Healing

3. broken bones

The coven was in pure chaos.

It had been barely a month since Lilith betrayed the emperor and Hunter assumed the mantle of the head of the emperor's coven.

I was, honestly, still in shock.

I've known Lilith since I was a child. I've spent so much time with her through the years that I could honestly say that I've seen her more than my mother.

I looked up to her, soaked up all her advice and let myself become someone that she could be proud of.

I can't believe that she left the coven.

I can't believe that she left me .

I was depressed, to say the least.

I've been working so hard to get here, but it's so different than I imagined it being. I know I'm helping realise the Titan's will, that I'm doing good by helping the emperor achieve his vision, and it should make me happy, but somehow, just being here seems wrong.

Lilith and her guidance were one of the few comforts I've had since I got here. Now that she's gone, things have gotten difficult.

They weren't necessarily good before— no one outwardly hated me, as far as I knew, but no one particularly liked me, either.

But as I'm sure you can imagine, people are not kind to traitors. I kept any doubt about the emperor well hidden and did my best to keep my head down and obey, but it didn't do much to erase the shadow of doubt cast upon my loyalty.

Lilith left without even a word of goodbye and I was left behind to deal with the fallout.

And the worst part? I can't find it in me to even hate her.

The castle was just as grand and beautiful as the first time I visited it as a young witch, with its stone walls, intricate tapestries and rich, green carpets. Its sight was usually enough to bring me some comfort in its familiarity, but nowadays it just left me feeling cold with how small it made me feel.

I try to quicken my step, trying my hardest to make myself unseen. Hunter had requested my presence in his study, which was a strange enough occurrence to make me anxious.

We were friends, of course, but we'd also developed a strange routine to accommodate our busy schedules:

I would go to the library on my weekly, mandatory day off and he would more often than not be there, reading scrolls and old tomes that I'd never heard of. We were friends on those nights, where I'd heal the new cuts and bruises that he accumulated due to his missions, no questions asked, and where he'd talk about his research on ancient magic.

Outside of the little space we created for ourselves, we were nothing more than co-workers.

A scout and the Golden Guard.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Something big must've happened if he had asked for my presence in such an official way.

I knock on the door of the study a few times and only dare to come in when I hear a reply. I enter as quickly as possible, making sure to bow respectfully as to acknowledge his high ranking.

It felt weird to do so when we were alone, but since I assumed this was an official meeting I didn't want to commit any mistakes that might cost me in the future. He didn't even look my way, seemingly preoccupied with something else.

I watched as Hunter tried to open the first drawer on his desk and failed miserably. It took him a minute to notice that it had a lock, and he didn't have the key necessary to open it, which was quite amusing.