Golden Slumbers

Chapter 6

"So let me get this straight," Edric said, clapping his hands together. A few hours of Hunter completely oversharing every detail that he knew about Belos and the Day of Unity had passed and Edric was already looking less sickly. "Belos is an asshole."

"He's not an asshole-" Hunter tried to argue before being cut off.

"Nope, shut up, I'm not finished. Belos is an asshole."

Hunter stared at him in disbelief. "You literally didn't add anything to what you just said!"

"Do I need too?!"

"Look, he has a point. Belos needs me for the Day of Unity. It's too close to find a replacement, so I can't do anything stupid. Especially plan a rebellion of all things!"

"So you're justifying us never seeing each other again and that asshole taking over the Boiling Isles?"

"No! I'm just saying it'll be hard to maintain whatever- this -is. Even if we somehow manage to do all of that. I don't know who I am without the coven."

"This?"

"You know what I mean.."

"Do I?" Edric laughed. He sounded disappointed, like he wanted to know what Hunter was saying. Not that Hunter himself was even sure what he was saying.

"Are we friends?" Hunter asked.

"Are we, Blondie?" Edric half-smiled before walking to his window and opening it.

Hunter stood up and followed the Blight as he sat on the windowsill. The small bat that had been asleep on Edric's desk flew up and turned into a staff in front of the boy. Hunter's own palisman, who had been fast asleep next to Edric's, flew and perched itself on the blond's shoulder.

"Edric.."

"Come on, Hunter. We've got a lot of brainstorming to do and Amity should be here with backup soon," he feigned a smile and pulled the blond onto his staff, flying down to the spot in the woods where they had first gotten to know each other.

"Edric-"

"Ok, so there's gotta be away around this whole Belos thing, right? I mean there's always a loophole."

"Edric," Hunter continued trying to catch the boy's attention.

"I mean he can't stop you from leaving right? That would be bullshit. The rebellion is obviously more risky but with everyone else's help.."

"Edric, please," he finally got through the Blight's deranged ranting. "I promise I'll try and figure out some way around all of this, if you can promise that, if something happens, you won't risk your life doing something stupid."

"Why not? If 'something' happens," he made air quotes, "then hell yes I'm going to help. Why don't you want me to, Hunter?"

"Because I like you, okay? And I don't want to see you getting hurt over something this stupid."

"You like me, huh?" Edric's eyes dropped to the floor as if he was expecting a better reason.

Hunter glanced away. Titan, here goes nothing.

He grabbed Edric's hands and met the boy's eyes. "Edric Blight, I love you. And I would greatly appreciate it if you would not get yourself killed trying to save your supposed enemy."

Edric's mouth was slightly ajar with shock or relief or possibly both when their special moment was interrupted by a bunch of rustling bushes.

Hunter's palisman, still perched on his shoulder, turned into a staff in front of the boy. He traded Edric's hands for the staff and stalked towards the bushes.

"Who's there?" He demanded, pointing his staff towards the leaves.

"Ow ow ow ow! Amity!" The human's voice said from inside the bush.

"Sorry, Luz!" He heard another voice, probably the Blight, say.

Hunter lowered his staff with a sigh. "Edric, your backup is here."

Hunter offered his hand to the idiots stuck in the bush. Out came Amity, the human, and the Owl Lady. Oh, and the rat was there too.

"Ed!" The younger Blight immediately hugged her brother. The human joined, creating a group hug around Edric.

Hunter stood awkwardly to the side with the Owl Lady.

"So, kiddo. Planning a great escape?" She said, watching as King jumped from a tree branch onto the group hug.

Hunter shrugged. "I'm not sure that's possible. Belos won't stop until he finds me... alive or dead."

Eda's smile dropped. It looked like she was about to say something else when Luz broke free from the group hug and began jumping up and down in front of Edric.

"You didn't tell me we had to deal with a forbidden romance on top of all this!" Luz exclaimed.

Hunter watched as Edric's face flushed, starting to feel heat rise on his own cheeks.

"Leave it to my brother to fall in love with the enemy's right hand man. Emira would slap you if she were here," Amity chastised her brother.

"Amity! We're not dating!" Hunter's smile disappeared at Edric's comment, his eyes dropping to the woodland floor.

"Kids, kids calm down there's plenty of time for flirting later," Eda looked between Hunter and Edric, "for now we have to plan a rebellion!"

"World domination!" King yelled from atop Eda's head.

Luz and Edric began play fighting with the small demon as Amity made her way over to Hunter.

"Hey," she said, unsure of her words.

"Amity," Hunter nodded towards her, "Does your brother happen to have a plan or are we going to plan an entire rebellion in the next few hours?"

"Actually-" Amity began to say.

"Actually, I do!" Luz interjected, her hair ruffled from King.

She wrapped her arm around Hunter's shoulder, pulling him towards her and throwing her other hand up in the air.

"Now here's the plan."