Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

He knows.

Oh Titan, he knows .

Emperor…Uncle…Belos…Philip?! Hunter doesn’t even know what to call him at this point. It doesn’t matter. What matters is he knows that Hunter and Luz were in there. He tried to kill both of them. And now he was undoubtedly going to come after them both, especially Hunter.

The thought alone is enough to make Hunter’s breath restrict even more as he continues running as fast as he can through the woods. His lungs were on fire - did he even have lungs?! - and his legs ached terribly, but he couldn’t stop now. He had long left behind the human and Owl Lady’s cries for him to come back. Even if he wanted to turn back, he couldn’t.

What the hell does he do now?

Eventually, his stupid piece of shit body gives out and he stumbles over a rock, colliding into the ground and tumbling down a small hill. When Hunter lands, he finds he isn’t able to even sit back up he hurts so badly, so he curls into a ball, fisting and pulling his hair, listening to his short nervous wheezing. As the minutes, hell maybe even hours, ticked by, Hunter realized that he couldn’t even hear Flapjack’s frantic chirping anymore. Maybe his sweet palisman had given up on him, too.

If he was in a more rational state of mind, he would understand that there were a number of potential reasons why he couldn’t hear Flapjack anymore, but his head was too full of images. His uncle looming over him, flicking Hunter’s hair strand and calling him a grimwalker. The frightened and desperate face of the human, no, Luz, trying to keep him from being sucked into the ground. The 16 cracked Golden Guard masks. His uncle’s sneering face as Hunter and Luz rushed past him to escape. His uncle’s long, sludged arm sharpened into a deadly weapon heading straight for Luz.

They would both be dead right now if it hadn’t been for each other. If it hadn’t been for her glyphs, he would be dead. And if he had died, he wouldn’t have been able to get back to her in the nick of time and save her. It all came down to wild magic.

Wild magic saved his life.

A shaky whimper escaped his mouth and he flinched, remembering the first time he had been truly interested in learning more about the origins of wild magic. The scar on his cheek was a consequence of that foolish act.

Hunter suddenly realized he was still shaking. The breeze rustling through the trees felt like a blistering and violent wind. At the same time, his insides felt like they were boiling as bad as the rain beginning to splash on the ground. The sting from the drops on his skin brought him back to his senses, just a little. He managed to sit up this time and crawled feebly towards a nearby log that looked to be hollow. It took a little bit of effort, but he managed to squeeze himself into it. The rain began to pour heavily and Hunter could feel the steamy heat all around him, irritating his skin but not burning it.

Hunter squeezed his eyes shut. He didn’t know where to go or what to do. Nowhere was safe. Nobody was safe. He wasn’t safe and he didn’t think he ever would be again. Maybe if he just continued to squeeze his eyes shut and his body in this log, the world would fade away. And maybe he could fade away with it.

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“Darius, you’ve gotta stop,” Raine hissed at the abomination coven leader, who was currently pacing frantically. Darius didn’t even look up, just kept muttering under his breath and pacing. Eberwolf watched nearby, perching on top of a large rock. Raine sighed. They were worried sick too, but Darius’ pacing was making noise, and none of them could afford breaking cover.

A large shudder ran through the ground and the three coven leaders startled in their places, whipping their heads around to the direction of the owl house. Beams of light struck the woods, fading just as quickly as they appeared. Raine strained their ears, trying to hear the two kids or even Eda’s voice to reassure them that Luz and Hunter were safe. Heck, even the owl bird tube thing shrieking with excitement would’ve been good enough for them. A moment later, they could faintly hear the door being slammed open and the distant sound of frantic breathing and sobbing. It sounded like…

“Hunter,” Darius exhaled, pinching his forehead. The kid didn’t sound good, but at least he was alive. He looked over at Eberwolf, who was now sniffing the ground. She grunted, nodding at Darius and Raine, confirming that it was indeed Hunter. Raine placed a hand on Darius’ shoulder, squeezing it. Despite the hood, Darius could see the tears of relief in Raine’s eyes. As powerful and cunning as the head bard was, they were always a softie at heart and Darius had been able to see that ever since he had met Raine.

Traveling into someone’s mind was a great risk itself, but going into a dangerous power-hungry emperor’s mind was even worse. The three witches had known that they could potentially die or suffer an even worse fate, but if it got them the information they needed or somehow stopped Belos in his tracks then it would have been worth it. Three middle aged witches who already knew the risks of rebellion dying was way different than two scared and too smart for their own good children dying. While Darius found Hunter to be an annoying brat at times, Hunter was still just a teenager, a kid. And he had been starting to show that he was made of tougher yet kinder stuff than the shit Belos had instilled in him. It made Darius think about his mentor…

The hyperventilating sobs sounded closer now and the three rebels tucked themselves into the shadows. Hunter rushed past, not even glancing in their direction. Darius swallowed hard. He didn’t care what Raine or Eber thought, he was going to follow that boy and make sure nobody affiliated with Belos saw him. Damnit when did he get so soft?

Eberwolf was the first to step out of their hiding place and looked at Darius and Raine like, well, what are we waiting for? Raine nodded at her and raised their eyebrows at Darius. Darius smirked, whispering “Lead the way,” to Eber. He would have never suspected he would team up with a messy mutt and a bard with stage fright to take down the emperor, but he wasn’t complaining. He glanced over at Raine, who was lightly rubbing their finger on their cheek repetitively. Darius frowned, Raine only did that when they felt really anxious about something

Raine was, in fact, really anxious. They didn’t know if Luz was okay, too. They could only assume she was, since Hunter had returned, but they couldn’t know for certain. They had never formally met the human, except for the time she had tried to help kidnap them and Kikimora. But they personally didn’t count that. All they knew was that Eda cared deeply for Luz and thought of her as her own daughter and if Eda cared that much for her, then Raine cared about her too. But it wasn’t like they could just waltz up to the owl house and check on her themself, even if they really, really wanted to.

They missed Eda. They missed her snarky humor, her grudgby tricks, her apple blood tasting kisses, her fluffy hair, her confidence, everything. They would go as far to say that they loved her, even after all this time. And because they loved her, they couldn’t risk getting her into trouble, not unless there was a really, really, really good reason to do so, but they couldn’t think of anything that important. Raine supposed that if Luz or King had gotten into some bad trouble and were hurt, they would let her know, but they would still be as discreet as possible.

They were beginning to understand why she had tried to shelter them from her curse. They had hated it horribly and still hated the idea of her trying so hard to pretend that she was fine when she was so obviously not. But they were beginning to understand that desperate need to protect someone from something bigger than they could potentially comprehend. Raine knew Eda was tough, and she was wickedly intelligent and clever too, but that didn’t change the fact that she had almost been petrified. Titans, she had almost died.

Raine would burn down every world in existence if that were to ever happen again.

A while later, boiling rain began to pour from the sky and Darius quickly wrapped them all in protective abomination goo. Raine groaned. Now was not the time for the weather to be throwing a hissy fit. Eberwolf was an excellent tracker, being both a beast and the head witch of the beast-keeping coven, but the steaming rain would make tracking a lot harder.

Raine looked over at Darius and Eberwolf, who both wore matching faces of worry and frustration. The rain was coming down too hard for them to risk leaving their safe place. All that they could do now was wait. Shit.

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Finally, finally, the rain lightened up enough for the three of them to start running. By now, they were all too anxious about Hunter’s safety to care about their own. Eberwolf sniffed the ground frantically, trying to pick back up Hunter’s scent. It took a bit, but she was finally able to pick up the smell. She ran ahead swiftly and smoothly, Darius and Raine right behind her. She wasn’t particularly close with Hunter but she was fond of Darius, even if he was a bit nit-picky at times, and lately Darius had been showing a lot more concern for Hunter.

As the three of them entered another clearing in the forest, the rains were picking back up again. Eberwolf growled and ran even faster. She was not losing Hunter’s scent again. She could feel the air behind her changing along her fur, and she knew Darius had changed into his abomination form. As she ran, she turned around and told him to try and stay calm.

Stay calm?! How the hell was Darius supposed to stay calm?! It had probably been hours by now, and they still hadn’t found Hunter. That kid could’ve gotten hurt or captured or even worse. Titan, he hated the Boiling Isles and its stupid boiling rains ruining everything. What if they weren’t able to find Hunter? What if someone else had found him? Belos could work quickly. For all Darius knew, wanted posters could already be posted. Hunter could be-

In a log. In a log? Eberwolf had suddenly bolted down a small hill, skidding to a stop near a log. In a flash, Darius and Raine were beside her and kneeling in front of the log. A beat up blonde with tear streaks was curled up and sleeping inside. Their beat up blonde.

Darius swooped them all in abomination and in less than a second, they were transported inside a cave where the three coven leaders had kept some supplies in case of an emergency. Raine got to work almost immediately, whisking their violin into their hands and playing a healing melody. The raw pink patches on Hunter’s skin began to fade. Hunter continued to sleep, and even in his sleep it was evident that he was in pain.

Darius slipped back into his normal witch form and took a slow, deep breath, trying to calm the pounding in his chest. He carefully situated Hunter to lean against him, outfit be damned, and Eberwolf curled onto Hunter’s lap. Raine continued to play their gentle melody, something that was soothing for all of them. The relief in the air was thick. They had gotten to Hunter before anyone else. And none of them were going to let any of Belos’ followers or Belos himself get their hands on him.

Chapter Text

“Luz, what did you see?”

When Luz turned around to look at Eda, a frightened and haunted look on her face, Eda’s heart twisted so protectively that she felt the owl beast within her rise to the surface, itching to transform and beat the ever-loving shit out of Belos.

She took a step forward, arm reaching towards Luz, every instinct within her begging her to swoop the girl in her arms and shield her from the world. But she didn’t want to smother the poor kid. Luz’s face was completely blank now and her eyes were glazed over. At Eda’s side, King whined, tugging on her dress and pointing to Luz, as if saying don’t you see, Mom? Something bad happened! Fix it!

Eda let out a breath and stepped forward. “Luz, kiddo, you in there?” She carefully placed her hands on Luz’s shoulders, squeezing gently. At that, Luz jolted and her eyes became sharp once more. She threw her arms around Eda, trembling, mumbling Eda’s name over and over.

“Shhh, I’m here, Luz, I’m here. I’ve gotcha,” Eda murmured gently, stroking her student’s hair. This was a more familiar version of Luz, she could handle this. Huggy and Talkative Luz was more familiar than Zoned Out and Unresponsive Luz. “Let’s go inside, k? Looks like we’ve got some stuff to talk about,” Eda said.

Luz shuddered and nodded against her mentor. Her mind was both swirling with information and hazy with static. But one thing was abundantly clear to her:

This was all her fault.

She had helped him…Belos. Philip. She had helped him. She had shown him the light glyph, had gotten him to the Collector, had fallen for his entire masquerade. And because of her help, he had hurt so many witches. He had manipulated everyone on the Boiling Isles, been manipulating them for so many years that even some of the wildest of witches were joining covens now. Covens that were intended to kill witches.

And Hunter, oh Hunter. Luz had been wary of him ever since Aunt Lilith told her about him, and even more so after he dangled her above the boiling sea, but after he protected her from Kikimora and let her and the palismen escape, she warmed up to him, just a little bit. But then Eda, Amity, and King returned from Eclipse Lake with news that he had threatened her, which had caused Amity to give him the precious portal key. Amity had also told her about his erratic behavior and how he had literally been digging his own grave.

And then a while later, she sees a picture of him beaming, surrounded by four talented witches in Flyer Derby gear, one of them being Willow. Willow and the others told them about the entire event, from the first meeting to him trying to leave the team to him scoring them their first win to him trying to force them into the Emperor’s Coven to him then protecting them from the Emperor’s Coven. It was all kind of confusing but Willow seemed so happy, and Gus seemed to have softened a bit for Hunter, so Luz decided to ask for his contact information, which Willow immediately gave. Since then, Luz had been trying to text him, but hardly had any luck. She knew he tried to come across as tough and threatening, but all he seemed to be was an edgy teenager who was bad at typing and adored his palisman.

And now this. This horrible, horrible nightmare of a night. Hunter had dissolved into a panic attack before her eyes and had fled the owl house, ignoring her pleas for him to come back. He had a death sentence on his back now, and it was all her fault.

Once inside the owl house, Luz couldn’t hold it in anymore. She started to cry, first small little tears and hiccups that then quickly turned into loud, ugly sobbing. Her legs gave out, and she would have fallen to the floor if it wasn’t for Eda holding her up. Eda’s arms wrapped around her tighter in alarm and she eased them both onto the couch. Luz could hear Eda’s voice murmuring gently to her, but her brain was too fuzzy and frantic to make out what she was saying.

Eda continued to hold her kid close, doing what she could to try and both calm the girl down and give her the room she needed to cry it out. While Luz was naturally affectionate and emotional, it was rare for Eda to see her cry so hard and so brokenly. Even after the petrification attempt, Luz had tried to put on a brave face for them all, going as far as to take on a dangerous job that led her and Eda to meet the Golden Guard.

Or rather, Hunter.
A child soldier.

Eda barely knew him and all of their interactions had been less than pleasant, but she was still very worried for him. All the little signs were beginning to click in her brain, and seeing his panic attack while frantically saying how he couldn’t go back to the castle solidified the notion that he was nothing more than an abused child. Who had just seen some very serious shit.

Along with Luz, who was still sobbing her heart out onto Eda’s dress, clutching her tightly. King stood close nearly, holding Francois in his arms and looking back and forth between Eda and Luz. Hooty was uncharacteristically quiet and had tightened security without Eda telling him to. Eda had a sneaking suspicion that he was also trying to check and see if he could see where Hunter had gone. Hooty did love meeting new friends, and he had a particularly soft spot for former coven leaders.

Titan, what could two teenagers witness that would make them both break down in such a way? Eda wanted to ask Luz about the entire thing, but she knew that wasn’t important right now. Hooty was rather irritating at times, but he made an excellent security system and she trusted him with her life and the lives of her kids. What was important was getting Luz to calm down and breathe before she choked on her own tears and spit.

Eda carefully peeled Luz off of her, just enough to hold her close by the shoulders. She took one hand off and placed it on her own chest, exaggerating her breathing. “C’mon Luz, I know you’re scared, but you’ve gotta breathe for me, okay?”

Luz whimpered and tried to suck in some air, but ended up inhaling too much and choked. She bent over, coughing, while Eda patted her back. “That’s okay, you’re okay, just try again, kiddo,” Eda whispered encouragingly. She could do this, she could do this, just like how Azura had to calm down and save Hecate from the Mountain of Mayhem, Luz had to calm down and figure out a way to save everyone on the Boiling Isles. It was the least she could do, after all, since she was the one who caused this all to happen.

It was her fault.

“I-It’s all my fa-ault,” Luz sobbed. Eda frowned.

“Luz, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’m sure whatever happened wasn’t your fault,” Eda said.

Luz shook her head, her breathing becoming frantic again. Eda didn’t get it. Through her panicked thoughts, she tried to figure out a way to explain to Eda that yes, it was her fault it was all her fault it was all her FAULT-

“Luz, Luz, honey, you’ve gotta breathe,” Eda said in alarm. Now she was getting more worried. She suddenly wished Raine was there. A glimmer of a memory of them playing a soft melody on their prized violin to calm her down after she had lost a grudgy match. Then a memory of her calming them down after they had dissolved into a panic attack after running off of a stage in the middle of a performance. She had been alarmed and had used ice in a desperate attempt to ground them but got too worked up and had conjured up a bunch of snow. It had certainly done the job and it made her and Raine laugh later.

Wait a minute. Ice!

Eda grabbed an ice glyph and pressed it gently on Luz’s hand. A small block of ice appeared and Luz shuddered, her breathing stuttering before picking back up to a less frantic pace. “There you go, just focus on how that feels against you, Luz,” Eda murmured.

Luz nodded and managed to take a deeper inhale this time, even through all the snot and tears. She ran her thumb along the block of ice, feeling the cold and wetness that was beginning to seep down her fingers and arm. She cupped it in both hands, watching the ice slowly melt. Eda continued to stroke her hair and it reminded her of her mom. Luz almost started sobbing again. She squeezed her eyes shut and took another huge breath in. She wasn’t going to lose control again but Titan, she missed her mama so much.

She suddenly felt a familiar paw against her thigh and opened her eyes to see King looking at her with the most worried look she’d ever seen. Wetness suddenly dripped on her thighs and she looked at her hands, the ice had pretty much melted. She wiped her hands on her clothes and felt King nudge her with Francois.

“Do you wanna hold him? He’s good at comforting me,” King said, his eyes big and pleading, desperate to try and help her. He really was the best little brother-pet-friend Luz could ask for. She managed to quirk a small half-smile and took Francois from King, too exhausted to say thank you. Eda pulled her closer and she felt her eyelids begin to droop. A moment later, she was asleep.

Outside, rain began to pour and Eda huffed quietly in frustration. Without her magic, it had been a lot harder to protect the house from boiling rain. Her and Lily ended up conjuring up a huge protective potion for Hooty to pour over himself and the house. With the seasons changing, rain was more frequent and Eda wasn’t sure if they had any protective potion left.

She carefully eased Luz off of her and situated her so that she was laying on the couch, Francois still in her arms. King jumped up and curled his small body on her legs. Eda ruffled his head, heart swelling at the scene before her. She quickly and quietly began to look for the large batch of potion, and to her relief managed to find what she hoped would be enough to last the night. Hooty came through the door, familiar by now on what to do.

While he covered himself and the house in the potion, Eda began to clean up around the house. She normally loathed cleaning but her nerves were frayed from the eventful night and since she couldn’t turn into the owl beast and go flying in this weather, she had to settle for cleaning. She knew she wasn’t going to sleep tonight, so she wasn’t even going to try. Besides, what if Luz woke up and needed her? What if the storm got worse and she had to brew up another potion? Too many possibilities, so no sleep tonight.

Despite this, as the night progressed and dawn began to approach, Eda began to feel exhaustion weigh her down. She set her cup of apple blood down and heaved a deep sigh, propping her head on her arm. Maybe closing her eyes for just a few minutes would help her feel better.

Just as she began to drift off, sharp knocks and Hooty’s alarmed voice jerked her off her chair. Heart pounding, she tried to figure out what to do. King and Luz had both woken up, both clearly frightened. Hooty then swung open the door and two cloaked figures stepped forward, one of them clutching Hunter close.

“We didn’t know where else to go. He…he’s not doing so good.”

Chapter Text

The relief Darius, Raine, and Eberwolf had initially felt quickly dissipated upon realizing how bad of a shape Hunter was in. Despite Raine’s healing music, Hunter continued to shiver, violent tremors coursing through his body. The raw pink patches from the rain had faded away and been replaced by abnormally pale skin and blotches of red on his cheeks. The kid was burning up badly.

Raine chewed their lip and stopped playing. Clearly their music wasn’t helping the situation, which was odd. They obviously weren’t part of the healing coven, but they had dabbled enough in healing melodies to stop bad situations from getting worse. This, however, definitely seemed to be getting worse.

They looked around, taking stock of the situation. The cave was damp, and smelled musty. Shadows from a lantern Darius had lit danced along the stone walls and the ground was littered with bits of bone and rubble that Raine had decided to not think too much about. There weren’t as many supplies Raine had thought.

Despite this, Eberwolf had moved off of Hunter and was scrounging through the bags and crates they had, searching for some sort of medicine. Darius continued to let Hunter lean against him, looking both uncomfortable and worried. Raine sighed and pinched their forehead. Think, Rainestorm, think.

Just then, Hunter began whining in his sleep, one hand frantically coming up to cup his cheek, right over his scar. “U-uncle,” he breathed, his voice raspy. “S-sorry, I’m-,” whatever he was about to say was cut off with a loud yelp and he jolted from his place against Darius.

Darius quickly wrapped his arms around Hunter, steadying the boy before he tried to stand up. “Shit, shit, easy there little prince,” he said, looking at Raine in alarm. Raine knelt before Hunter, who still seemed to be partially asleep despite his eyes being wide open. The magenta hues were brighter than usual, almost as if they were glowing.

“Hunter, hey, you with us?” Raine asked, carefully waving their hand in front of his face. After a moment, Hunter’s eyes focused and he jerked away from Darius, abruptly moving backwards. His hands scrabbled along the rough ground before coming up to wrap around him.

“W-what, where-where am I?” Hunter whimpered, voice high and scared. Titan, he really was just a child. Before any of them could say or do something, his eyes widened in recognition and he started hyperventilating, “N-no, please, don’t-don’t take me back to the palace I can’t go back I can’t go back I-”

“Whoa whoa whoa, Hunter, we’re not taking you anywhere. Not right now, anyway. We’re not with Belos, okay?” Raine said, trying to placate the frantic boy. They held up their hands, trying to show that they didn’t mean any harm, but the gesture only made Hunter flinch and scoot further away, backing himself into a corner where it was completely dark. Shit.

Raine wasn’t a stranger to anxiety themself, having had it for most of their life and a lot of experience comforting former students with troublesome homes, test anxiety, stage fright, etc. But they felt a little clueless on how to handle this particular situation. Hunter felt a bit like an enigma. He was fiercely loyal to Belos and had even tried to arrest Raine and the others earlier. But now he seemed to be terrified of anything that had to do with the emperor or the palace. What the hell did this kid see to cause such a dramatic change in attitude?

Hunter had begun to cry, pitiful little sobs wracking his body. Raine’s heart twisted and they looked towards Darius for help, but he had turned his attention to helping Eberwolf search for some sort of medicine. They both looked almost as distressed as Hunter. “No luck?” Raine asked softly.

Eber growled and shook her head before digging through another crate for what felt like the hundredth time. She was normally so good at handling supplies. Since she was both a beast and the head witch of the beast keeping coven, she was very particular and protective over her things. It wasn’t like her, or even Raine or Darius, to be careless about belongings.

Darius put a hand over her shoulder, a nonverbal signal for her to stop. She huffed and glared at him, her way of telling him to get his hand off of her shoulder before she bit it off. He rolled his eyes and held his hands up before walking away towards the corner where Hunter was having a meltdown. Rummaging made her feel like she was doing something, even if it made dirt and debris get under her nails and dust coat her fur.

As Darius carefully made his way over to Raine and Hunter, he dragged a hand over his face and sighed. He felt very out of depth in all of this. He didn’t know shit about comforting teenagers or healing magic. And none of them even knew what had happened in the emperor’s mind. All they knew was that it had made Hunter fall into a panic attack so badly that he had run for a long time and was willing to sleep in the boiling rain. Not to mention the fact that he seemed to be really sick out of nowhere. Whatever had happened, it wasn’t good.

Darius knelt next to Raine, who had brought out their flute and started playing a tune Darius had heard many times. It was one of Raine’s go-to pieces for their anxiety, and it seemed to be relaxing Hunter. Darius took the opportunity to carefully maneuver closer to Hunter, making sure he stayed where the kid could see him at all times. Heat radiated off of Hunter’s body, smothering Darius and concerning him even more.

“Little prince-” He tried but Hunter quickly cut him off, shrieking, “Don’t call me that!”

Whoa, okay. Uh. That’s new. Darius knew that Hunter used to be annoyed by the nickname but in the past couple weeks he seemed to have softened to it, acting more amused than irritated. Darius had never seen him react so…viscerally to it before.

“Okay, uh, Hunter, that’s fine.” Shit, what was he supposed to say? “Just, can you come out from there? Please? We aren’t going to take you back to the castle, okay? You’re safe with us, I promise.”

Hunter shook his head, sniffling. “H-he’s gonna kill me…he almost did, in there. Titan, he tried to KILL ME! After-after everything, everything I’ve d-done he-”

A louder, more hypnotic tune cut him off and Darius felt his own body get heavier, especially his eyelids. He managed to catch Hunter when he slumped forward, dead asleep. Darius blinked the fog from his head and shot a look at Raine that quickly softened upon seeing how shaken up they looked.

“Sorry, he was just getting so worked up. I didn’t know what else to do,” Raine said apologetically.

“It’s fine,” Darius sighed. He was a bit shake too, if he was being honest. Plus the sleep was surely needed. Hunter’s eyebags looked like they could carry a full stack of groceries.

He scooped Hunter in his arms, frowning at the rips on the kid’s gloves. Setting Hunter down, he asked Raine, “I know we don’t have any medicine, but have you seen any bandages?”

Raine shook their head, the creases between their eyes deepening with worry. “Let me take a look,” they said, crawling forward to assess Hunter’s hands. Darius turned towards Eberwolf, who had given up her searching and was pouting in the opposite corner.

“Eber, did you see any bandages?” When she shook her head, Darius groaned. He took off his cloak and tore part of it off. He shoved Raine roughly away and wiped and wrapped Hunter’s palms. The cuts weren’t deep by any means, but the cave was filthy and with how bad of a condition Hunter was already in, Darius didn’t want to risk an infection. When he finished, he heard Raine snicker beside him.

“The hell are you laughing at?” Darius snapped. Raine shook their head, covering their mouth as they continued to snicker.

“It’s just, you know I could’ve done that, right? You didn’t have to tear your precious cloak.”

Darius felt his face grow hot again. Well damn. He didn’t know what to say to that.

Raine smiled and said, “I’m just messing with you. You clearly care about him.”

Darius rolled his eyes and quipped back, “Don’t we all?”

“Yeah. Yeah, we do.”

That made Darius pause. He bit back a smile and said, “Well, it was better for me than you to tear part of my cloak. Can’t risk letting your precious Eda see even a glimpse of you, can you, Rainestorm?”

Raine scowled, their face flushing bright red almost immediately. “I regret telling you about that nickname every day,” they muttered.

Now it was Darius’ turn to snicker. It brought him great joy to tease Raine about the Owl Lady and their past relationship. They were so easily flustered by the very mention of her and Darius just had to take advantage of that at every opportunity.

Hunter flinched lightly in his sleep before succumbing to a coughing fit. Darius cringed and tried to stay still as Raine patted Hunter’s back, the space between their eyebrows creasing with worry even more. After a few moments, Raine said, “I just don’t understand how he could’ve gotten so sick so easily.

“Mm. But we can’t take him to any healers. By now there could be wanted posters everywhere,” Darius muttered, resisting the urge to rub the arm Hunter was leaning on. It was starting to fall asleep.

“You’re right,” Raine sighed, “We’re just going to have to wait this out, I guess.” They turned towards Eberwolf, who was now pacing in a circle. “Eber, you should go back to the palace. Maybe if you’re there, you can help keep suspicions low. We can’t have all of us be missing for this long.”

She nodded in agreement and stopped pacing, making it easier for Darius to teleport her back to the palace using abomination goo. He hoped she would be okay. He didn’t think that they were causing Belos to be too suspicious, but the emperor was horrifyingly crafty and could see through people’s lies with little trouble.

Not to mention the fact that Belos apparently wanted Hunter dead.

As if hearing Darius’ thoughts, Raine whispered, “You heard what he said, didn’t you? About Belos trying to kill Hunter while he was trapped in his mind?”

Darius nodded, swallowing down the surge of hot anger boiling in his chest. Neither him nor Raine had thought about it, both of them too concerned about calming Hunter down to think too hard about what he had been saying. Not until now.

Raine was also angry, but they were more uneasy than anything. Their stomach twisted in anxiety, tightening into knots. They suddenly desperately wished Eda was there. She always knew how to calm Raine down and she was a master at potions. She could probably take care of the entire situation at hand and quip inside jokes with Raine at the same time.

Raine shook their head. No, nope, they weren’t going there. They were not putting her in danger. Raine had promised to themself to keep Eda safe, and they weren’t one to go back on their promises. But they had to reluctantly acknowledge that the thought of bringing Hunter to her was still tempting, especially with the teenager’s condition worsening by the hour.

After a few minutes of silence, Hunter began to stir slightly, opening his eyes. His eyes were unfocused, but he didn’t appear to be as alarmed as the last time he had woken up. Raine didn’t know whether to take that as a good sign or a bad sign. Seizing the opportunity, they slipped out from their sitting position, letting Hunter droop completely onto Darius, and got some water. After some initial spluttering, they managed to get most of it inside Hunter’s mouth and coaxed him to swallow it. A moment later, he went back to sleep.

Raine turned to Darius with a triumphant grin but Darius was frowning, his eyes narrowed. “What is it?” Raine asked.

“Something doesn’t feel right. This doesn’t feel normal , Raine. I’ve never seen the kid so out of it before. It's just…I don’t like this.”

“Me neither, but we’ve gotta stay rational about this. We’ll just continue to take care of him as best we can.”

“And if he gets worse?”

Raine paused, absentmindedly brushing back some of Hunter’s hair from his hot skin. “Then…we’ll figure something out.”

Darius snorted and rolled his eyes. “Terrific. Great plan.”

“Well if you have something better, I would love to hear it.”

Darius looked at Raine pointedly and said, “You already know what I think we should do.”

Raine frowned. Yes, of course they knew, and their traitorous mind was beginning to be swayed in that direction as well. They felt torn, like they were having to choose between risking Eda’s life or Hunter’s life. One a wild witch who didn’t have traditional magic anymore. And, oh yeah, had almost died not too long ago. The other, an extremely sick teenager who couldn’t go to a traditional healer.

Darius suddenly moved Hunter smoothly off of him before standing up, making his way towards the entrance of the cave. Alarmed, Raine pulled Hunter closer to them before grabbing their flute, heart pounding. Had they been found? How was that possible? They were in a very secluded area and they hardly had any light that could be seen from far away.

After a beat, Darius came back towards the two of them and sat down again, huffing. Raine stared. “Uhh, you wanna explain what that was all about? What happened? Did you hear someone?”

Darius shook his head and said, “No, I just remembered something. Hunter has a palisman, a cardinal with a scar over their eye. But I don’t think I saw them following us and they clearly aren’t here with us right now. I wonder if they got caught in the rain.”

Okay first, what , Hunter has a palisman? Raine thought that Belos ate those things. And demanded that all palismen be handed to him. How long had Hunter been hiding a secret palisman? Why didn’t he give them to Belos? Raine pinched their forehead and sighed. That wasn’t important right now.

“So you were what? Expecting to see a tiny bird in the middle of a storm miraculously appear,” Raine scoffed.

Darius glared at the cave wall, folding his arms across his chest. “No, I wanted to see if I could hear the stupid bird.”

Raine decided not to mention that that was practically the same thing. The rain was still coming down hard and it was difficult to tell how long they’d been in the cave. Raine resituated themself, easing Hunter’ weight to be shared between them and Darius. They sighed, combing their fingers through Hunter’s messy hair. It felt good to be doing something rather than just sitting, and they figured it wouldn’t hurt.

Hours later, Hunter’s condition had gotten much worse. His entire body shook constantly with violent tremors and he had woken up four more times, either hazy and unaware of his surroundings or screaming and trying to crawl away from the two head witches. What was even more concerning was the fact that he wasn’t even sweating, despite how badly he was burning up.

Between this and the lack of sleep, Raine and Darius had both gotten more agitated, the latter having gone towards the very back of the cave to slam his fists against the walls. Raine just kept trying to breathe, sometimes playing their violin or flute. But it was becoming obvious that they were going to have to try something else.

The last straw ended up happening just before dawn broke. The rains had calmed down to a soft sprinkle and the air was quiet. And then Hunter started shaking hard, different from the tremors he had been having for the past several hours. After a moment, he went completely limp and would’ve folded onto the ground if Darius and Raine hadn’t caught him.

“Hunter, Hunter?!” Raine exclaimed frantically, checking for his pulse. It was still there, but it was thready and faint.

Darius let out a loud growl before swooping up the kid and glared at Raine. “I know what you’re going to say, but I can’t keep sitting around like this. I’m taking him to the Owl Lady, whether you like it or not.”

Raine rose to their feet, grimacing at the cracks popping through their joints. “She has a name, Darius.”

“And…and I agree. We need to take him to Eda,” they said, their voice barely above a whisper. Without a moment’s hesitation, Darius transported the three of them back to the very front of the woods near the Owl La-Eda’s home. The rain there had completely stopped, and soft dark blues, purples, and pinks were beginning to streak the sky. It would’ve been peaceful if it weren’t for the teenager dying in his arms.

The two witches ran to the front door, dodging the various security measures the owl-bird-tube thing had put in place. He seemed to be asleep, but woke up right as they got to the door. Ignoring the house demon’s yelping for Eda, Raine pounded on the door while Darius continued to hold Hunter close, ignoring the panic that swelled in his throat when nobody opened the door.

Then, the demon itself swung it open for them and Darius stepped forward, meeting the scared and startled face of Eda. “We didn’t know where else to go,” he panted, “He…he’s not doing so good.”

Chapter Text

Eda didn’t know how to react. So, her instincts took over.

The startled look on Darius’ face at her beastly form would’ve been priceless if it weren't for the fact that she was very, very close to sinking her claws into his face. Images of her and Raine’s fight with him flashed in her mind and she snarled, taking a step forward.

“We’re rebels,” Darius said quickly, “We’re not with Belos, okay? Now put that thing away and help us out here.”

We? Us? She quickly surveyed the other cloaked figure, whose hood was up and was being weirdly quiet. Before she could tackle them and yank off the hood to see who it was, Luz scrambled from her place on the couch and practically leaped over the apple blood table to be beside Eda.

“Hunter!” She cried, hands anxiously hovering over the shivering blonde in Darius’ arms, almost as if she wanted to touch him and see if he was real. She turned to Eda anxiously before fixing her gaze on the abomination coven leader. “What’s wrong with him? Why are you here? Did Phil-Belos find him?”

Darius shook his head. “No, we got to him first. He decided that sleeping in the boiling rain was a good idea. We took him to a cave that we were planning on using as a hideout in case something were to happen. Then he just, I don’t know.” He shifted, awkwardly trying to gesture towards the abnormally pale boy in his arms. “He started getting real sick, real fast. I think he may have just had some sort of seizure.”

Eda placed her hand on Luz’s shoulder, trying to ground her before she started panicking again. She allowed her body to relax back into her normal witch form before gesturing to the coven leader and his associate to come inside.

“You better not make me regret this. Set him down on the couch, I’ll see what I can do,” Eda said.

Once they got Hunter settled, Eda began fishing around for various potion ingredients. “King, I’m gonna need you to grab those potion textbooks again. Luz um, you just keep Hunter company, okay?”

Luz sprang up. “No! Eda, I can help, let me do something!”

Eda sighed. “Okay, okay, fine. Go fill up a bucket with ice water and grab a rag or two. See if maybe an old-fashioned cold towel will help bring down that fever of his.”

Before she had even finished speaking, Luz had dashed off to grab the supplies. Maybe it is better to have her be busy, Eda mused. She knew that she couldn’t stand staying still when her nerves were jumbled either.

Darius had made a chair out of abomination and was perched right next to the couch, eyes darting back and forth between Eda, Hunter, and his partner, who was standing stiffly behind Darius. After a few minutes, Eda heard a startled squeak and whipped around to find that Darius had shoved the cloaked person onto a chair of their own.

Huh, that had sounded…familiar.

King tossed the last book she needed onto the pile by the couch and quickly moved out of the way from Luz barrelling into the room. She held a large bucket of ice water with a rag in her teeth. “Gah…da…su’pies,” she panted, her voice muffled by the rag.

Eda held back a snort and patted her head. “Good job, kiddo. Okay, let me see what I can-”

A fit of coughing interrupted her and she jumped where she had sat. Blondie was hacking his lungs out in his sleep, face furrowed in pain. Eda sighed and patted his back while Luz quickly dipped the rag in the water, wrang it out, and placed it on his head before looking at Eda with worried eyes. It seemed to have the opposite effect on Darius, however, who breathed a sigh of relief.

“His pulse was really faint right before we came here,” Darius explained when Eda glanced at him. “It’s just nice to know that he isn’t exactly on the verge of death right now.”

Eda quirked an eyebrow at the shuddering teenager on her couch. “Guess he’s made out of some pretty tough stuff.”
She turned back to her ingredients and textbooks and found the recipe for a fever-reducing potion. She was surprised that she didn’t already have it on hand. Well, actually, maybe she did and it had gotten gulped by Hooty.

As she combined the recipe together in the cauldron she’d prepared, she began stirring and fixed her gaze on the two strangers sitting awkwardly by the couch. “So…,” she drawled. “What exactly made you come here again?”

“I told you,” Darius huffed annoyedly. “We’re rebels. Against Belos. You know, the evil tyrant who almost petrified you?”

Their associate swiftly kicked him in the shin and Eda snorted. “Yes, I’m familiar with him. But why couldn’t you have just taken Blondie here to a real healer? Has Belos already found out about your betrayal?”

Darius sighed. “No, we’ve been very careful. But I was afraid that wanted posters for the Golden Guard were already up. Couldn’t risk Belos getting his nasty hands on him.”

Eda nodded carefully. The story added up so far. But…what the hell had happened to make Belos so angry with Hunter? Wasn’t he like, the right-hand man?

She glanced at Luz, whose face was tight and scared. “It was a good thing you came here then,” Luz said quietly. “He’s evil. Pure evil. The things we saw…and heard…” She shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself.

A concerned look grazed Darius’ face before settling back to its typical nonchalant annoyance. “What happened in there, anyway? I’m sorry that it happened to you and Hunter, I really am. My associates and I were the ones who were supposed to go into Belos’ mind. But-” he leaned forward, clasping his hands “-I need to know what you both saw.”

Eda glared at him and opened her mouth to tell him that Luz didn’t have to share a single damn thing if she wasn’t ready, but instead, Luz nodded solemnly.

“You don’t have to if you’re not ready,” Eda said softly.

Luz shook her head, resigned. “No…I can do it now, I think.” She wiped Hunter’s head again as he groaned quietly in his sleep. “He’ll have his own side of the story, I’m sure, but I guess mine will have to be good enough for now.”

As Luz began to talk, sometimes pausing here and there to sniffle or take a shaky breath in, Eda felt her heart drop completely into her stomach. Her child had witnessed a complete nightmare. Every mother’s worst fear, she felt herself thinking.

Before Eda could give any weight to what just ran through her mind, Luz said, “And there was this…monster. But it wasn’t a monster. It was trying to help us, actually. It was-” she shuddered “-made up of palismen. All the palismen that Phil-Belos had absorbed. A-and they were warning us. And then he appeared and-and-” another big inhale. Eda rested her free hand on Luz’s shoulder, squeezing gently. You don’t have to continue, she communicated. Luz reached her hand up and squeezed back, face settling in determination.

“When he appeared,” she continued, “he said how he’d been trying to get rid of those poor souls for years, that they had been nagging him. He thanked us. He…he called Hunter a ‘grimwalker’ and then he tried to-” Luz began to tear up and angrily wiped her face with the back of her palm, “-he tried to kill him. Hunter began to be sucked into, I don’t know, his subconscious or something? I couldn’t…couldn’t save him.”

Now the tears were coming full stream again, and Eda stopped stirring the potion to wrap her arms around Luz, who snuggled into her appreciatively. After a moment, she asked quietly, “Remember when I told you about how me and Aunt Lilith met Philip?” Eda nodded, a sickly feeling rising in her chest. She didn’t like where this was going.

“Philip…is Belos.”

Eda inhaled sharply and tightened her grip around Luz. She had been expecting her to say that but it still came as a shock, like someone had just tossed her into a freezing pool. Darius blinked and asked, “And what does that mean, exactly?”

Luz explained, “He’s a human, a witch hunter from centuries ago. Philip is his old name, his real name. I have his diary from when he was still regarded as a human and his notes helped me make a portal, but that only worked for a little bit. Lilith, Eda’s sister, and I managed to travel back in time and we met Philip in person. Neither of us knew he was actually Belos and I-” Luz whimpered the next part, “-I helped him. I helped Belos. I showed him how to create a light glyph. I helped him find the Collector. And-and because of my help, he was able to create the coven systems and become emperor and kill so many innocent witches and it’s ALL MY FAULT!”

She buried her head into Eda’s shoulder and sobbed. Eda stroked her hair, mind reeling from the load of information. “I think that’s enough for now,” she said finally. One look at Darius confirmed that he felt the same way.

She pulled Luz off of her to look her in the eye. The gaze that was returned was a pitiful sight, and only made her want to hug Luz even closer, even tighter, so that no horrible human or emperor could ever hurt and use her like that again. “Kiddo, none of this is your fault. It’s in your nature to see the good in people, whether they’re human or witch or demon or whatever. That’s not a bad thing, but I know it can sometimes get you into trouble. But Luz, might I remind you that you are still a child.” Eda tenderly thumbed Luz’s cheeks, wiping the tear tracks that cascaded down her face. “You’re still learning. You’re still growing. You only wanted to help, because again, that’s in your nature.”

“Let me ask you this, Luz. Did you force him to hurt people?”

Luz sniffled and shook her head, “N-no, but-”

“Did you force him to create Hunter?”

“No, but-”

“Did you force him to abuse his ideals to the extreme?”

“No, but-”

Eda cupped Luz’s face, looking deep into the puffy brown eyes that stared right back at her. “Then it wasn’t your fault, baby,” she whispered softly, inwardly swallowing the shock that came from the affectionate name. She called Luz all sorts of things. Kiddo, kid, troublemaker, student, child, even the occasional honey. But baby? That was new.

But it was true. Luz was her baby. And Eda would be damned if she ever let some tyrant take her away from her.

Luz took a quavery breath in at the pet name. That was something her mom called her. Her mom always called Luz “her baby,” even after Luz had hit the awkward tween years where that was “uncool” and made the kids at school pester her even more (she never told her mom that, though, and she didn’t think she ever would). Instead of making her cry again, it filled her with a calming, strengthening warmth.

Guess her bonus mom was fond of the nickname too.

Eda tapped her cheek lightly, so light that if Luz hadn’t seen it happen, she may not have felt it. “Do you understand what I’m saying, Lu? None of this was your fault. Do you understand?”

A deeper voice cut in, and Luz didn’t have to turn to know it was the abomination coven leader. “It really wasn’t. Belos, or Philip or whatever, is the real enemy here. Sounds like he’s been screwed up and has enjoyed hurting others, making those-those clones of his, since the beginning of time.” The last part was said with barely restrained anger, and it made Luz feel a little better. The anger was at the emperor, not at her.

She wasn’t the enemy.

Luz took a slow inhale in, and exhaled it out, feeling the air tickle her tear-stained cheeks. “I…I think it may take some time for me to fully feel that way but,” she looked at Eda, “I think I understand.”

At that Eda’s face broke open into a warm, gentle smile. She pulled Luz back in for a hug, which she gladly accepted. She breathed in the familiar smell of apple blood, herbs, must, and dirt that covered her mentor. Even though it was only morning, she felt exhausted all over again.

Eda pulled away and clapped her hands once together. “Well, do you wanna maybe head upstairs? I want to have some time to talk with,” her eyes darted over to Darius and his hooded associate, “those two for a bit if that’s okay.”

Luz nodded. Her bedroll was calling to her. And maybe a glass of water. Titan, she didn’t realize how parched she was until that moment. And she hadn’t brushed her teeth since…uh, she actually didn’t know. She gave Eda one last, quick squeeze and awkwardly waved to the strangers in her home before heading upstairs.

A moment later she heard Eda say, “In private, King,” followed by King’s dramatic groan of disapproval. She snorted to herself and started to get cleaned up. Once she was back in her room, she found King pouting on her bedroll, as if he had just been put in time out. She laughed for real this time, a higher and more hysterical laugh than her usual one, but a laugh nonetheless. This seemed to perk her goofy brother up, and he patted the bed expectantly. She curled next to him, carefully allowing her tired body to relax.

They were safe. It wasn’t her fault. Hunter would be taken care of. He was gonna be fine. She was gonna be fine. They were all gonna be fine. As Luz began to drift off once more, she repeated the mantra in her head over and over till it became as natural as her mother’s lullabies.

Chapter Text

Raine’s heart was pounding so hard that they could see it through their cloak, moving the fabric slightly with every beat.

They were terribly anxious about the entire situation but forced themself to breathe slowly, in and out, as quietly as possible. They didn’t want to arouse any more suspicion than necessary. Eda was already suspicious enough; they had caught her quick and calculating glances more than once.

Darius had thankfully continued to help keep Raine’s cover, which surprised them a bit if they were being honest. They knew that he was the most eager out of all of them to get Eda’s help. Maybe Darius had realized the importance of her safety.

Or maybe his concern for Hunter was overriding every other thought in his mind.

Raine had to admit, they were a little amused by Darius’ attitude. It was becoming increasingly obvious that he was struggling to maintain his normal facade of “I don’t care, leave me alone, nothing fazes me except for niche annoyances.” He had positioned himself even closer to Hunter and continued to apply and reapply the cold rag, the space between his eyebrows wrinkled with worry.

The worry was visible on Eda as well. After her kids had gone upstairs, the calm composure she had been putting up fell. It was as if she had aged another 10 years. Raine wanted to sit next to her and smooth out the worry from her face and tell her that everything was going to be okay, even if that felt like lying.

Which at this point, it really did feel like they were lying. Hunter had started trembling again and his breathing was raspy and unsteady. The angry looking scar tissue on his face stood out even more against his pale face. Raine resisted the urge to lightly rub their cheek with their finger. It was a nervous habit they had picked up a long time ago. Eda was too observant to not notice something like that, so they discreetly tucked their hands into their cloak, clasping them tightly.

The room was quiet save for the sounds of Eda’s stirring. After several minutes, Eda broke the silence by asking, “So, do either of you know what a grimwalker is?”

Darius sighed deeply. “I had my suspicions that something like that was going on. But I didn’t think it would be something so-” he wrinkled his nose “-drastic. Kind of foolish considering that Belos is a drastic bastard. From what I know, grimwalkers are essentially clones made from various powerful organs and artifacts. Ironically, they’re an extreme form of wild magic. I had no idea they were real, though.” He said the last part quietly, gazing down at Hunter’s twisted face.

Eda looked thoughtful and continued to stir. After a moment, she said, “I suppose that explains some stuff, like why he’s powerless. And why he isn’t sweating like a normal witch, despite the high fever.”

She turned to Raine and quirked an eyebrow. “How bout you? You know anything about grimwalkers? You’ve been awfully quiet over there.”

Raine froze, trying to figure out what to do. Darius came to their rescue and said smoothly, “Oh, they don’t talk much. And they aren’t comfortable with revealing their identity. Hell, even I’ve only seen their face a couple of times.”

Eda frowned, visibly skeptical. Her heterochromatic eyes seemed to pierce through the two coven leaders. Darius stared right back, arms crossed and face carefully neutral. Finally she muttered, “Fine, I’ll buy it for now. Besides, the potion’s ready.”

She carefully scooped some of the potion into a nearby cup while Darius eased Hunter into a steady position using abomination. Eda gently tilted the cup towards the teenager and managed to get him to swallow it.

“It’ll take a minute for the potion to kick in-” she started to say only to be interrupted by Hunter shuddering in his sleep, swallowing hard.

Raine has no idea how Eda knew but she swooped another nearby bucket under his chin just as he threw up the very potion she had just gotten in him. As he coughed up the remains, Darius recoiled, visibly disgusted and concerned. Eda didn’t even blink, just frowned softly and rubbed between Hunter’s shoulder blades.

“Alright, kiddo, you’re okay. Shit. Well, I guess he can’t tolerate that specific potion. I guess that makes sense,” she murmured.

“How are you able to be so-so calm by that?” Darius asked, cringing.

Eda glanced up and said, “Oh, Luz can’t handle a lot of the food here. We found that out the hard way. I’ve spent my fair share of time camping out with her in the bathroom.”

“Why would you do that?”

Now Eda looked up completely. “Because she’s my responsibility. And she was a sick kid away from her real mom.” She brushed back the lock of hair that dangled from Hunter’s forehead. “So I had to step in.”

Raine’s heart twisted. They were so glad they had stopped her from throwing away her life in the name of stopping the emperor. She was so good to her kids. And they were glad that they were right that they needed Eda just as much as she needed them.

They glanced at Darius and noticed the subtle hints of distress beginning to appear. The clenched fist on his knee, the pinched eyebrows, the agitated heartbeat. When Raine was close enough to someone, they could feel their heartbeat. It was like detecting sound waves.

“Well, what now, Owl Lady?” Darius asked, who was trying extremely hard to not appear agitated. If this were under normal circumstances, he would’ve already destroyed the room, demanding that Eda fix the situation and make Hunter better. But these weren’t normal circumstances. Not by a long shot. Hunter wasn’t even a normal kid. And Eda was being very hospitable, considering everything.

Eda wiped Hunter’s mouth and sighed. After a moment she said, “I’m calling my sister. She knows more about this stuff than I do. Plus she knows a bunch about potions, too.”

Darius nodded. He wasn’t surprised. Lilith was incredibly intelligent, which was part of why she had been a huge success as the emperor’s coven leader. As Eda left to call her, ordering Darius and Raine to stay put and not touch anything, Darius turned carefully to Raine.

Eda was out of the room now and Darius squeezed Raine’s shoulder, feeling the tension. In one skillful flick with his other hand, abomination goo flew into the air spelling You okay?

Raine nodded, one careful and small up and down of their head. Darius highly doubted they were telling the truth but the bard was a lot tougher than they appeared. And while Darius disliked the whole “Don’t tell Eda about me, she has to stay safe, Darius are you listening to me she almost died I can’t have that happening again blah blah blah,” he did value Raine as a partner, and even as a friend. So he figured he would continue to help keep their identity under wraps, at least for now.

Suddenly, frantic tweeting and scratching cut through the atmosphere. Darius startled, a bit annoyed at the lack of reaction from Raine, and whipped his head around at the sound of the door opening. A small brown owl palisman flew through the air, followed closely by a familiar red cardinal.

“You!” Darius exclaimed. “Titans, where have you been? What the hell happened?” The cardinal perched on top of Hunter’s head, tweeting and pecking at their witch frantically. “Hey, hey, stop that!” Darius cupped the bird in his hands, ignoring the indignant tweets.

Eda rushed in, the alarm on her face relaxing at the sight of the brown owl. “Owlbert! There you are, I was wondering where you were,” she said smiling. Owlbert landed on her shoulder and seemed to be talking to her. After a moment she nodded.

“Owlbert says that Flapjack got caught in the boiling rains. They sent a distress call to any nearby palismen so he flew out to meet them once the weather cleared. He says he found Flapjack huddled in a bush nearby,” Eda translated to Darius before turning her attention back to her palisman.

“But why did you both take so long to get back?” She asked disapprovingly. Owlbert nuzzled her cheek affectionately. After a moment, she gasped.

“You definitely take after me, you clever little bird.” She rubbed the top of his head with a finger and grinned at Darius. “He and Flapjack visited the Bat Queen to warn her that an incident with the emperor had happened and that she needed to double down on her protection quickly, just in case.”

Darius nodded. He was familiar with the legendary Bat Queen. She was clever at throwing off Belos’ tactics to steal more palisman.

He looked down at the flustered cardinal in his hands and set them back on Hunter’s head carefully. Flapjack seemed to understand that they couldn’t peck at his head so they settled for playing with the hair strand that dangled from his forehead.

“Lily should be here soon. I gave her the basics of what happened. So I guess-” she shrugged “-now we wait.”

Darius watched Eda carefully, noticing the way she was looking at Raine again. Next to him, Raine seemed to notice what was happening as well because they stiffened just the slightest. They were a phenomenal actor, able to fool the entire emperor’s coven that they were being mind-controlled, but Darius knew that Eda was Raine’s weak spot.

Maybe that was the real reason why they didn’t want her involved with their rebellion.

“Do either of you want anything to drink or something?” Eda suddenly asked. Darius shrugged and nodded, trying to ignore the way Hunter whined in his sleep again. He wished the kid would wake up again, even if it meant him screaming or being confused.

“I don’t have much. Just water and apple blood. And ghoul aid.” She made a face at that. “Luz likes it, I can’t stand the stuff.”

“Eh, I’ll just take water,” Darius said.

“Your buddy want anything?” Her eyes swept over Raine again before landing back on Darius.

Darius glanced at Raine for a fraction of a second and hesitated. On the one hand, he didn’t want to bring any more attention to them than necessary. On the other hand, it had been several hours since they had had anything to drink. Damnit.

“I think apple blood would be fine. They hate ghoul aid, too.”

Something flashed on Eda’s face and before the two coven leaders could do anything, she leapt forward with ease and in one single swoop, she yanked off Raine’s cloak.

Oh fuck.

Darius’ eyes ping-ponged back and forth between the two troubled lovebirds. Raine sat frozen in place while Eda seemed to have stopped breathing. Finally she whispered, “I knew it.”

Raine sighed, exhaustion taking over their features, and met her piercing gaze with tired eyes. “Hey, Eda.”

Chapter Text

Eda stared, taking in the witch standing in front of her. It felt like the ground had fallen underneath her and the only thing keeping her upright was the weird mixture of adrenaline and relief coursing through her veins. She was so confused and worried and angry and relieved and she didn’t know what to do.

“Raine,” she finally breathed, not having realized that she hadn’t been breathing until that moment. “How did…are you…” - her mind began to work again and she felt her body snap instinctively into a defensive stance, talons springing out as she shifted closer to Hunter protectively - “Are you being mind-controlled? Do you remember me? Why are you with Darius? Do you remember our fight? I-” her voice cracked “-I’ve been so worried.”

Raine met her gaze. Titans, they weren’t supposed to look like that. They weren’t supposed to have bags under their beautiful eyes and worry lines etching their face. “Eda…I…well, it’s-it’s a lot to explain.”

Eda shook her head, anger finally beginning to register inside her. Beside her Hunter squirmed and coughed and she unfurled her trembling fists to stroke his hair, effectively calming the teenager down. Flapjack chirped at her and fluttered to be on top of her wrist as she played with the messy blonde hair underneath her fingertips. “Well, you better get started then,” she said.

Raine and Darius exchanged a glance and Eda wanted to scream. She had been on the run for decades. She had stolen and scammed, fought coven scouts, broken out of prison multiple times, and even escaped petrification. She could handle whatever it was they were doing. If they thought that she was weak just because she had lost her magic, then they had another thing coming. She could still hold her own.

The two coven leaders seemed to have wordlessly come to some sort of an agreement because Raine sighed and crossed their arms. “Okay, Eda,” they said, “I’m just going to give it to you straight. Darius, Eberwolf, and I are part of a rebellion. Terra, the head witch of the plant coven, has been giving me a special tea with the intention of brainwashing me and altering my memories. But she hasn’t been successful. I’ve been changing the drink with-”

“Soundwaves,” Eda snorted. Raine quirked an eyebrow at her and a smirk flickered on their face for a moment. “Yes, I remember that little trick of yours.”

“Of course you do. If you remembered the fact that I hate ghoul aid,” they glared at Darius, who sheepishly shrugged and muttered a half-assed apology, “then, of course, you remembered my whistling.”

“Darius and Eberwolf have wanted to recruit you into our rebellion. But…well.” Eda felt her chest tighten at their next words. “I haven’t.”

Before Eda could speak, Raine quickly said, “I-It’s not that I think you’re weak or anything like that. You’re one of the strongest witches I know, magic or no magic. You always have been. I was just so scared, Eda.”

Raine’s gentle green eyes welled and they took off their glasses, wiping their eyes. Eda resisted the urge to cradle their face in her hands and run her thumbs over their cheekbones, something that had never failed to calm them down in the past. “You-You almost died, Eda. Multiple times! And you have kids! What was I supposed to do? ‘Oh hey, so I’m a part of this really dangerous mission to dismantle an entire government that might get me killed. Would you like to sacrifice everything you’ve fought so hard for? Would you like to abandon your kids in the name of public good?’”

Eda opened her mouth but once again Raine interrupted her. “I couldn’t do that to you, Eda.” They sighed and sat back down, slumping forward with their face in their hands as they whispered, “I just couldn’t.”

“But you didn’t give me a choice!” Eda shouted, her sharp voice startling her. Even Darius looked taken aback. “I’ve been able to protect myself very well, thank you very much, and I’m not so reckless that I would abandon Luz and King for a suicide mission-”

“But you almost did!” Now Raine sprung back up on their feet, arms tightly held by their sides. “You were willing to keep playing our music if it meant stopping the emperor! That was a suicide mission!”

Eda cringed. Okay, yeah, they had a point there. “That’s because I didn’t-,” she glanced up towards the stairs, fondness blooming in her chest at the thought of her officially adopted son and fostered daughter, “-I didn’t realize how important I was to them. But now I know. King even got me to adopt him.”

Raine smiled, their face relaxing into something softer. “I saw that.”

“But,” they continued, “You see what I mean? They need you.”

Eda subconsciously gathered her fluffy hair into a ponytail and flicked her tongue over her golden fang, trying to figure out what to say next. Raine was the only person who could make her feel tongue-tied like this. She felt her cheeks heat up at a much more…different way they used to make her speechless. She turned to face Hunter completely, hoping that neither of the coven heads noticed how red her face had undoubtedly gotten.

Shit, the kid really wasn’t looking good. His face looked sunken and had progressed from pale to ashen. Darius seemed to have noticed too because he said, “Look, I know you two have your problems but right now that’s not important. Could you please postpone your love-life drama for another time so we can focus on what’s actually important here?”

Eda turned her face completely away from the two coven witches, her cheeks now on fire. Who the hell did he think he was? She heard Raine clear their throat awkwardly before stammering, “Ah, well, yes. Um…Eda, when do you think your sister will be here?”

“Soon. She shouldn’t be much longer.”

When she was confident enough that her face was no longer beet red, she began to rifle through her stack of books, looking for anything that could potentially be useful. Darius and Raine continued to sit awkwardly, exchanging silent conversations with one another. Eda sighed. Just a few months ago, she would’ve been caught dead before wishing that her sister was with her. But now, she would give an entire arm if it meant Lily could magically appear to help clear the awkward silence with her nerdy historical anecdotes (though, to be fair, giving an entire arm was easy for Eda with the curse and all). Just a little longer.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Red fire crackled all around him.

It seethed and nipped just at the edges of his cloak, enough to hurt but not enough to completely burn. He didn’t know where he was, or what was happening, but he knew he had to get away and quickly at that.

He started to try and make his way through the fire. Maybe if he jumped through, he would land on another side. One where he wasn’t getting ready to burn alive. With the flames closing in around him, he didn’t see any other choices. He took a breath and-

He was kneeling. His body was pinned down against cold stone tile, the sound of a grotesque heartbeat reverberating through the stagnant air. His breathing shook and he didn’t have to look up to know that he was being stared at by those all too familiar icy blue eyes.

“What a shame.”

A gust of air blew around him and a shadow obscured his vision. The menacing aura of the emperor surrounded him and he trained his eyes onto the floor, an image that was permanently etched into his mind.

“Look at me.”

Trembling violently, he tried to refuse, but his body betrayed him, and his head carefully, almost robotically, tilted obediently up to gaze at the man who had given, and taken, everything.

“Out of all the grimwalkers, you looked the most like him.”

The floor fell away and he was being sucked into something, his body being dragged mercilessly into empty nothingness. Red fire crackled around him once more and the sounds of palistrum wood breaking invaded his ears. His body ached as he strained and fought desperately against the growing pressure. A sharp tendril lashed out and struck his cheek and he screamed as pain erupted, overtaking his senses and forcing his submission into the waiting void below him.

Down, down, down he went, horrible pain everywhere as he screamed for somebody to save him. Somebody to save him from the darkness enveloped around him, from the blood gushing from his cheek, from the tight agony of betrayal in his chest, from the pain coiling low in his gut-

When Hunter’s eyes flew open, everything was blurry and tinged with red. He grabbed his cheek and wheezed desperately, trying to suck in air and watched in horror as his uncle appeared and disappeared before him, over and over. His stomach lurched and he gagged uselessly, dimly aware of various voices surrounding him. Someone slicked back his cowlick and steadied him as he dry heaved into a bucket that had somehow been placed into his lap.

Where was he? Who was he with? Was…Was Belos with him?

When the same slender hand moved to rub his back, he flinched away, whining.

Strong hands squeezing his shoulder too tightly, oozing onto his cloak, bruising him. A hand carelessly flicking his hair, casual because it had all been done before. A spiked tendril striking him, scarring his face and arms and back and legs for the rest of his life.

When he retched again, water and bile made their way out and he gasped, his rib cage finally giving him mercy as his lungs greedily took in air. A hand rubbed in between his shoulder blades and he could hear the voice clearer now. “There you go, up and out, kiddo, you’ll be okay. Keep breathing. That’s it, there you go.”

He inhaled sharply and flinched again when a damp cloth swiped across his face. A weird and bitter-tasting liquid was forced into his mouth and someone pinched his lips shut, forcing him to swallow it. “I know it’s gross, but we’ve gotta see if this one works, kid,” the same gentle voice murmured. Hunter exhaled shakily and swallowed hard, trying to keep whatever it was down.

He was nothing if not very good at doing exactly what he’s told.

Familiar chirping pierced his skull and the little bit of alertness stuck in his body rose up and his vision cleared enough for him to see a defined ball of red hovering near his face. Flapjack.

They hadn’t abandoned him after all.

Before he could reach out and touch them, make sure they were real and not some weird hallucination, his limbs grew heavy and he slumped forward into a pair of slender arms, falling back asleep, this time blissfully dreamless.

Chapter Text

“LULU!”

The three witches all flinched at the sharp, excited scream. “Hooty! Knock it off, you’ll wake Hunter up!” Eda hissed angrily before running to the door. She could hear Raine chuckling behind her and her ears flattened in embarrassment.

The house demon ignored her pleas to quiet down and continued to scream with joy as he wound himself around an equally gleeful Lily, who cradled his head and murmured something Eda couldn’t quite hear. “Hate to break up your reunion, but we need you in here, Lily,” Eda said, tapping her foot rapidly.

Lily nodded hurriedly and said something else to Hooty, who quickly scooped her up and plopped her into the house. “Of course, of course, I’m sorry I took so long. Boiling rain came halfway through the trip. Now,” she clapped her hands together and pulled off the bag on her back, “Has anything changed since you last called?”

Before Eda could say anything, her ears perked at the sounds of her two kids clambering down the stairs. “Eda, what’s going on? We heard Hooty and-oh, hi Aunt Lilith!” Luz chirped.

Lily paused briefly to finger-gun back at Luz. Eda bit back a snort, something Darius couldn’t hold back. Lily glared daggers at him and snapped, “You’re just jealous that I have a cool niece and nephew and you don’t.”

Darius rolled his eyes and said, “Uh-huh. Sure, that’s what it is. You’ve certainly changed since I saw you last, Lilith.”

Lily rolled her eyes at him before saying, “Eda told me that The Golden…Hunter…” She said his name carefully as if she still wasn’t used to the idea of referring to the former emperor’s right-hand man as the kid he actually is, “...was inside Belos’ mind, with Luz. And that, Titans, that the Day of Unity is actually a cover for-for murdering all of witch-kind as we know it. And that Belos is a human and that Hunter is a grimwalker,” she glanced over at the feverish boy on the couch, “a very sick one at that.

She looked at Eda and asked, “Did I miss anything?”

Eda shook her head and said, “No, that’s pretty much it. We’re kind of lost on what to do. Do you know anything about grimwalkers?”

“And do you know anything about illnesses in grimwalkers?” Raine chimed in, rubbing their arms. They had been trying to play a certain melody for the past half hour in an attempt to keep the potion Eda had forced into Hunter down.

Lily cleared her throat and said, “Well, grimwalkers are created with five basic ingredients: Galdorstones, palistrom wood, stonesleeper lungs, selkidomus scales, and a bone of ortet. Galdorstones provide the heart, or ‘power,’ of the creation and the palistrom wood provides the keratin, an essential component to make a clone look like a real person. Stonesleeper lungs are self-explanatory and selkidomus scales-” Lily trailed off and ran her finger down the stack of books she brought before snatching and paging through one.

“Aha! That’s what I thought. Selkidomus scales fortify the skin and internal organs. Now, ‘ortet’ is traditionally used in botany. It’s the original plant from which the clones have descended from. With grimwalkers, it’s a similar concept. You take a bone from the original person and incorporate it into the grimwalker’s solution. This allows the creation to look almost identical to the source.”

Eda shuddered. King had climbed up on her and squeaked in alarm at the sudden movement. She pat his head consolingly as she and Luz shared a similar disturbed look. If you needed a bone from the original person to make a grimwalker, that meant that Belos had a corpse lying around somewhere.

This man really was a monster.

Darius got up from his weird abomination chair and began to pace back and forth. “Okay, so could this disease have something to do with one of his…organs? For lack of a better term?” He asked.

Lily nodded and answered, “Potentially, yes. His body could also be collapsing from the extreme stress. However, his condition is-” She eyed the shivering boy beside her, “-quite intense. I’m guessing it’s a combination of the two.”

As the two witches began to talk more, Eda’s mind drifted off, mulling over the potential of a stress fever. The first week Lily had stayed with them, she had gotten a pretty nasty case of the common mold. And she had been so tired all the time, constantly wanting to lie in bed if she wasn’t hanging out with Hooty or learning new glyph combos (and trying to outdo Eda with said glyph combos).

Luz had walked over to stand beside Eda but now she gasped, eyes widening and hands cupping her mouth.

“Luz? What’s wrong?” Eda asked in alarm. King hopped off her shoulder and scuffled over to be on top of Luz instead. The other adults paused their conversation and turned to look at Luz as well.

She swallowed hard and said, “I um…I have another idea of what may have happened. What-what if Belos is doing this to him? Like, doing it directly?”

Raine inhaled sharply. “That’s possible,” they said. “You said that Belos had tried to…kill Hunter, correct?” Darius scowled and paused his pacing, arms crossed over his chest at the reminder of what had transpired in the emperor’s mind.

Luz nodded slowly. “What if he installed some sort of kill switch inside the grimwalkers? What if that’s how he killed them all?”

The questions hung in the air, heavy, the possibility of a kill switch settling like a terrible weight over all of them. Hunter shifted in his sleep and began coughing again, loud harsh coughs that only heightened their concern. Raine sat on the edge of the couch, helping the spluttering teen to sit up. After a moment, he slumped against Raine, still asleep.

Raine wrapped a steady arm around Hunter and drummed their free hand against their knee. A fleeting thought of how perfect of a parent Raine would be flashed through Eda’s mind and the ache in her chest grew.

“Okay, well, I wouldn’t put that past Belos, especially with the information we now have,” Lily said.

“However,” she continued, “I’m not sure if that is what’s going on. If Belos wanted Hunter erm, removed from the picture, then I imagine he would have done so already.”

“Mm, but he will prolong things if he thinks it’ll add up to something bigger. Or if it’ll be ‘more pleasing to the Titan’,” Darius said, rolling his eyes.

Lily snorted, “That too.”

“So what the fu-” Luz frowned and narrowed her eyes, covering King’s ears. Eda didn’t have the heart to remind the girl that King has heard every curse word out there and let it slide. “-fuuuurick do we do? I mean, there’s gotta be something.”

Lily waved one of her books, a thick maroon book that looked well worn. “I’ve got a book on potential ‘glitches’ and ailments a grimwalker could experience. I’ve been able to find some specific potions as well, some look to be rather simple, too. Edalyn, mind if I have a word?”

“And you too, Hootsifer,” she called fondly to Hooty, who immediately perked up.

Eda raised an eyebrow but complied and followed her sister into the kitchen, Hooty right behind her. “There’s a catch, isn’t there?” She asked quietly.

Lily sighed and Eda realized just how tired she looked. There were bags under her eyes that had just been beginning to disappear and her curly hair looked tangled. She really did come as fast as she could.

“Look, I’m not sure if we’re going to be able to fix this. I know that Darius and Raine told you that he had had a seizure. That can be well, pretty serious. Seizures from a high fever can be indicative of something bigger, like an infection. And there’s not a lot of information on infections in grimwalkers, let alone cures and treatments for them.”

Eda swallowed hard. She wasn’t giving up that easily. She opened her mouth, but Lily had already turned away, rummaging through the cabinets, the various dusty herbal smells quickly filling the air. “However,” she said, “It’s not going to hurt to try some things out. I want to try brewing up a potion for basic stonesleeper infections. If we can’t find specific cures for grimwalkers, then we can start with some of the creatures his organs are from. He’s been coughing a lot, correct?”

When Eda nodded, she continued, “Then that might be our underlying infection. Despite stonesleeper’s sturdy exterior, they used to be rather sickly. It’s why it was often difficult for wild witches to find them; they would be in seclusive environments where it was less likely for them to fall ill.”

Eda clapped her hands together. “Alrighty,” she said, “That’s the stubborn smarty-pants sis I know! What’ll we need?”

“Griffin feathers, a thistle stalk, fairy tears, pinella tree leaves, a cup of dried flies, and some other things in here,” Lily said, her voice muffled as she stuffed her head in another cabinet.

She popped out and abruptly turned to Hooty. With a rare smirk, she said, “And we’ll need fire bee honey. Edalyn appears to be all out, so would you do the honors of getting it, my dear Hootsifer?”

Hooty gasped and shrieked, “MA’AM!” And with that, he launched himself out the nearest window, the glass shattering upon impact.

Eda turned to her sister and groaned, “Did you have to be so dramatic about that? Do you have any idea how tiring it is to constantly replace my windows?”

Lily ignored her, as per usual, and said, “I can finish gathering the ingredients we’ll need. Go ahead and get the pot ready and boiling. We need this potion to be very, very hot.”

Eda nodded and nearly ran into a frazzled Luz as she walked out of the kitchen.

“Whoa there, kiddo, where’s the fire?” She asked jokingly, placing her hands on top of Luz’s shoulders.

“I want to help,” Luz said, hands balling into fists at her sides. “Please, Eda, I can’t just sit around and do nothing. Amity isn’t responding, Gus and Willow are both busy in class, and I can’t keep just distracting myself and-”

“Okay, okay, take a breath. Lily could probably use a hand carrying the ingredients in-”

Before Eda could finish what she was saying, Luz whisked past her and into the kitchen. Eda shook her head and smiled to herself. That girl sure was something.

As she cleaned out and refilled her pot, Hunter once again lapsed into a coughing fit. Only it didn’t stop. Raine was still holding Hunter upright but was visibly struggling to keep the spasming boy still. Darius whisked abomination around him rapidly, providing a safe support cocoon. Eda didn’t have the heart to even jokingly scold him for dirtying her couch.

Hunter’s eyes suddenly flew open, his eyes now a bright gray, almost silver. Wait, what the fuck?

Before any of them could react, he lurched forward as much as he could in his cocoon and hacked up a glob of something murky and gray. Darius flinched backward, almost tripping over himself, and even Raine cringed a little. King darted out from the corner he was sitting in. “I’mgonnagohelpLuzinthekitchen,” he yelped, running out of the room.

Hunter spluttered the remains and took an alarmingly rattling breath in. “Where…where am I?” He rasped. Flapjack tweeted around his head and hovered by his face, chirping a rapid stream of things that Eda couldn’t understand.

“You’re safe, kid, you’re at the owl house. You’re pretty sick, but we’re gonna make you better, okay?” Eda said gently, going over to wipe the rest of the gray stuff off his face with a cloth. Raine rubbed his back consolingly and Darius came around the couch with some water.

“Okay, littl-Hunter. You’ve gotta drink,” Darius said as he attempted to pour the cup into the wheezing teenager’s mouth. At first, Hunter struggled, eyes wild and frantic, but eventually let Darius get some water into his mouth (though most of the cup’s contents dribbled down his mouth rather than into it). Hunter’s eyes fluttered back closed a moment later, and his normal, raspy breathing returned.

Darius pressed a hand to Hunter’s head and frowned, the worry lines on his face deepening. “I don’t know how, but he’s even hotter. How he’s still waking up, I have no clue.” Flapjack ruffled their feathers and resumed perching on top of their witch’s head. A moment later, Owlbert landed right next to Flapjack. Despite the circumstances, Eda felt her lips twitch a little bit. They didn’t deserve to have palismen.

Remembering the cloth in her hand, she held it up to the overhead light, examining the stuff Hunter had coughed up. Whatever it was, it wasn’t normal. She could see small particles in the gunk, almost like tiny pieces of sediment.

Wait.

“Holy Titan, I think she’s on to something!” Eda yelped, just as Lily, Luz, and King corralled back into the living room, each carrying supplies.

“Who’s on to something?” Lily asked as she started organizing the ingredients on the worn wooden table.

Eda wrapped her in a tight hug, ignoring the startled and indignant squeaks coming from her. “You, you big-brained nerd!” She let go and showed Lily the cloth.

Lily gasped and adjusted her glasses. She pulled out a light glyph from her hair (and oh how proud Eda was at that moment - that her sister was finally using her naturally curly hair to store stuff in again, something she hasn’t done since they were kids) and quickly hovered it just over the cloth, peering at it.

“HA! Take that Belos!” Lily shrieked, pumping her fist in the air.

“Okay would anybody like to fill us in on what’s going on here?” Darius demanded, his weird abomination hair flicking about irritably.

Lily had already rushed back into the kitchen with one of her books, leaving Eda to explain their theory. Once she was done with that, she returned to getting the water good and boiling, only half-listening to the others in the room. A moment later, Lily rushed back in with another armful of ingredients. Good grief, how much did they need?

“We can scrap some of this stuff. Oh, I can’t believe how fortunate we are,” Lily squealed. “To think I had a book with a chapter on stonesleeper lung infections!”

“And you’re sure this will be safe?” Raine asked.

“I know my potions and history, Raine, you of all people should know this. Well, besides Edalyn, of course. And maybe Hootsifer.”

As if on cue, Hooty burst through the window (damnit, Hooty), covered in bumps and triumphantly vomited up a jar of fire bee honey. Darius almost looked like he was going to pass out while Raine let out a sharp bark of laughter before embarrassingly covering it up with a cough.

Lily tenderly patted Hooty’s head. “Thank you, my dear friend. Eda, will you be able to handle this potion on your own?”

“Will I be able to handle this potion on my own?” Eda snorted. “It’s like you’ve never met me.”

Lily rolled her eyes affectionately and began leading Hooty out of the room to get him cleaned up. “Holler if you need me, anyway,” she called.

Eda cracked her knuckles and grinned at Luz and King. “I’m going to need you two on standby. I don’t need help, necessarily, but I may need assistance. Might need you two to grab more water, cloths, ingredients, whatever.”
Luz nodded and sat down on the floor, pulling King into her lap, both attentive. Truthfully, Eda knew she was going to be fine, but she also knew that Luz would probably explode if she was just told to do nothing during this.

“Is there anything we can do?” Raine asked.

She smiled at them. “No,” she said, turning her attention back to the potion at hand, “Just keep monitoring Hunter for now.” She didn’t have to turn back around to know that Raine was anxiously rubbing their finger on their face. They were almost as bad as Luz. She snorted at the thought and ignored the puzzled look on her kids’ faces.

Lily and a bandaged Hooty came back just as everything was incorporated into the pot. “Finished, I take it?” Lily asked, settling down on the ground next to Luz and King, Hooty wounding himself around all of them. Eda nodded.

“So what now?” Luz asked, her fingers anxiously stroking King’s fur.

Eda shrugged. “Now we wait for the potion to finish brewing and give it to Hunter.” She glanced at the sickly kid on her couch, taking note of his now gray skin and irregular breathing. She felt her own anxiety bubble up even more and she swallowed hard. We better get this right, Eda thought. Looks like we might not get any more tries.