Hunter: Fate & Fury

Chapter 17

It was strange to go to new places and see your face, or at least something like it everywhere. Each town Cain and I went to had some level of Empress influence. My abilities varied, from simply being blessed by Gaia to already familiar God Killer tales. One of the villages was creating a statue in the Empress' honour as a way to earn her protection and ward off those like Dionysus. I didn't know where Deimos and Kara were, and while I did care, there were still other things we had to focus on. Now we weren't really hiding like earlier, we moved fast and got what we could before moving on. It was draining and my brain felt like it was finally ready to explode as we came to another village. Now would be a good time to be in the statue making business and the Empress was definitely the new trend.

"I don't blame you for hating me back then." I understood so much more of the past already and Kara's words from our last big argument floated around in my mind as we stood in front of another altar structure that was near completion. "Kara said it best. I really do, did, am? haunting both of you when you sit on that throne. You did so much, but it wasn't enough. She's doing the same and now this. Am I going to lose her?"

"No. You're not who is haunting her, and I never hated you. She doesn't either."

"There's a fine line between love and hate." I sigh as we leave it behind.

"Last one, I think we've gone far enough down this path. We'll release the Harpy, see what else her sisters have to say and go from there." Cain held my hand as we slowly walked down the street, the final stop just ahead as I saw the hotel signage around the front of the building.

Drunk people loved to talk, and while most of what we heard was the same if it was Hecate out on an Empress PR circuit. There was no denying how busy she had been to the point I wasn't even sure if she was working alone. The worst-case would be it wasn't her, which meant there was someone else out there doing this and I didn't really want to explore that option. It felt like a lot more work and wasting time we didn't have. Just like how this whole day had turned out.

We hadn't gone far, but something felt different here that made me be even more aware of our surroundings. Despite keeping my head down, everyone looked at me in a way they hadn't everywhere else. It was as if they saw through the disguises and knew who we were. They purposefully left a space around us, yet came closer. Smiles replaced the seriousness of earlier, and glancing behind, people stopped whatever they were doing to huddle up into groups to point and whisper.

"We're not staying here." Cain decided a second after I was about to question what was going on, when a familiar face came running out onto the street.

The woman looked around desperately before seeing us.

"Oh shit."

"That's the girl that led you to the Harpy attack." Cain pointed out.

"This is her hometown." Looking around now, the crowds didn't continue to terribly hide their excitement or interest and neither did Yasmin as she skidded to a stop in front of us. "Oh, big, big, shit."

She was on the floor instantly, curled into herself as she stretched her arms out as if we were able to conduct a yoga class, and not whatever we'd just walked into. Yasmin begged for forgiveness, told us at least a million times to take her life for the one nearly lost because of her betrayal and then somewhere at the end of it, she invited us to dinner.

"Yasmin, get up. We're not here to kill you." Cain snorted, and glaring at him, he pretended not to notice.

Slowly she rose, oblivious to the crowd. Her eyes were glossy with tears and I noticed all the dirt now smeared on her face; she really must have been giving it her all down there. I wasn't sure if having her stand was better or worse as now she seemed to tremble all over and my words earned a cheer as well as a heap of clapping from the audience that was only growing.