard’ or not, he was a kid and Belos was plainly a monster.
“One time…” Vee shrugged uncomfortably. “One time, the Gold- er, Hunter…He tried to say they needed to stop starving Four. She’d bitten a guard, so she was…She was being punished. It had been days, she…She could barely sit up anymore. And Hunter, he normally didn’t speak at all, but this time…” Tears began to fall from her eyes, but Vee didn’t even seem to notice. “He looked at Four and told Belos they needed to feed her. And Belos, he- he sent all the guards out of the room and…And once they were alone, he grabbed the Go- Hunter and…He started slamming his- his head into the wall.” She shuddered and Camila pulled her into her arms. Vee began to cry in earnest, clinging to her.
“H-he just kept going. I thought he was trying to kill him! H-Hunter- he fell and didn’t get b-back up, there was so much blood. I thought he was dead. Belos j-just…Just stood there! He just stood there a-and waited and when Hunter woke up he d-dragged him away…”
Camila didn’t know what Belos looked like, but she imagined a shadowy figure all in black with blood-red eyes and blood on his hands; a sort of vampire, an obvious monster. She imagined the lab, a horrible cross between her own veterinary office and a horror movie set, something like Silent Hill.
She imagined Hunter, dressed in gold, blood all over his head, blood on the floor. Red and gold, and a monster staring down at him. Her daughter, her little Vee, trapped in a cage and forced to watch.
“I never saw Hunter again after that,” Vee whispered when her sobs died down. “Belos never brought him back.”
Camila wanted to be sick.
The shower turned off and she forced her nausea back. She tried to banish the image of red, red, red and looked at the first aid kit.
“Belos is gone,” Camila said firmly, a reminder to Vee and to herself. “And he’s never coming back.”
(As Hunter reluctantly let Camila look over his injuries, she had to resist the urge to check his head, to feel for bumps or indents, to see if there was blood in his freshly-washed hair.
She wondered what excuse, if any, that monster had given to the other guards for Hunter’s injuries. Surely they’d seen the blood as Belos dragged him away?
Did anyone ever say anything? Did Belos kill them if they did?)
Hunter bowed to her, knelt to her, and Camila wanted to drag Belos out of his fresh grave and strangle him.
One of her new charges was a child soldier and he was plainly terrified of her.
She’d do anything to fix that. But how in God’s name did she even start?
She tread gently with him. Hunter was not stiff and silent all the time; around his friends he’d babble a mile a minute, laughing at Luz’s puns and getting distinctly shy and giddy around Willow. But around Camila? He shut down. He turned still and silent as a statue, plainly trying to avoid notice. He asked permission for every little thing and looked so suspicious when Camila told him he could eat whatever and whenever he wanted, that he could shower whenever he needed; he could read or watch whatever caught his interest (so long as it was age appropriate). All she asked was that the kids clean up any messes they make.
He nodded and plainly didn’t believe her. Unlike his friends, he didn’t snack freely. He avoided eye-contact, moving silently and swiftly. He jumped at the chance to do chores, insisting he didn’t mind. Camila had never met such a dedicated cleaner.
He always scanned any room he entered for exits. When Gus stuck to his side and followed him like an anxious puppy, Hunter never once seemed annoyed; if anything, he seemed relieved to keep his friend close.
A break-through came at the end of their second week. Camila came down into the basement to do laundry and Hunter was watching with amusement as Gus sorted through her old junk for ‘treasures.’ She happily answered Gus’s questions, explaining bubble-wrap and tutting over an old box of damaged Christmas decorations she could have sworn she dumped years ago.
And then…
“What’s this?” Hunter’s voice was so quiet, so cautious. He was peering at her old sewing machine.
“That’s my sewing machine, sweetheart,” she said. It was the first question he’d asked her that didn’t involve rules or chores and she smiled in relief.
His eyes widened. His little bird, Flapjack, chirped and flapped his wings.
“You have machines for sewing here?” he asked and, finally, he addressed her at a normal volume. All formality fled his voice, replaced with genuine curiosity.
Gus looked just as curious, leaning over Hunter’s shoulder for a better look.
Camila couldn’t keep the relieved, hopeful smile off her face.
“We do,” she confirmed. “It’s pretty old but it still works just fine.” Hunter looked mystified and Camila’s smile grew. “Do you like sewing?” she asked.
Hunter nodded. His eyes darted between her and the old machine. He tilted his head like a curious puppy and there was a new spark in his eyes, a spark that Camila wanted to see shine even brighter.
“I can show you how it works,” she offered and was rewarded with the first genuine smile Hunter ever shot her way.
“Yes!” he said quickly, loudly, eagerly. “Uh, I mean- yes, yes please.”
“Tears stream down your face, when you lose something you cannot replace. Tears stream down your face, and I. Tears stream down your face; I promise you I will learn from my mistakes. Tears stream down your face, and I…Lights will guide you home and ignite your bones, and I will try to fix you.” - Fix You, Coldplay
Vee was hers in a heartbeat. Camila had a soft spot for Hunter, but she didn’t begin to think of him as hers until the end of the kids’ second month with her.
It was a morning like any other. The kids were working on another plan for the portal; Amity and Luz were playfully arguing about what curtains to hang in the old house turned clubhouse. Gus was enraptured by a MewTube video of Minecraft (“Everything’s square, Willow! These Endermen look like something from the Boiling Isles, don’t they? Like, maybe from The Knee?”) and Hunter was…Oddly quiet.
The poor kid managed only one spoonful of cereal before he gagged, hands clapped over his mouth.
“Hunter?” Willow was already out of her seat. Hunter didn’t answer; he just ran from the room and, a moment later, Camila winced as she heard him getting sick.
“Ouch,” Luz said, shuddering as the sound continued.
“I’m gonna-” Willow broke off in confusion as Camila gently steered her back to her chair.
“I’ll check on him, mija,” she said. Willow didn’t look too happy about it, but she nodded.
“You kids go ahead to the old house,” Camila said as she left the kitchen. “I don’t think Hunter will be joining you.”
None of them looked happy, but they didn’t dare argue.
“Hunter?” Camila knocked on the door. “Honey?”
She fully expected the quiet, “I’m okay,” and didn’t believe it for a second. Sighing quietly, she opened the bathroom door.
Hunter was slumped against the wall, arms around his knees and shivering.
“Ay, mijo,” Camila sighed. She knelt next to him, running her hand through his tangled hair. “Why didn’t you tell me you felt sick?”
“‘Cause I don’t,” Hunter mumbled, not raising his head.
“Hm, yes,” Camila said. “You regularly sit on the bathroom floor for fun.”
“...Sorry.”
“I’m not mad at you, mijo. No one’s mad at you.”
One big magenta eye peered at her warily as Hunter slightly raised his head to look at her. He reminded her so much of a cornered cat; wary, exhausted, but still willing to scratch and hiss, always prepared to fight, even when he should have been safe and sound in bed.
She really needed to see about getting all the kids proper beds, but she digressed. Right now, her main focus was the sick child in front of her.
“How long have you felt ill?” she asked, careful to keep her tone gentle.
He shrugged, looking away from her.
“Hunter.” Her tone was just short of pleading and he looked at her again, something guarded in his eyes weakening.
“I…I didn’t feel great last night,” he said quietly. “I’m fine,” he added, like she was going to believe that.
“You need to rest,” she said. “And that’s exactly what you’re going to do until you feel better. Doctor’s orders. Come on.” She stood and held her hand out to him. He looked at it warily, but took it and let her pull him to his feet. She made a mental note to feed him more, he was too skinny.
Camila got him settled on the couch under the thickest, softest quilt she could find. She put a basin next to him (never hurt to be careful) and stood over him while he drank some water. When she produced the thermometer, he looked absolutely baffled.
“It’s to check your temperature,” she explained. “Do you have these in the Demon Realm?”
“Ours are different,” Hunter said. He was far too pale; the more she looked at him, the more ill he looked. “They have a purple liquid inside that bubbles and they scream when they’re done checking your temperature. The louder they scream, the worse you are.” He suddenly looked amused. “One time, Kikimora accidentally ordered a bunch of prank ones for the Healing Coven. They swore when they checked your temperature; the louder and more vulgar the swear, the higher your temperature. Hettie wasn’t impressed.”
Camila had only the vaguest idea of who Kikimora was (Luz certainly had a few choice words for the woman) and had absolutely no idea who Hettie was.
“Is Hettie a doctor?” she asked.
“Head of the Healing Coven,” Hunter said. His nose wrinkled. “She’s creepy.”
Hunter didn’t talk about the Emperor’s Coven much, let alone the people he was forced to be around. He spoke kindly of people named Darius, Raine, Eberwolf and Steve (oddly enough, all of the kids had something kind to say about this Steve fellow) but that was rare and he didn’t mention anyone else.
Hunter went cross-eyed as he tried to keep staring at the thermometer, even when it was firmly under his tongue. His eyebrows shot up when Camila told him some thermometers went in your ear instead. She waited patiently for the beep (Hunter flinched in surprise) and she winced when she saw his temperature.
“Yep,” she said. “You’re staying put, mijo.”
“But the portal-”
“Can wait. You can keep making portals, we can’t keep making you.”
He went bone pale, eyes widening to the size of dinner plates as he shrank away from her, holding the quilt tightly around him. Instantly, she knew she’d said something wrong, but she couldn’t figure out what.
“Hunter?” She placed her hand on his shoulder and he flinched again.
His sudden bark of laughter was high-pitched and forced. “Sorry!” he said too loudly. “Guess, uh…I’m not used to sick days.”
“Didn’t you ever get days off?” Camila asked, dreading the answer.
“We got one day off a year,” Hunter said, like it was no big deal, like that wasn’t a horrifying concept.
“...And sick days?”
Hunter shook his head.
(She was going to punch through that broken portal from sheer spite. She was going to find Belos’s remains and set them ablaze. She was going to drag his soul out of hell so she could send him back there herself.)
“Ese hombre malvado,” Camila grumbled. “If I could see him…” She continued to grouch and hiss as she fussed around Hunter, gently laying him down, adjusting the quilt and pushing his hair out of his eyes.
“I- I’m sorry?”
“If that Belos was still here,” Camila said. “I would beat him with my slipper.” She even took off her slipper and whacked at the air for good measure. “Right in the face!”
Hunter stared at her. Camila wondered if she’d pushed too far, if she’d said the wrong thing again…When he suddenly sputtered with laughter, his hands over his mouth.
Cautiously, Camila grinned. “Oh? And what’s so funny, mijo?”
“I- I just-” Hunter snickered. “Just imagined you hitting him with that!”
“I would! I’d knock him right out of the park!”
Hunter laughed harder (he laughed until he had a coughing fit and Camila fussed again) and Camila beamed at him, relief coursing through her. She giggled and, before she knew it, she was bent over double as she laughed. She laughed and gleefully imagined Belos begging for mercy as she whacked him with her chancla over and over. She imagined sending him flying like some Looney Toons character.
She laughed with Hunter until he started coughing. Then she made him lie back again and switched the TV on.
“We’ll have a lazy day,” she said, ruffling his hair. “I’ll show you how sick days are meant to work, sí?”
The third channel she switched to had a documentary about wolves just starting. Hunter sat up straighter, eyes alight with curiosity.
“What are those?” he asked, pointing to the wolf pack on screen.
“Those are wolves, baby.”
He tilted his head, ears twitching, rather like a little wolf himself. Camila smiled.
“Why don’t we watch it?” she asked. “It’ll tell you all about them.”
Hunter agreed and, within moments, he was enraptured. Camila let herself relax, settling in to watch.
(And if she felt like crying when Hunter fell asleep against her, that was her own business. If she held him close and silently swore to keep him safe, no one else needed to know. That was between her and God. One day, it would be between her and Hunter.)
Here’s the thing; she knew Belos was his guardian but she hadn’t known he was Hunter’s uncle. Not until she spoke to Luz about it.
She’d been to the clubhouse. She’d seen the drawings the kids did of their families; Willow’s dads, Gus’s dad, Amity’s dad and older siblings. She saw Luz’s drawing of Eda and King.
She saw how Hunter looked at the drawings with a flicker of grief in his eyes, a frown on his lips and tension in his shoulders.
She hadn’t heard him mention any family members, not once, since he arrived.
So, as Luz helped her prepare dinner, Camila asked.
“Mija…” She knew it could be a sensitive topic. For all she knew, Hunter’s parents were dead. Why else would he have been raised as a solider? (Unless they willingly left him there, abandoned him on a monster’s doorstep. She didn’t want to entertain that possibility.) “Stop me if I’m being too nosey, but…Where are Hunter’s parents?”
Luz stopped peeling the potatoes. She bit her lip, staring at the floor.
“They’re…Gone,” she said. “Long gone.”
She thought as much. Dreaded as much.
“Does he have…” Anyone, anyone at all, please God is someone waiting for that child to come home? “Siblings? Grandparents or aunts and uncles?”
Something dark came over Luz’s face. She started peeling the potatoes again, but her jaw was clenched, her eyes sparking with anger.
“His brothers are dead,” she said quietly, stiffly, so angrily. “They all died before he was born. He never got to meet them. It was just him and Belos.” She spat the name like the curse it was and it was Camila’s turn to freeze at the implication.
“Belos…Is his family?” she asked.
“His uncle,” Luz confirmed. She put the potato and peeler down, frowning at the kitchen counter. “He was- he was awful to him.”
Belos. Emperor Belos. The monster, the boogey-man. The tyrant. Belos, who tried to kill Luz. Belos, who tortured Vee. Belos, who tried to kill Hunter.
Belos was his uncle?
How could he? Camila thought, not for the first time and not for the last. They’re just children. How could he do that to them?
She heard Hunter laugh at something from the living room and she wanted to weep. She wanted to run to him, wrap him up in a hug and keep him safe in her arms.
Camila took a deep breath and forced herself to ask the question she truly dreaded an answer to.
“Has anyone been looking after him, baby?”
Luz looked at her, eyes clouded and painfully sad. She shook her head.
“After…After we saw into Belos’s mind…” Luz’s voice broke. “He ran away. He hid at Hexside; he told Gus it was the only place he could think of. And I asked him later, y’know? I asked Hunter why he chose Hexside. He told me…” She wiped her eyes, meeting Camila’s gaze head on. “He told me it was the only place he felt safe.”
Camila made up her mind on the spot: that child was hers.
You had your chance, she thought to the Demon Realm as a whole. You had him but you didn’t protect him. He’s mine now.
When she called the kids for dinner, she pulled Hunter into a hug. He didn’t flinch or tense up, or pull away. But he asked, quite baffled, “Uh, what’s this for?”
Camila pulled back, holding his face gently in her hands.
“Just felt like it,” she said. “Everyone needs more hugs.”
He smiled at her and Camila wondered how anyone could have ever tried to stamp out the light in his eyes.
“We'll walk through fire and ice, come out the other side with diamonds in our eyes. So, princess, hold your head high. Even if you have to cry, don't let your crown fall; don't let your crown fall. Your script is in the making. You can hold the aching, but don't let your crown fall. Don't let your crown fall down.” - Princess, Fletcher
It wasn’t all doom and gloom. Camila kept giving Hunter lessons with the sewing machine and he beamed at every bit of praise. Gus set up a MewTube account and, heaven help her, began to quote Vine.
(“The vines are dead,” she heard him tell Hunter, so earnestly. “But apparently they’re still very popular.”
“Okay,” Hunter said, squinting at the iPad. “But I don’t get it. Who were roommates? Why does it matter?”
She had to rush back into the kitchen to try and hide how hard she was wheezing.)
Willow sweetly asked her what a blorbo was. Camila had no idea and directed her to Luz.
Luz laughed so hard she fell off the couch. It was the hardest she’d laughed since her return from the Demon Realm. Amity looked relieved (and equally as confused as Willow), running her hands through Luz’s hair.
“What’s so funny, batata?” she asked.
“Blorbo!” Luz cackled. “Blorbo from my shows!”
“...What shows?” Hunter asked and Luz just laughed harder.
A few days later, Hunter came inside from another round of training drills in the garden. He’d taken his shirt off, dabbing at his flushed face with it.
He didn’t notice Willow, standing by the sink with a glass of juice, until she squeaked.
Camila, sitting at the kitchen table and enjoying her cup of tea and cookie, sat back and watched. Both of the kids had gone bright red, frozen in place, eyes about popping out of their skulls. The only sound in the kitchen was the tick-tock of the clock.
Willow’s eyes darted down.
Hunter ran, shouting, “Sorry, haha, my bad, my bad, aaaaahhhh!” as he went.
“I need to feed that boy more,” Camila mused. Willow squeaked again, clinging to the counter for support.
A moment later, Vee poked her head around the doorway. “Why’s Hunter talking about drowning himself in the shower?” she asked.
Luz wasn’t far behind her, her head appearing just above Vee’s and a viciously amused grin aimed at Willow. “You okay, Willow?” she asked.
Willow squeaked again, as red as one of her new tomatoes. She blinked as if in a daze. “Sweet Titan,” she whispered to herself.
Well, that answered that question. Clearly, Willow liked Hunter back.
“Please make sure he doesn’t drown himself, girls,” Camila said to her daughters.
“Flapjack won’t let him,” Vee said with a shrug.
Sure enough, Amity wandered in, looking bewildered. “So, does anyone know why Flapjack won’t let Hunter shower?” she asked.
Only a week after that incident, Gus made himself a bowl of popcorn and promptly poured melted gummy bears, chocolate sauce and crushed up peanuts all over it. Camila despaired. Luz declared it, “Weird but satisfying,” while Amity took a mouthful and spat it back out into a napkin. She refused to try any other snacks Gus prepared for movie night after that.
Luz took the kids bowling. Camila took them all rafting. Willow bought a scrapbook for all the photos she’d been taking and began to put together the story of their summer so far. Hunter cut his hair (and was oddly quiet about it, but accepted Camila’s offer of a hug) and Vee introduced Gus to TikTok. At this point, Camila stopped counting her grey hairs and decided to roll with it. She made a fuss of the palismen, sneaking them treats and happily letting them all sit on her lap whenever she read or watched TV.
One morning, Clover and Flapjack were playing, flying around each other, poking at each other and nudging their heads together.
And, well, Camila was a mamá. Of course she took the opportunity to embarrass Luz a little.
“Oh look,” Camila said, smirking at Luz. “The birds and the bees.”
“Oh my God, Mamá,” Luz groaned, pulling her beanie down over her eyes. “That was awful.”
“What…?” Amity’s eyes widened and she let out a startled giggle. Gus snickered into his hand, Willow snorted and even Vee giggled.
Hunter just looked lost.
“I…Don’t get it,” he said slowly, carefully. It was slow going, but he’d gotten better at admitting when he was confused or asking questions. Day by day, it was sinking in that Camila wasn’t going to punish him for not knowing something and his friends weren’t going to laugh.
“Birds and the bees,” Luz said, rolling her eyes at Camila. Camila smiled at her and winked.
Hunter shrugged, still looking lost.
“It’s a-” Luz broke off, giving Camila the stink eye. “It’s a sex joke.”
Hunter looked no less confused.
Camila suddenly had a bad feeling about this.
“...I still don’t get it,” Hunter admitted. Amity suddenly found the ceiling very interesting, looking at it with a determined frown like it held the answer to life’s questions. She was steadily turning tomato red.
“You know…” Luz gestured vaguely. She had the same look of dawning comprehension that Manny used to get. “Sex.”
“Hunter, mijo,” Camila began carefully. “You know where babies come from, right?”
“Should I?” Hunter asked. There was not a hint of mischief or deceit on his face. His eyes were big and confused, there was a frustrated little frown on his face.
Oh…Oh dear.
Camila wanted to strangle Belos.
“Titan, kill me,” Amity said vehemently.
“...Come with me, baby,” Camila said, standing up. “I’ll explain.”
“Okay.” Hunter stood to follow.
“Good luck, dude,” Gus said, patting his arm as he passed.
“Good luck? Why? Is it actually dangerous?” Hunter asked, suddenly looking worried. “Belos said it was dangerous.”
“Oh my Titan, go!” Amity pointed at the door, the reddest Camila had ever seen her. “Please for the love of all that is sacred, go!”
(“You, uh…You gonna look at us any time soon?” Gus asked later, smirking.
Hunter continued to stare at the ceiling. The tips of his ears were still pink.
“Nope,” he said.
“You sure?”
“Yeah, the uh- the ceiling’s so neglected, you know? I should pay more attention to it.”
“Mood,” Amity muttered, a phrase she’d clearly picked up from Luz. She’d yet to look away from the ceiling either.)
The kids had all taken turns coming to the vet with Camila, all of them eager and curious to see how “human animal doctors” worked. Amity was, of course, enchanted by the cats and looked tearful at the more ill or injured ones. Willow was eager to help everyone, running little errands here and there. Gus rattled off animal facts and Hunter was happy to sit with any animal that needed company.
Out of all the kids, Luz, Vee and Hunter accompanied her most often. Camila needed to introduce her colleagues to the idea of her newest daughter being a permanent fixture soon; she didn’t know how it worked in the Boiling Isles, but foster care and adoption took time in the Human Realm. She couldn’t just announce she was adopting and turn up with Vee the next day, no questions asked.
So, for now, Camila told them there’d been an accident involving the kids’ families; she was an emergency placement for them while their parents recovered. She played up the idea that they really could be gone any day now…Except for Vee and Hunter.
When she told her friends and colleagues that Vee and Hunter’s parents were gone it wasn’t really a lie. When she told them she intended to fight to keep those kids in her care, that was the honest-to-God truth.
So, when Molly returned from maternity leave and smiled brightly at Hunter, Luz and Vee, Camila had her answer ready to go.
“Who’s this?” Molly asked, hanging her coat by the door.
“My kids,” Camila said proudly.
(If she’d turned around, she would have seen Vee beaming like the sun, tears in her eyes. She would have seen Hunter duck his head to hide his watering eyes. She would have seen Luz smile and pull them both towards her, safely tucking them against her sides.)
Some days were better than others. Camila was once more internally steaming over the mere thought of Belos. Hunter had dropped a plate and promptly had a panic attack, apologising frantically the way he hadn’t done in months now and it broke Camila’s heart.
Damn Belos, damn him, what kind of so-called emperor beat children?
And, just like that, Camila was hit with a new thought.
“Luz,” she said. “Is Hunter a prince?”
“...Eh?” Luz’s jaw dropped. “What? What makes you think that?”
“Well, Belos was the emperor and he was his uncle, wasn’t he?” she asked.
Luz gaped at her. “Oh,” she said. “Oh my God.” She suddenly giggled, her eyes sparkling. “Oh my God!” She sprinted downstairs. “Hunter! Hunter!”
Camila followed her. The kids were setting up for movie night and Hunter nearly dropped his armful of pillows as Luz leaped at him.
“What?” he asked frantically. “What’s wrong?”
“Dude, are you a prince!?” Luz demanded.
Silence reigned. All the kids suddenly looked very interested. Willow was looking a little pink again.
“Oh no,” Amity said.
“Don’t,” Hunter said, pointing at Luz. “Don’t even go there.”
“You are, aren’t you!?”
“No one’s called me that since I started scout training, don’t you start!”
“You are!” Luz burst out laughing. “Holy crap! Bad but sad prince!”
“Don’t call me that!”
“Should I curtsey, Your Highness?” Luz cackled. Hunter threw the pillows on the couch, blushing furiously.
“I’m not- I don’t- look, I don’t know!” Hunter was gesturing wildly as he spoke. “It was always Golden Guard or sir, okay? Like I just said, no one used-” His nose wrinkled. “-Your Highness since I started training. I don’t know if it even really counts.”
“Well…Was it ever, like…Announced that you weren’t a prince anymore?” Gus asked.
After a moment’s consideration, Hunter shook his head.
“Good luck,” Amity said to Hunter. “Luz will never let this go.”
“Did you have nannies? You had servants, right? And tutors? Oh my gosh, did you ever have a crown!?” Luz’s voice was getting high and squeaky with excitement. “Aw, baby Hunter in a crown,” she added, cooing. Hunter threw a pillow at her head.
“Hunter, Hunter.” Vee suddenly grabbed his face, pulling him down to her level. “Be real with me.” (Oh, she certainly picked that up from Luz.) “Did you ever have to, like, walk with books on your head?”
Hunter closed his eyes, sighing. It was all the answer his friends needed. Luz whooped with glee, arms thrown up in the air. Willow was blushing obviously now, looking a little dazed. Gus ran around the room, grabbing every book in sight and insisting that Hunter show them.
“No,” Hunter said.
“I’m a little curious myself,” Camila admitted and Hunter shot her a look of utmost betrayal. It was a massive improvement over the hyperventilating and apologies of that morning.
“What is this, Pick On Hunter Day?” Hunter grouched.
“Nah, that’s Thursdays,” Luz quipped. She blew him a kiss as he glared at her. Gus thrust the armful of books at him (among them, The Good Witch Azura) chanting, “Show us, show us, show us!”
Willow joined in the chant, linking her arm with Gus’s. Vee shifted into her human form to march up and down, loudly adding her voice to the chant. Luz clapped in time with her friends’ and sister’s voices, and Amity smirked at Hunter, hands on her hips. Even the palismen were all watching.
Hunter sighed, sounding so world-weary that he could have passed for sixty, not sixteen. All the same, he obliged.
It was like watching Vee shift, like there was a whole new person standing before her. Gone was the shy, often giddy and awkward boy she knew. He wasn’t even the stoic, tense child soldier she’d first met. Once he placed the books on his head, a third persona was revealed; he walked the length of the room with impeccable posture, oddly graceful, striding like he owned the house. His chin was tilted up, his shoulders back; he lightly clasped his hands before him and his expression was imperious.
Hunter did two circuits of the room before he suddenly sighed and took the books of his head, setting them on the coffee table with an exaggerated groan of disgust.
“Ugh, I hate that,” he said, scowling. “Never make me do that again. I could hear Modesty’s voice nagging me the whole time.”
“Who?” Willow demanded.
“She was…” Hunter shrugged. “A bit of everything, really. She was head of my staff and she was obsessed with etiquette.” He straightened up, pointing his finger up and said, in a terribly snooty voice, “Princes don’t slouch, Your Highness. No, no, no running, it’s unseemly.”
“She sounds like a ray of sunshine,” Luz said flatly.
“She’d get along with Odalia,” Amity added, rolling her eyes.
Camila found she didn’t like this any better than the kneeling and formality she’d seen when Hunter first arrived.
“You know what, mijo?” She flung her arm around his shoulders. “I don’t like it either. I prefer it when you’re just you.”
His eyes shone when he smiled at her and Camila pulled him into a proper hug.
(Later, much later, months and months later, Camila would meet this Modesty woman. She’d meet her on the way to the Owl House, when Modesty called Hunter’s name in the crowd.
Camila watched her son turn tense and quiet, that strange poise coming over him like a cloak.
Modesty kept calling him ‘Your Highness,’ seemingly not noticing when he winced, or hearing him when Hunter reminded her he was not a prince at all.
“You were the rightful heir to the throne, child,” Modesty said firmly. She looked him up and down. “Sweet Titan below, what are you wearing?”
It was a shirt Hunter had sewn himself and a denim jacket he’d added patches and badges to. He’d put so much time and work into it, sewing a pair of wings like Flapjack’s right over his heart.
Vee drew herself up, glaring at the woman. Luz grabbed Hunter’s hand, stepping forward, Stringbean already hissing angrily.
Camila stepped between them all.
“I’ll thank you not to speak to my son like that,” she said coldly. “Come on, kids.”
She led her children away, ignoring when Modesty called after them. After all, Camila certainly didn’t know anyone called Your Highness. She only knew Hunter.
“You look lovely, mijo,” she said to him softly.
His hand rested over the red wings. His eyes, brown now, not magenta, looked tired. Whatever memories that woman had dragged up clearly had him worn out and dazed already, but his smile was sincere as he thanked her.)
“I've got stitches and scars, I've got yards of yarn, got miles of string running under my skin. I've got so much to give, so I'll give it again and again and again…I'll take this red ribbon, stitch my heart together and I know I'll be fine. Remember all of the pain, was it all too much? Remember falling apart every time we touch. Remember going insane, but I'll never give up. A heart that's been broken is a heart that's been loved.” - Red Ribbon, Madilyn Bailey
Halloween. Oh God, Halloween. Camila had hurried to the festival, expecting to talk Luz out of making a horrible decision. She never expected to arrive and find that Luz and Hunter were missing.
Even then, as she helped search for them, she didn’t expect the worst. She expected that they’d gotten lost, turned around in the fog. Perhaps Luz was confiding in Hunter about her decision to stay in the Human Realm; perhaps he was trying to talk her out of it, just like Camila was intending to. Perhaps the crowd had gotten overwhelming and Luz had led Hunter away to find a quiet spot to calm down…
When she found them in the graveyard, it still took a moment for reality to sink in. She looked at Hunter, at the strange green and blank markings covering him; the antlers, the clawed hand and the streaks across his face. She looked at his hair (why was it long, how was it so long?) and his glowing blue eyes and it still didn’t sink in, not really.
Not until she heard that voice. The voice of a monster, mingling with the voice of her child, until Hunter’s voice was lost and only the monster’s remained.
“I thought this one was another lost cost. Thanks to you, we can finish our work as witch hunters…STARTING WITH THEM!”
The kids, fighting to stop Belos, fighting to save Hunter. Stuck in the impossible position of fighting a monster while trying to keep Hunter unharmed.
“I know you can hear me, Hunter! Fight him off!”
And Camila could only stare in horror at this monster puppeteering her child. She’d always imagined a monster, certainly, but a monster that still mostly resembled a man. A vampire knock-off, a demon. Not a true monster, a melting, horrific mess of green and black sludge, dozens of glowing eyeballs, yellow teeth and too many bones and joints. Belos was beyond her worst nightmares and he’d beaten death again, back to hurt her children.
This was the man who brought Vee to life for the sole purpose of locking her in a cage and experimenting on her. This was the man who tried to murder Eda, Luz’s beloved mentor, all for the crime of not blindly worshipping him. This man tried to commit genocide and nearly succeeded. He’d hunted Luz down again and again, insisting he was in the right, insisting he was doing this in the name of God. “Can’t reason with crazy,” he’d told Luz, right before trying to kill her.
This was the man who abused Hunter all his life, who demanded blind obedience and perfection. This man, this demon, had bashed Hunter’s head against the wall until he was unconscious. This man had beaten Hunter’s hands with a switch. This man had scarred her child’s face for talking out of turn.
This man had tried to turn her new-found son into a living weapon and had always intended to kill him with that Draining Spell anyway.
Camila had fantasised for months about what she’d do if she ever faced Belos but, when the moment finally came, she was helpless.
And then Hunter took back control.
“You know what I’d like, Belos? I’d like to leave the Emperor’s Coven and never step foot in that throne room again.”
He took forced, staggering steps towards the lake’s edge, tears in his eyes, fighting for every ounce of control over his own body.
Camila’s blood ran cold.
“I’d like to study wild magic and learn how to carve palismen. I’d like to attend Hexside as a regular student and play flyer-derby with my friends.”
She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry. Everything Hunter was saying was so…So…
So heartbreakingly normal. He wasn’t asking for much at all.
He just wanted to be a kid.
Camila wanted him to just be a kid. She wanted to give that to him. She’d tried to, all these months.
“But most of all…I’d like to make sure you never hurt anyone again!”
She knew what he was doing. God help her, she knew; even before he threw that vial of Titan’s blood into the water, Camila knew what Hunter was doing.
It was a self-sacrifice if she’d ever seen one.
And it worked. Belos took back control and jumped into the lake…And Hunter didn’t re-emerge. Nor did Belos. The water was dark, filthy and painfully still.
“Hunter!” Willow gasped. Luz ran forward, but Camila was faster; she sprinted past the kids and dived into the freezing water, searching for her son.
Her son. Hers. He didn’t belong to Belos, he didn’t belong to anyone, but that was her child and she was going to save him.
She grabbed him and swam to the surface, holding him tight in her arms. His neck was limp, his head flopped back on her shoulder. There were still antlers on his head, misshapen and unnatural. That awful sludge still coated his skin, Belos was still in there, and Camila had no idea how to get him out.
She didn’t have to figure it out. Belos left of his own free will.
Hunter let out an awful, anguished noise as Belos left his body; he convulsed in Willow’s arms, screaming, wailing and choking, jerking around like a puppet on too-small strings.
Belos reformed before them and Camila could have thrown up. He was like something out of her worst nightmares, towering over them all, his glowing eyes filled with raw hatred.
“Caleb,” he snarled, spitting the name like it was a curse. “You would stab me in the back?”
He was glaring at Hunter. Luz stood between Belos and Hunter protectively, arms spread wide, trying to shield Hunter from view.
“You did it to him first,” she snapped. Camila couldn’t wrap her mind around it. Caleb? Who was Caleb?
Philip Wittebane…and Caleb Wittebane? But why would Belos (Philip? What should she call him anyway?) think Hunter had anything to do with Caleb? Caleb Wittebane was dead, dead for centuries like Belos should have been, before he found ways to cheat death and hold it off.
She was still reeling as Belos activated the portal and disappeared, back to cause mayhem for the Demon Realm.
“That’s the Belos you’ve been fighting all this time?” Camila demanded. She felt light-headed. These children had been fighting that? That…That thing was Hunter’s uncle?
“Guys!” Willow sobbed. “Hunter’s not breathing!”
Camila stopped breathing too.
“Vee, call an ambulance!” she demanded, checking Hunter’s pulse. Nothing. She couldn’t feel anything. No pulse, just ice-cold skin, soaked and covered in new raw wounds. It would scar, it was obvious it would.
“Hunter? Hunter, baby, can you hear me?” Only, of course he couldn’t.
“Do human doctors know about possession?” Willow asked desperately, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Possession,” Camila repeated in a desperate, terrified gasp. Possession! A true Halloween nightmare.
Unbidden, thoughts of all the horror movies and books she’d devoured as a teenager, flooded her mind. In each and every one, possession never ended well.
Someone always ended up dead.
“Can they even help with Grimwalkers?” Luz asked frantically and she immediately looked horrified with herself. Camila had no idea what a Grimwalker was. Some sort of witch, obviously. Did Hunter have demon blood? Was it rare? It must have been, because Willow was clearly stunned and Amity looked sharply between Hunter and Luz. Even Vee gasped. Out of all the kids, only Gus didn’t look shocked; he just looked frightened and exhausted.
“What do we do?” Amity asked as Vee failed to get reception.
Camila had no idea what to do.
She thought of Manny, dying while holding her hand, and she wanted to scream. Her grip on Hunter’s hand tightened as she fought back a sob. She couldn’t break down. The kids were depending on her. Hunter was depending on her.
He was so still. So cold.
He looked so painfully small.
Please, Camila thought. Please, God, if you’re up there, if you’re listening, save him. Give him back. Manny, if you can hear me, please help me now. Help him. Bring him back.
Weakly, Flapjack flew forward. He was bleeding terribly, his single eye was glazed. His glowing green blood left a trail as he landed on Hunter’s chest. With a sad little cheep, he nudged Hunter’s cheek and jaw the way he always did.
“He’s gonna be okay,” Gus told Flapjack, his voice cracking. “You’re both gonna be okay.”
Flapjack didn’t respond; no little tweets and chirps, he didn’t even shake his head. He just curled up and closed his eye…
And he began to disappear in little sparkles of golden light. His green blood soaked into Hunter, the golden lights gently soared upwards in a spiral and, just like that, Flapjack was gone forever.
There was another gentle golden glow; Hunter’s new wounds flashed gold, turning into new scars. His pulse suddenly flickered against Camila’s fingers and she scooted closer to him, hardly daring to breathe. She didn’t even dare blink until she saw Hunter’s chest begin to rise and fall. She couldn’t breathe freely until he opened his eyes.
His eyes were golden-brown. Just like Luz’s. Like Camila’s own eyes.
“Hey guys,” he said weakly. “Is everyone else okay?”
How in the world were they supposed to tell him?
“Actually…” Gus wiped his eyes. “Flapjack…”
“Don’t.” Hunter cut him off, closing his eyes, but the tears escaped anyway. He clutched his shirt where Flapjack had lain. “Don’t. I already know.”
Camila wasn’t sure what she’d expected from the Demon Realm, truth be told. It all sounded so fantastical and strange that she’d had a hard time imagining it. Red trees, three-eyed people, people with rainbow skin and dog classmates? Okay, it was strange, but she could imagine it.
But the rest? The literal carcass that made up the Isles? The fact that the pretty floating palace and sparkles were apparently the genuine dangers around here? That was just too bizarre.
But Camila had more important things to worry about. They went to the infamous Owl House, only to find it abandoned. For Luz’s sake, Camila had been hoping to find Eda and King hiding here, perhaps with the rest of their friends and families. She wanted, so badly, to meet Eda and King. To thank them for looking after Luz. She would have liked to meet Willow’s dads, Gus’s dad, and Amity’s siblings and dad.
No such luck. It was silent as the grave.
Camila didn’t want to think of graves.
She watched Hunter pace. He was shivering, there were tears in his eyes, but his face was a mask of anger; his now golden-brown eyes were steel.
There was the soldier. There was the Golden Guard.
“Hunter, baby,” Camila called and Hunter paused, staring at her. He looked seconds away from shattering.
“Come here,” Camila said, holding her arms out to him.
“I’m fine,” Hunter snapped.
“It’ll make me feel better,” Camila said gently. Back to square one; going gently, cautiously, trying not to scare him away. One false move and he’d disappear, flying away like a bird. One wrong step and he’d snarl and snap like a wolf.
Besides, it wasn’t even a lie. Luz was with Amity, Vee was back home and Camila needed to hold at least one of her children before she broke apart and God help her, she needed to hold onto Hunter.
He’d stopped breathing.
He stared at her, so tense, so quiet. Slowly, stiffly, he stepped towards her and Camila pulled him into her arms, holding on tight.
“I was so scared,” she admitted. “I thought I lost you.”
He was still and tense in her arms. All at once, he sagged against her, holding onto her as tightly as she held him. He was trembling but he didn’t cry. He was close to breaking apart, but he didn’t.
She wanted to tell him it was okay to cry. She wanted to urge him, as she had so many times before, to let it out.
This time, she stayed quiet, running her hand through his hair and feeling his heartbeat.
Later…
Later.
The Collector stood awkwardly next to Luz and King, looking at the ground with tears in his eyes. A scared little kid, who plainly didn’t know where to go or what to do.
And Belos…
He was falling apart before their eyes. Gasping for breath and making pained noises as he clawed his way across the ground. His bottom half was entirely gone, just a puddle of sludge. More and more skin fell from his bones as he crawled, his eyes growing duller with every second.
He reached out a trembling hand and it fell off at the wrist, clattering to the ground in a splash of slime and bone.
Camila felt sick.
“C...Ca…Caleb…” Belos wheezed desperately, reaching for Hunter.
Hunter stood before him, arms tightly crossed, hugging himself. His face could have been carved from stone.
Luz had Eda, but Hunter had no one else. Camila trusted Eda to keep Luz safe as she marched forward and pulled Hunter into her arms.
“You don’t have to look, mijo,” she said quietly.
“Yes I do,” Hunter said and Camila understood why. He had to see it. He had to see that Belos wasn’t coming back this time.
Belos looked at Hunter, at Camila, and his gaze wandered somewhere beyond them. His eyes stopped glowing; his jaw moved wordlessly as he stared at thin air, mouthing his brother’s name.
It happened in the space between one heartbeat and the next. Belos was breathing and then he wasn’t. He collapsed entirely, nothing more than gore, only the faintest idea of a person. Just a pile of sludge, bone and eyeballs; still a nightmare but no longer a threat.
Camila kept holding onto Hunter. His breathing hitched and he began to cry, falling apart in her arms.
Finally letting himself break down, but safe. By God, Camila would keep him safe.
“It’s okay, baby,” she said, rocking back and forth as he clung to her. “I’m here, I’m right here. I love you, you’re safe, he can’t hurt you now.”
Luz came running, King in her arms and Stringbean on her shoulder. She flung herself at them, frantically repeating, “It’s over, it’s over, it’s over.”
Then there was Amity, hand in hand with Willow and Gus. Willow hugged Hunter from behind, her face pressed against his shoulder. Gus was sobbing, Amity was gasping for breath, half laughing and half crying. Eda marched forward, her remaining arm around Raine, her sister Lilith at her heels.
The Collector stood back, wringing his little hands.
Smiling gently, Camila held her hand out to him.
“It’s okay,” King said, holding his hand out as well.
The Collector looked between them and the remains of Belos. His lip wobbled and he suddenly sobbed and ran forward, joining the ever-growing group hug.
Camila sat on a pile of rubble, her arm around Hunter. She watched family and friends reunite. Alador Blight could be heard urgently demanding to know what had happened to Edric.
“He fell down an empty well,” Emira explained with a wince.
“Not empty,” Edric said cheerfully. “There were rocks at the bottom!”
Alador blinked at the twins. He let out a wet, shaking laugh, tears in his eyes. “Of course there were,” he said. Amity was holding his arm, giggling and shaking her head at her siblings.
Willow was sobbing in her fathers’ arms. Camila couldn’t understand a word they were saying; they were all crying and talking too quickly for her to make sense of more than a handful of words.
Gus was on another pile of rubble with his father, curled up small in his arms, practically on his lap.
Eda was hugging Luz, rocking her back and forth. They were both swapping stories, laughing and crying in equal measure. But one thing Eda said again and again stuck out; “I’m so proud of you.”
Hunter leaned against Camila, barely managing to keep his eyes open. She wondered where they’d all go, where they’d all rest tonight. Or was it morning now? Surely it was long past midnight by now.
“Hunter?” a new voice asked, disbelieving and hopeful.
Camila looked up to find a man staring at them; a tall man, broad-shouldered, with odd purple hair and bright green eyes. Stylishly dressed with a little wolf-like beast on his shoulders.
Ah, Camila realised. Darius Deamonne and Eberwolf.
Sure enough, Hunter confirmed it with his quiet answer of, “Hi, Darius. Hi, Eber.”
Eberwolf let out a joyful howl, leaping from Darius’s shoulder to run to Hunter, scrambling onto the boy’s lap, yapping and growling all the while. He pawed at the wolves on Hunter’s shirt and tugged on his stubborn cowlick.
Hunter bent over to hug him, his shoulders shaking. Camila wasn’t sure if he was trying not to laugh or trying not to cry.
Darius didn’t say a word. He just strode forward and pulled Hunter into his arms with desperate strength. As Camila was still holding onto him, it was getting a bit squashed.
She couldn’t say she minded much. She was glad to finally meet them.
“Look at you,” Darius said gently, brushing Hunter’s hair out of his eyes. He grinned. “Your stitches have improved.”
Hunter looked at Camila and smiled.
“Yeah, well…I had a really good teacher.”
Camila held her hand out to Darius.
“Camila Noceda,” she introduced herself. “I’m Luz’s mother.” And Vee’s and Hunter’s.
Darius shook her hand.
“Thank you,” he said. “For taking care of him.”
Camila looked at Hunter as she answered; “Always.”
There were people offering to take Hunter in, of course. Eda and Raine offered. Darius offered. Eberwolf offered. Even Hooty loudly and tearfully offered, doubling down when Eda pointed out that if Hunter lived with her he’d be living with Hooty anyway.
But Hunter looked at Camila and said, “I want to go home.”
“Then that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” Camila promised him, squeezing his hand. “We’re going to go home.”
Once upon a time, Camila had dreamed of having a big family. For a long time, it felt like fate had other ideas, snatching Manny away from her. She should have known better; families came in all different shapes and sizes. She saw that every day.
A human daughter, a basilisk daughter and a Grimwalker son. An entire group of magical friends of her own. (“Welcome to the Hagsquad,” Eda laughed and Lilith groaned.) It wasn’t the most conventional of families but it was filled with love, so much love, as Camila always dreamed.
Camila sat at home, watching Cosmic Frontier with her children. Vee had her head on her lap, draped across Luz’s legs. Luz and Hunter leaned against her, each with their heads on her shoulders.
Tomorrow, she’d walk Luz and Hunter to the portal and wave them off as they raced each other through the portal, back to the Demon Realm, running to meet up with their friends and head to school. Tomorrow, she'd smile as she remembered filling out the forms for Hexside and writing Hunter Noceda and Luz Noceda. Tomorrow, Vee would accompany her to the clinic and she’d proudly announce that Vee was staying with her permanently; the youngest of three.
(“Three?” Molly asked with a confused pout. She brightened and asked, “Oh, did you take in the boy too?”
“Hunter,” Camila said, unable to keep the smile off her face. “My son.”)
But that was tomorrow. For now, Camila finally breathed easy, her three children safely in her arms.
“Like daylight. It's golden like daylight. You gotta step into the daylight and let it go. Just let it go…Let it go…I wanna be defined by the things that I love. Not the things I hate, not the things that I'm afraid of. (I'm afraid of.) Not the things that…haunt me in the middle of the night. I…I just think that…You are what you love.” - Daylight, Taylor Swift