5. Huntyr
Chapter 5
Huntyr
“ G oddess above.” I was out of my seat before I could stop myself, the tall wooden stool almost tipping over as I ran to her.
Voiler.
“I thought you were dead!” I called out. I pulled her to me, crushing her small body to my chest. She hugged me back just as fiercely, laughing and half-crying in relief.
“I thought you were dead too! What are you doing here? How are you here? I mean, I thought I was the only one who survived!”
I pulled back to look at my friend. She somehow looked even better than she did in Moira, like Moira had been draining the life from her, and now, she was finally free. Her black hair was no longer in braids, hanging past her shoulders in loose waves.
“I’m here with him.” I turned and pointed at Wolf, who still sat lazily on his barstool. Voiler’s attention turned to him, but I didn’t miss the way her gaze wandered over his shoulders.
“His wings, they’re?—”
“It’s a long story,” I said. “Tell me about you. How are you here? How did you survive?”
“I thought I died,” she started, lowering her voice. “I was supposed to be dead, anyway. After the Transcendent, I shouldn’t be here, but I woke up inside The Golden City. Of course, I was confused as all hells when I first woke up. It’s nothing like they told us.”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “It’s awful.”
“I stumbled through some buildings, fighting off as many hungry ones as I could, until I found them.” She turned and looked at a small group of people who funneled toward a table by the door. Some possessed angel wings, some didn’t. Their pointed ears told me they were fae, too. “They brought me in, protected me. I’ve been living with them since.
“I saw Ashlani die. And Lanson. Though I guess everything we saw there was a test. It’s hard to believe anything that actually happened. I died too. I mean, died .” That last word was barely audible, like I still couldn’t truly believe it myself.
She reached out and pulled me back into her arms, giving me another quick hug. “You’re here now,” she whispered into my ear. “For whatever reason, you made it. You survived. That’s all that matters.”
“Why us, though? Why did we survive when everyone else died?”
She shrugged. “I guess Era’s not done with us yet. But at least the others have peace in death. They didn’t have to wake up in this mess.”
“Look, Voiler.” I stepped even closer to her and lowered my voice, ensuring nobody else could hear us. “I need to talk to you. There’s obviously something horrible happening here. I’m trying to figure it all out, but I could really use a friend here, someone I can actually trust.”
“Of course,” she smiled. “Anything you need, I’m here. Wolf isn’t friendly enough for you, I take it?” Her eyes flickered behind me.
I looked back over my shoulder to where Wolf still glared at us, pulling his mug of ale to his lips.
“Has he ever been friendly?” I joked. Now was not the time or place to tell Voiler about everything. I still wasn’t sure who I could trust. Half the people in this tavern could be funneling information directly back to Asmodeus. Wolf’s friend seemed nice enough, but I had no idea where his loyalties lied.
“Not everything is as it seems here.” She slid her hand into mine and interlocked our fingers. It was a strange show of affection I had never seen from her. She was much more closed off in Moira, very reserved. I was even more surprised when she tugged me forward and wrapped both arms around me, hugging me tightly and nuzzling her face into my black hair.
“I know what they’re doing to you,” she whispered. I kept my face blank, wrapping my arms around her and showing just as much affection for my old friend. “You aren’t alone, Huntyr. You have allies here, and we’re not going to let him use you. Just hang on.”
I said nothing, just stood and hugged her for a few more seconds before she pulled away slowly.
“It was nice to see you again.” She put a polite smile on her face. “Stay safe, Huntyr.”
I gave her one more squeeze before she turned away, smiling just as casually. “You too.”
My eyes didn’t leave her body as she made her way back to her friends. I’m not alone here. Who were these people she found? Clearly, she made her way into a very different group of friends. Did she really know I was the blood queen? Did she know Asmodeus’s plans to take over Scarlata? She drank her ale, laughing and bumping shoulders with one of the males at the table.
In the months we spent together at Moira, I never saw her like this. So relaxed. So natural.
“You’re staring,” Wolf said from behind me.
“Fuck off.” I snapped out of my gaze and returned to my table, taking Wolf in for the first time since I’d seen Voiler. “Did you know she was here? Did you know she survived?”
He shrugged. “I suspected. There was no way to know for sure. I’ve been a bit preoccupied here.”
“I can’t believe this. Voiler survived! I mean, who else survived and is wandering around here in The Golden City?”
Wolf glanced over his shoulder at the people Voiler befriended. He let his eyes linger before answering, “There’s no telling, but I can guarantee that surviving the Transcendent was the least of their problems. These streets are crawling with vampyres, Huntyr. Hungry ones, too. Voiler’s lucky she found them.”
“How is that possible? Nobody can enter The Golden City without going through Moira, yet hungry ones are here?”
His chin dipped. “He lets them in.”
I repeated those words in my mind, ensuring I heard him correctly. “He lets the hungry ones into The Golden City? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“My father doesn’t care if the people living here are safe or not. In his mind, you’ll survive if you’re strong enough. This is a power move for him. Keep the people weak, and nobody will challenge his rule. He thrives on chaos, not to mention his deep infatuation with the vampyres.”
My mind spun. The entire point of The Golden City was to keep vampyres out. It was supposed to be a safe space, a luxurious place for the elites to live in comfort.
But this? This was no better than living in Midgrave. It was worse, actually. At least in Midgrave, I had the illusion of freedom.
“Hells,” I muttered. “I can’t tell if he hates vampyres or loves them.”
“He loves the destruction they bring. He loves that Scarlata was once the most powerful kingdom in existence. He loves that if he could control them, if he could use the hungry ones to spread even more chaos; he could take over the entire world.”
The entire fucking world . I pulled my mug to my lips and swallowed a mouthful of the golden liquid. How did things get so messed up? How did we get here? Wolf sat in silence beside me. I wanted nothing more than to wring him out for being a part of this, for allowing such a sacred place to crumble entirely.
But a heaviness radiated from him now as we both sat here, reveling in the truth. It felt almost impossible to bring light back here. So much evilness, so much hatred, lingered here, all brought on by his father. The same father who forced him to turn to a vampyre, who cut his wings from his body.
I was talking too much. I knew I was. It had to be the ale softening me, making me forget the heinous things he, too, was guilty of.
I still hated him. I sent him another glare to prove that point. But I couldn’t deny the fact that he was comfortable here. He was some piece of my old life I couldn’t entirely get rid of.
“Your thoughts are loud,” he said. “And so are your emotions.”
I looked at him again, only to find him staring at me with a fierceness that made my stomach drop.
“This damn bond is annoying. If I knew you were going to feel my emotions forever, I would have thought twice about?—”
“About what? About saving your own life during the Transcendent? We would have died out there, Huntyr. We did what we had to do to survive.”
“Don’t act like being bonded to me isn’t working out in your favor, Wolf.” I drank again, starting to feel the effects of the bubbling liquid. “I heard what your father said about me. Do you really intend on using my power against me? On taking it all for yourself? The second he learns I do actually have power, he’ll use you to drain me entirely.”
“You know I would never do that.” He dropped his head, eyes growing serious. “My father wants a lot of things, Huntyr. I don’t intend on giving him what he wants.”
“But you have so far, haven’t you? You delivered me here, directly to him. What did that cost you? Your wings? Me—whatever I am to you? How much more will you let him take?”
His knuckles tightened around his mug. “He has already taken too much. You have no fucking idea.”
Minutes passed without us talking. I looked around the room, surveying Wolf’s friends as they drank and laughed and told stories. They all looked so trustworthy. So welcoming. Voiler’s friends, too. It made me question what I knew about Wolf. If these people trusted him….
No. I couldn’t trust him again, not without more information, without him proving he really had my best interests in mind.
I shifted in my seat so we were no longer so close to brushing arms. I didn’t want to feel drawn to him, to feel safe with him. I didn’t want to lean on him for support here. He wanted me to trust him again, but I couldn’t tell what side he was really on. Why drag me all the way here, only to defy his father at the last second? Why hold me as a prisoner, but keep my magic a secret?
When I looked at him again, he was already staring at me. “Dance with me.”
I nearly spit out my drink. “Excuse me?”
Music flowed into the room from somewhere outside. It was playing for a few minutes, I realized, but now, some of the other patrons were dancing, swaying, relaxing to the music.
Music . My chest bubbled. Music seemed so normal, and in this foreign, wretched place? I welcomed anything normal.
“Just one dance, Huntress. Have at least a bit of fun with me tonight. It will make going back to the castle slightly more manageable. I owe it to you.” He stood from his seat and walked around the table to take both of my hands.
“Absolutely not. I don’t want to dance with you,” I argued. “Just because we are talking here does not mean I’ve moved past my deep, undying hatred for you.” But with him standing so close, I could smell the soft notes of pine that wafted from his skin. I could make out the fresh scent of soap from his clean linen shirt.
“Enough lies, princess,” he whispered, close enough that his breath tickled my ear. “Pretend like none of this shit exists between us, only for a minute, and dance with me. Either that, or we’ll go back to my room, and you can say goodbye to this small excursion. Who knows when you’ll be let out of that castle again? It could be weeks. Months.” He clicked his tongue for dramatic effect.
“You’re an asshole.” I shoved his hands away.
But he was not so easily swayed. “Perhaps I am an asshole, but the moon is high, and the music is contagious. One dance, and then we’ll go.”
I shouldn’t have. I knew that this was a bad idea, that I would be giving him too much, but I wanted so badly to stop fighting, to stop feeling so much hatred and betrayal and pain. I wanted to forget about everything he’d done; trust me, I did. The bitterness in my chest was starting to swallow me whole, starting to make me forget I could feel anything other than darkness.
One dance.
And then it would be over, and I could go back to threatening death for even looking in my direction. Before I could think for another second, I slid my hand into his and let him pull me to my feet.
He said nothing, but I felt his satisfaction flicker through our bond. He guided me a few feet away, tugging me closer with a hand on my hip.
I let him lead me, let him pull my hands up to his shoulders and start to move my body.
His breath hit my cheek as he whispered, “This reminds me of Moira, when I had to watch you dance with Lanson while I attempted not to kill him.”
The memory washed over me, and I tried my best not to shiver. “You should have. It would’ve saved both of us some pain.”
He shook his head, his muscles flexing beneath my palms. “No, because the night he hurt you was the night you finally started looking at me as your ally.”
Right. “Also not a great decision on my end.”
“Come on, Huntress. You trusted me. We were good together.”
We were good together. That was the part that sucked the most. Our training, our fighting, it was almost as if he became an extension of me. He knew my next move before I did, and he executed it ten times better than I could. He was so similar to me, yet so different in the ways that counted. At least, that’s what he made me believe. I was still trying to piece together what was real and what wasn’t. What parts did he make up, simply to trick me into falling for him?
“Don’t remind me,” I sighed. I lifted my chin and stared into his bright blue eyes. “Look where that got us.”
“You have to start trusting me again, Huntress.” His hands on my waist practically burned. They radiated heat through my entire body, making me painfully aware of every inch of our chests touching. “I know you don’t want to, but I am trying to help you. Feel it through our bond. Feel that all I want to do is protect you.”
I sucked in a sharp breath at the emotion he sent flooding toward me. It was warm, predatory, sharp, like he would truly end anyone who dared hurt me. I threw up my shields, blocking out that emotion before I could let myself be tricked again. “It doesn’t matter what you feel, Wolf. It matters what you do .”
Both of us had been drinking. Neither of us were taking logic into account here, not when we were this close, our bodies swaying to the music together.
“Then tell me what to do,” he whispered. He leaned down, brushing his lips across my ear and making me shiver. “Tell me what to do to make you trust me again.”
“There isn’t?—”
“Don’t say that, Huntress. Don’t tell me there’s nothing.”
“I don’t know, Wolf, okay? I spent my entire life being taught to trust no one. You knew that. Lord made sure I would be protected from everyone and everything, and then you showed up, and you—you?—”
“I what?”
“You know damn well what you did.” My voice cracked, and I tightened my grip on his shoulders as he did the same to my waist. “You made me care for you in a way I had never cared for anyone, and it nearly got me killed .”
“I swear to you, Huntress, I’m getting us out of this.”
My chest heaved, and I let him pull me even closer. “How? Your father will kill me if I don’t do what he wants.”
His eyes searched mine. Desperate. Needy. “I need time. But I swear to you on my own life, I’ll figure it out.”
I stared at Wolf, the damned ale making me forget all the reasons I was supposed to hate him. He made it easy with his dark hair and his electric eyes. He made it so fucking easy to forget the pain, the agony, the betrayal.
But there was a wall up now, constantly protecting my heart, a shield I was certain I would never lower again.
I owed myself at least that much.
“I want to go home,” I whispered.
His hand slid up my waist to the side of my face, caressing me lightly. “I know you do.”
My throat tightened. Tears I thought I buried deep, deep down began to surface. I was so fucking tired. Tired of being strong. Tired of being betrayed. Tired of hurting .
I leaned forward and rested my head on Wolf’s chest as he continued to sway us to the smooth music. He wrapped his arms around me, holding me to him.
To be honest, I would have stayed there all night. Days, even. Because as much as I fucking hated it, I still found the smallest sliver of safety in those arms.
Someone shouted outside. Wolf tensed and stopped dancing as I lifted my face from his chest and turned to the door. “What is?—”
“ You !” Jessiah stormed into the pub. “I’ve been looking for you two everywhere! What do you think you’re doing? He’ll kill you if he finds out you took her here!”
Everyone in the pub stopped, staring at us now. Even Voiler watched us with wide eyes.
“It’s not a big deal, Jessiah,” Wolf sighed. He turned to his brother but slid his hand into mine and held tightly. “Nobody here will say a thing. We’re safe here.”
“And what about her?” He didn’t even look at me as he said the words. “You thought bringing her here would be a good idea?”
I looked to my feet, not daring to meet his gaze. Wolf lowered his voice, though, dragging me with him as he stopped two feet from his brother. “Watch what you say here, brother.”
“Right,” he said. “You have no problem taking the blood queen out in public, but as long as nobody knows who she really is, she’s safe, right? Tell me, brother, what if they did know? It’s not hard to piece together why he is so obsessed with her. She’s his coveted weapon. Everyone here is a danger to her.”
They spoke in hushed tones, but it was too much, too exposing.
“Let’s just go,” I sighed. “You’re causing a scene. We were about to leave anyway.”
The brothers looked at me. Hells, they both had that same concerned look in their eyes. I knew why Wolf cared so much, but Jessiah?
I wasn’t entirely sure I could trust him yet. He may love Wolf, but so far, he was loyal to his father.
“Come on,” Jessiah said, turning around. “You’re lucky I’m the one who found you here. One of Father’s men would have her locked back up in that dungeon without a second thought.”
Yeah, lucky. I glanced at Wolf, but he didn’t meet my gaze as he pulled me out of the pub and onto the dark, vacant streets.