Lilith & Hunter: The Raven's Nest

Foreboding

 As I made my way through the empty castle the only thing that I could hear was the echoing of my footsteps and the crackling of torches along the walls. It was late at night and the emperor had ordered his personal guards to take the night off. And had summoned me to meet him in his throne room. Everything was just as it had been the night almost one year ago when he gave Hunter to me. Just as last time he didn’t give me any information as to what he wanted to meet about.

I could only guess that maybe he wanted to discuss Hunter. Though I couldn’t be sure. After all, he had been avoiding that subject for nearly a year now. I found it hard to believe that he would suddenly be interested in him. Though it was possible that he wanted to keep up the appearance that there was a rebel group and that Hunter was still in danger. After all, that was the reason he had wanted Hunter to stay with me. Or perhaps he wanted to give me another child? The thought was so absurd that it almost made me laugh. Though a real fear of such a situation stayed in the back of my mind even when I stood in front of the entrance to the throne room. 

I took a deep breath and then let it out slowly before stepping forward and placing a hand on the large double doors. I pushed them slightly until they began to open on their own. I walked inside and took my place in the center of the room and lowered to one knee while bowing to the emperor. “You summoned me, sir.”

“Yes, I’m glad you could come on such short notice. Now please raise your head. There’s no need to be so formal when it’s just the two of us like this. After all, we’re practically family.” He said this in such a gentle tone. Yet his words sent chills down my spine and I suddenly forgot how to breathe. 

It had been so long since we had been alone together. Even though we meet often the room is always filled with people. Meeting like this now all of a sudden made me remember why this man was the emperor. His mere presence commanded respect and absolute obedience. You need to calm down Lily.

“Yes of course,” I replied managing to keep my voice steady. I tried to steady my nerves by thinking about Hunter. How he is currently sleeping soundly at Eda’s house. How nobody can get to him there because Hooty wouldn’t let them. How Eda could easily take him to the human world if worse came to worse. I didn’t need to be afraid because all that mattered was that my baby was safe. “If I may ask sir, what did you want to discuss?” 

“My nephew of course. I know you tried discussing this in the past but it’s far too dangerous to speak about him without taking strict percussions. Even within these walls you never know who can be trusted.” 

It might have just been my imagination but I felt like he put extra emphasis into those final words causing my body to freeze. Did he somehow know about the discussion I had with Edalyn? Did he know we wanted to remove him from power? Did he know I no longer held any loyalty towards him? This was bad. I had let my guard down. Of course he knew, why else would he have summoned me here in secret? I should have known better. I could feel tears starting to well up in my eyes as the thought that I would not be returning home crossed my mind. 

No Lilith focus, you know how Belos likes to play mind games. You have to stay calm. There’s no way he would know. That’s right there's no way he would know and even if he did there was no way he could get to Hunter while he was with Eda. I held on to my nerve and raised my head to face the emperor keeping my expression devoid of emotion. If he wanted to play games I was well prepared to comply. 

“Yes, sir I understand completely. As for the boy, he is doing splendidly. His is in exceptionally good health and he is reaching his mile stones a bit earlier than other children.” I replied making sure to keep my stoic demeanor. I don’t know why I felt like if he knew how attached I had become to Hunter he would try to take him away from me.