Hunter: Fate & Fury

Chapter 6

"Oh, fuck." It took me a second to recognize that was my voice as slowly my eyes began to regain focus. My head, neck, arms, well, most of me hurt actually and as what just happened hit me with as much force as whatever hit my head, I was up sitting. "Fuck."

The room spun, the weight on my wrists too familiar to ignore and scared to admit whatever position I now found myself in, I looked down. Yup. golden cuffs kept my powers at bay and ever so I pulled them up closer against my stomach. Closing my eyes I took a few, deep, slow breaths.

Stay calm.

Are you still okay in there, Blueberry?

Daring another look around and on me, there was no blood and what did hurt seemed to be shoulder height and higher. That had to be positive. Groaning I rolled my shoulders, nothing felt broken. Also a plus.

The room itself was fairly empty, with no decorations and stone walls yet it wasn't cold or damp. Not quite an ancient dungeon but nowhere as clear or impressive as the palace I'd just left behind. The day bed I had been left on had clearly seen better days, with a few holes in the cushions and a sunken patch on one side.

Getting up, I moved slowly to try and work with the dizziness that stayed with me and the light from behind the door was my target. The large gap under the door would give away my position if anyone was paying attention and right now I didn't really care. No windows kind of implied there was only one way in and one way out so I'd be going this way eventually.

Sliding down the wall, I peeked through the space I could just crawl under but decided to assess what I'd be crawling out into if I decided to go out there. A large fireplace was to the right, with a huge chandelier lit up in the centre of the room. More animal heads that I think would be socially acceptable in even Gastons' trophy room covered the walls and not just animals. Monsters, trolls and dragons, every species you could think of seemed to be accounted for.

Whoever was here made me think Chrysaor wasn't so bad after all.

Somewhere out of view, something banged and the undeniable thump of footsteps followed. Rolling out of view, I stayed against the wall not daring to look until I was sure who was there wasn't about to come in here. Peeking now, the man I'm positive was the one who took me had his back to my door and was hunched over the table. It was then that tiny little tickle swirled in the pit of my stomach and I nearly cried with relief as I moved away from the door and back to the chair as silently as I could.

I had to get us out of this, and to do that I was going to have to ask myself that all-important question, what would Zane do?

"I hear you, little mouse." He growled, a deep chuckle following. "Scurrying around your cage."

Okay, so he knew I was awake.

Well, I was never good at planning or being like Zane.

Trying the handle, the door opened easily and cautiously coming out of the room, he turned to face me. His beard was free now, and he looked less like a male version of Eris than I expected and more like a younger, dare I say attractive, version of Santa; white beard and all.

"Oh hey there Santa." I smiled. "Not sure if you're used to having visitors that aren't elves, but the whole knock out, kidnap and wake up with these on aren't how to win friends or influence people."

His beard twitched slightly, the unmistakable grinding of teeth filling the space between us.

"You can ah, get these off me now. Anytime. Promise I won't even make it hurt." I smiled, trying to stay calm as I was positive he was no jolly fat man.

I'd walked into that body of stone and was pretty sure my nose was bruised from the effort. Without my powers, and with Blueberry onboard, I did not like my odds going against him one on one. Holding out my wrists, he merely stared. His bright blue eyes narrowed with an undisguised hate burning in them.