WitchHunter ✔️

The Friend

Candor

My Hunter uniform is tucked safely away in my room in Fortress as I walk plainclothed down the cobbled streets of Kindleridge. It's important no one recognizes me as a Hunter. Velius Dag has certain, strict requirements for his Hunters that the other 7 WitchMasters don't share, including Hale when we were in Vetton.

The sun angles down into my face as it rises into the morning sky, and a chill winter breeze picks up through my hair. The medium sized two story home sits humbly on the corner at about the midway point down the ridge. Its dark, shingled siding is in decent shape, and grey stone wraps around the bottom, broken only by the door and a couple windows. I look around, ensuring no one is too interested in me, before slipping inside.

The smell of warm sweet tack greets me as I enter, the livingroom dark, save for the light filtering in from the archway to the kitchen. The clank of plates meets my ears and happiness wells up in me as I practically run to the sound.

I skid to a stop on the brown tile floor and see her. Tall, thin like a willow, with wavey strawberry hair cascading down around her shoulders. She doesn't stand like a normal person does, like I do. She almost seems to float, her very presence ethereal. I've been away from her for less than a day, but I missed her presence ever so much.

My wife of three years turns around, startling as she notices me. "Oh, you scared me."

Her smile takes my breath away and I race forward, scooping her up and lifting her into the air. "Juliette Ovilenna Nash, you are the most beautiful woman alive."

She makes a face, her nose crinkling, before shoving her wet dishrag in my face. I set her down, wiping away the moisture.

"So how was the party?" She asks.

"Oh it was ghastly." I place the back of my hand to my forehead. "Horrible! Me, all alone in a crowded room. Strangers gawking, but not seeing. The woman I love, nowhere to be found. The drink to comfort me, sour."

She whips me with the towel, laughing at my sorrows. "Oh what a bother, going to a party in your honor." She goads on.

"A beautiful girl with a rhyming tongue." I catch her face in my hand. "My mind was on something much more enthralling than a party, Sweeting."

"And what could be more enthralling than a party?"

I twirl a blonde curl around my finger. "Only a pair of beautiful girls with hair the color of a champagne river at sunset."

As if on cue, the sound of little feet pitterpattering down the hall meets my ears, and I turn to find a tiny replica of my wife enter the kitchen.

"Daddy!" she squeals, and I hoist the beautiful ray of sunshine into the air. At just two years old, Avenna Mae is already rivaling her mother for the title of the most beautiful woman in the world. Her little arms wrap around my neck, squeezing tightly. And this, my secret, for Velius Dag does not allow his Hunters to take up wives or have children, for those sorts of relationships only give the enemy power over us. Hypocritical, considering his relationship with Hale, who may not be his real son, but the relationship is the same.

Hale saw things differently in Vetton, and swore to help keep my family safe if we ever had to return to the Ridge. But, although lax to the family rule, Hale still can't know everything. For even as my best friend, his mission will always come first. Maybe Velius is right about family and daughters making us more prone to the evil, because as the 2 year old pulls away, her eyes glow bright, and wind begins to pick up in my kitchen.

"Shh." I place my hand over my Squallous baby girl's head, meeting her mother's eyes. Avenna Mae Nash must remain the best kept secret in Kindleridge, and in all of Octaven. Or else, even without the powers of a Cinderous lochri, I will set the world ablaze.