WitchHunter ✔️

The Lochri's Secret

Ace

I need to talk to him. The sun begins to dip low over the horizon. I need to speak with Hale. I need to ensure he knows he can trust me. I didn't plant the bomb. I need him to know I'm innocent, even if it means revealing why I was really in his room. I rub the old picture between my fingers, legs dangling down toward the vicious sea below. The salt filled wind whips my hair around my face, partially obscuring my vision of Vjengardta, just offshore. Escaping that prison is impossible. I'd tried many times. Even if I had been able to get out, the raucous waters would have battered me against the rocks of the cliff and my body would have been devoured by the Carnivorous Sea. Even Kindre Fie, the Octaven god, has abandoned this craggy rock to the frigid waves.

The last beams of sunlight caress my face, and I slip the photo into the neck of my shirt. I'll have to face Hale sooner or later. It might as well be now. My feet are still bare as they carry me across the soft green grass of the courtyard, past the fountain statue of Princess Ivory, King Tiberius's younger sister and Velius's late wife. Her stone dress billows in some long gone wind, water bubbling out from her upward stretched hand. The reason why Candor's family must stay a secret. Well, one of the reasons.

I take my time scaling the south western wall of Fortress, dreading the verbal abuse I am almost certain to face when I reach Hale. The stones are cold, soggy, not having fully dried even through the dry day. My fingers and toes are near frozen by the time I round the corner to the backside of Fortress, looking over the sea and the place I had been sitting moments before. I take a deep breath. Time to tell the truth. I peak around the corner, looking into the empty hole that the massive window had once filled.

Hale sits hunched over on the end of his bed, shirtless, staring down at his open palm and the object therein. All the blood drains from my body as my heart seizes up. Fire. A small dancing mote of flame rests in his palm. The tiniest gasp escapes my throat and suddenly the flame is gone. My eyes land on his face at the same moment his eyes find me. Red. softly glowing, red eyes.

Cinderous.

He stands abruptly. "Ace."

Cinderous. Hale Arsen is Cinderous. I take a step back as he advances, my foot finding open air. I plummet backwards, landing hard on my back in the grass below. Hale appears in the window above me, the last rays of light highlighting his face. "Ace, get back here, now!" He commands.

I suck a breath of frigid air into my lungs. No. I scramble to my feet, setting my eyes upon the smattering of trees on the western edge of the cliff.

"Ace!" Hale hisses.

I glance back to see him sitting on the ledge. He pushes himself off with a grunt, landing on his feet in the grass below. I turn back to the trees, walking briskly. Do I let him catch me? Do I just run? The sea today is far too rough to throw myself into. What will Hale do when he catches me? His footsteps approach me rapidly from behind and I break into a sprint; whatever is about to happen will only take place in the treeline. No wandering eyes will see.

"Ace!" Hale growls.

I make it past the first two trees, safe from prying eyes and ears, and turn to face the charging lochri. His hand locks around my turtleneck. He slams me back against a tree, lifting me from the ground. His eyes glow brightly, his palm abnormally hot even through the thick cloth. I don't know when exactly my tears started, but they leave warm tracks down my face as they cascade from my eyes.

"Hale Arsen." I choke out. "Is a Cinderous lochri." My voice cracks. Why am I crying?

"Don't you say that!" He shoves me harder against the moonwood tree behind me. "Don't you say that about me!" His voice is breathy, panicked.

"You're a WitchHunter, Hale. Your job is to kill the lochri, but you've been one yourself this whole time?" I kick my feet out, landing a blow to his sternum. "You've killed your own kind!" I shout. Why am I so worked up? Why am I so angry? "You've been a lochri this whole time?"

"No!" He shouts back. His hands land on my shoulder, holding me against the rough tree. "Not until today."

Today. The explosion. His curse manifested today. Hale was the bomb.

I shake my head. "You've always been a lochri, Hale. You just didn't know it."

His eyes flash a bright, crimson red. "If you- If you ever tell anyone-"

"Who would I tell Hale? Velius? I lied to him already today! Do you really think I wouldn't lie to protect you?" I shout. I snap my lips shut. I shouldn't have said that.

His eyes flare again, but it's not anger there. I reach up and lay a gloved hand lightly on his temple. "You'll have to learn to control those eyes." I say, barely above a whisper.

"But it's your duty to report." His eyes search mine, his grip on me loosening.

"Last I checked, My Lord, " I give a slight bow, holding eye contact. "I report to you."

"Velius put his faith in you. You aren't trustworthy at all."

"Of course I am, Hale. If I even sense you're becoming a danger to Kindleridge, I'll kill you where you stand."

"You couldn't kill me if you tried."

A wry grin spreads on my lips. "Have you yet noticed the dagger at your belly?"

His eyebrow twitches upward and he steps back as my left hand tightens around the hilt of my emberite dagger. "You're good, My Lord, and you're certainly dangerous, especially now, but you see, my life has always depended on me being the best. And Hale, I am the best."

Hale sneers. "You panic when someone touches your skin."

"You know my secret." I sheathe my blade. "And I know yours. Aren't we so nicely entwined?"

He takes a step back. "Candor and Cozy can't know. They just can't."

"Why not? Do you not think they would support you?"

Hale shakes his head. "They hate the lochri, especially the Cinderous, after what they did to Cozy. He gets... scary. I don't think he would much hesitate to ensure everyone knows I'm-" He cuts himself off. "What I am."

I purse my lips, looking out through the trees toward the sea. The dark waves roil 'neath the grey clouds. "I don't think he would do that to you. Either of them." Especially not Candor. Candor would be relieved.

"Promise you won't tell, Ace. This secret is ours. We take it to the grave."

I meet his eyes. They're largely back to their normal dark green, but there, hidden just beside the left pupil, a tiny twinkle of flame dances in his iris. "I'm your Ace, My Lord. Carrying your secrets is my job."

One day, Hale will be the WitchMaster of Kindleridge. A Cinderous lochri, the most powerful WitchMaster in our nation, and I at his side as he hunts and kills other lochri, unnatural mutants like himself.

Something shifts then. Maybe it was in the way he looks at me, or something in the pit of my stomach, but it's there, and it's powerful. Up to now, we've felt like opposing forces, made to coexist. But that shift, that tiny feeling, redirected us. Solid, supportive. Hale Arsen and his Ace, his weapon, his pistol, now stand on the same ground, facing an entire world, not belonging to any of it.