Huntress

Chapter 88

I was the one to give Cassy the cure. Everyone was as optimistic as they were wary. The cure had been provided by the alchemists who had been taken to a detention facility. Unlike the fairies who had little idea of what their leaders were doing, almost all the alchemists had been compliant with Dawn and Armond's wishes. The greed was strong enough for them to throw away an eternity. And it might have been so strong that this was not the end of the war.

Milo had announced that he would be the first to take a dose of the wolf-drain cure. Ajax just rolled his eyes and pointed out that we would never know if it even worked. The risk he would be taking had no reward.

I suggested Cassey. And though Ryder had been worried about what her family would think, I knew better.

I knew the desperation. I knew the grief and the exhaustion. And I knew what a little bit of hope could do. When I showed up at their door after days of driving, they didn't hesitate to invite me in. I explained that we worked together and that I couldn't guarantee anything, but I might have had a something to help their daughter. It was all eager nods and little gasps of hope.

I did my best not to wince at the sight of Cassey before administering a dose. While I held her head back to help her swallow, I wondered if she knew me. I wondered if she was frightened, how much of her days she could actually remember.

I stayed with her family while we waited. I had never met either of them before and I didn't know if they were parents or relatives or just people who loved her enough to care for her. But just a pinch of hope was enough prompting to get them to feed me a mountain of cookies and fill my mug up with acidic coffee over and over again.

I was there for hours. I witnessed some trembling tears, heard awful tales, nodded along sympathetically when needed. Everything I was hearing from them was the same story I had heard over and over again. One day she was fine, then slowly, things started to slip away from her. just like the first ones in her family to be affected by the wolf-drain. They feared that it was genetic, that they were next or that someone else would also become a burden to them.

"I'm too scared to go check," the woman croaked.

The risk of the hope fracturing was too much. I knew that pain so well. But what they didn't know is that we had a light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe this treatment hadn't worked. Maybe it was the alchemist's last stunt. But there would be a cure. Even if it had to be ripped out of someone.

"I can go look," I offered, already standing.

I navigated my way through the home slowly. As much as I knew there was still hope on the horizon, I faltered just outside of her room. I had already lost so much. Even if we weren't close, I wasn't sure I could bear losing her too. How many bodies could I see before I snapped? How many souls did I have to witness leaving this earth?

But this was the start. Good, bad, or ugly, I had to cross this hurdle.

I went into her room.

And there was Cassey, turning her head to look at me.

"Huntress," she whispered, her voice so hoarse from the months of silence.

Tears welled in my eyes. "It's just Georgia now," I corrected gently. Then I stepped back into the hallway and said, "Come see her!"

I left shortly after that, giving her time to reconnect. I would have to explain everything to her. like all of the other hunters, she would be taken in and the royals would relay all the information. Ajax was a little too robust for the situation so Keiko often did most of the talking. Then, at the end, I would be called in so they could see me. I would tell them my entire truth. After that, we could only hope that they made the right decision. So far, we had been lucky.

It was the alchemists and fairies who were not so lucky.

The council would not be kind. Dawn and Armond might have thought that their war was worth it. they might have thought that giving their species destined mates and shapeshifting abilities was worth every risk. But I wondered if being a cold, underground cell for the rest of their days was what they had envisioned. The greedy little alchemists who were dying out anyway rotted alongside them, only being granted special privileges when they released information or made antidotes for the abomination they created.

At first, I had been angry. They didn't even have the courage to hunt wolves themselves. We had killed on their behalf. I had watched innocent wolves die all because I thought I was doing the right thing. But Ajax had seemed pleased with the outcome.

When I grilled him about it, he just shrugged. "I think an eternity of suffering is worse. Dawn and Armond are the rulers that took over immediately after the ones that fought with King Archer and King Leo centuries ago. They've been around for at least a hundred years. And I think spending their last hundred in a cell while my people thrive is quite the punishment. They wanted more power, but all they got was more time to think about their actions. They'll know when new royals are elected in their place. They'll know just how discontent their people were."

After that, I felt a little bit better.