Hunter: Crossroads

Chapter 12

The Valkyrie kept their distance, yet the looks of curiosity and whispers between the woman told me enough. I didn't blame them. Some of these were faces I didn't recognize and the new ones here would only know me as the crazy bitch who took on the Dark King. Meghan was being her usual delightful self and it also wasn't hard to pick up that her initial dislike towards me was still firmly in place. She did try to hide it better these days, but right now, here was the only place I wanted to be as we both waited for Kara and Co to return.

Because they would return.

"A penny for your thoughts?" Landorian perched himself on the arm of the sofa, peering down at me with a look of pure sympathy that I wanted to slap off his face.

I needed to hit something.

"It's going to cost you more than a penny."

"What about a card?" He fanned out the deck I hadn't even noticed he was holding and held them out towards me. "Pick with your left hand. No hurry, sweet heart."

"I don't need a card." I looked at them cautiously, not admitting I was slightly tempted.

"No? We all need guidance from time to time, Hunter. A message from the universe-"

"I am going to stop you right there. That is literally the last thing I need."

He shrugged, "You know where to find me if you change your mind."

I watched him walk down to the lower level of the bar. Closing it my ass, as the place was filled with the usual crowds as if it was any other night.

"Are you going to sleep in Eric's room?" Meghan asked, finally looking away from her phone. "Good call on the cards by the way. Still don't trust that trickster."

"No, why?"

"I'm exhausted. I can't be bothered going back to my place, so I was going to go crash in there." She sighs. "I get how hard it is to be left behind. We've waited long enough, and they're not back yet. Get some sleep. Who knows what tomorrow will bring."

She says something to the Magician as she passes him, but he doesn't leave the bar. I'd heard a rumour they'd been spending a lot of time together lately, only then I remembered I didn't care and ended up at home. Meghan was right. Who knew what tomorrow would bring and I felt completely drained as I curled up in bed. My mind though, that traitor was wide awake as a million scenarios began to play out in my head; none of them good.

"Hunter?" Portia's voice interrupted my thoughts and forcing my eyes open, her pale form took Cain's place on the bed beside me. "Are you awake?"

"Unfortunately."

"I am sorry. For everything." She said softly. I felt the coldness of her fingers as she reached down to push my hair back from my face. "I watched you so often as a babe. You were a terrible sleeper, even then. Always needing to know someone was near. Some nights, when your parents were nearly at their breaking point, and Jordan was threatening to throw you out to the vampires, I'd sit and hold you so they could sleep. They'd wake up so scared that something had happened because you hadn't kept them up all night."

"That doesn't sound creepy at all." I sighed. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because, child I hate what I have become. Those years at the Academy, you would come to me in your time of need. Every disappointment or argument with your parents. After every fight with the other children, and the nights I'd catch you up in the library. You would come to me, as if I were the part of your family I wished I could actually be."

I sit up, hugging my pillow as I look at her. "That wasn't real. Huntington, wasn't real. It was all part of a bigger plan, remember? "

"Darius wasn't real either." She reminded me.