Emrys swiped his key card and with one swift push, the heavy door to the private section was open.
"Fun fact," Emrys said. "Before I started working here Graham had to go light up all of these torches by hand. I showed him my first day a spell that would light them all up whenever someone walks in. Saves fuel too and is a lot easier." Emrys turned to Hunter and smiled.
"So you're a fire mage?" Hunter asked.
"Nope!" Emrys popped the p.
"What kind of mage are you then?"
"Don't worry about it," Emrys winked.
Hunter decided to not push for more info. Emrys was suspicious but he was helpful so far. Maybe Emrys wasn't suspicious and Hunter was just on edge. He wasn't sure.
Emrys pulled out a chair at a small table in the center of the private section and sat down.
"Can we go somewhere more private?" Hunter didn't want anyone to overhear their conversations.
Emrys looked around the library before his eyes fell back on Hunter, "No one else is in here."
"Oh," Hunter said, sitting down.
"So what were you looking for that is dangerous enough it's in the spooky private section," Emrys smiled wiggling his fingers at Hunter like he was casting a spell.
"I need to summon a demon his name is uh Zekai,"
Emrys raised an eyebrow, "Zekaj's brother?"
"You know who Zekaj is?" Hunter asked.
"Well he's only one of the most dangerous demons, right?" Emrys said. "Why would you want to summon his brother?"
"I uh," Hunter thought quickly and didn't know what to say. He finally spit out the first thing that came to mind. "I was dared by two wolves."
"Dared?" Emrys held his raised eyebrow, tilting his head now.
"Yeah," Hunter said.
"Alright then, well the void demon section is this way." Emrys stood up and waved his hand for Hunter to follow him.
Hunter used all of his strength to stand up, which was very little. The stairs and socialization had tired him out.
Hunter found Emrys looking behind the books on the shelf like he was missing something. He quickly looked over at Hunter when he turned the corner and pulled out a book.
"Well there's this one with all known demon summoning marks and," Emrys stood up and picked a book off the top shelf, his long-sleeved shirt riding up his chest. In the dark of the library, Hunter thought he saw some bright tattoos on the sides of his abs.
If Zekaj were here he'd definitely be trying to fight Emrys because of Hunter's accidental wandering eyes. He didn't mean to check Emrys out like that.
"You're lucky Arthurs not here or he'd definitely try to fight you," Emrys chuckled.
Hunter's cheeks went bright and he sputtered, "I wasn't checking you out I just-"
"I know, I know," Emrys's chuckle deepened. "I can tell you already have your eyes on someone else."
Emrys patted Hunter on the shoulder and headed back towards the table. Hunter stood there incredibly embarrassed until Emrys poked his head around a bookshelf.
"Coming?" He asked.
"Yep!" Hunter shouted in surprise.
"Hey! No yelling in the library!" Emrys laughed.
Hunter turned around and followed him towards the table, his head hanging low in embarrassment.
The olive-skinned man dropped the two books on the table creating a loud thud.
"Oops," Emrys said sheepishly.
The two sat in their chairs and Emrys slid the book Void Demon Summoning Marks to Hunter.
Hunter immediately opened it up to try and find anyone in the Voidborne family. The book was alphabetical, Aegon who would be around the beginning wasn't. At the end of the book was Zekaj's mark that didn't work. Zekai, nor Caroline's, marks were in the book.
The small mage couldn't handle it and slammed the book shut and chucked it. With one quick motion, Emrys caught the book in cat-like reflexes.
"Woah Woah Woah, calm down lil' dude," Emrys chuckled. "Zekai must keep his mark hidden. So he probably doesn't like being summoned."
Emrys sat back down and opened it up, "The void demon population is small and has only recently started getting bigger but it's still pretty small. This book only has like 10 marks in it. Have you tried maybe summoning Zekaj and asking him for Zekai's mark?"
"I tried but he's not answering or," Hunter couldn't help the tears from falling. He never finished his sentence.
"Woah, hey," Emrys was suddenly at his side. "It'll be alright you'll get your, uh, bet done. I know it."
Emrys pulled Hunter into a hug and Hunter sobbed into his shirt. His emotions were running rampant as anger, sadness, and embarrassment filled his body.
"Sometimes," Emrys paused and sighed. "Life throws whatever it gots at you. Some of that being moments you love, some being hate. Trust me I know. Arthur and I had a rocky start. People kept us apart and at moments it felt like we would never get to be together."
Emrys pulled back and looked Hunter in the eyes.
"But we fought, and we pushed on because that's all you can do. Now here we are, we might not be in a great place but we're together. And that's all I could wish for." Emrys wiped his own tears that had trickled down his face. "I know whatever is troubling you will pass. Hunter, you are strong. You will get past this."
"I don't feel like I can," Hunter choked.
"I know you can." Emrys pulled Hunter back into a hug.
Hunter remained in Emrys' embrace, Emrys didn't seem to want to budge until Hunter stopped crying. Hunter didn't mind. He really could use the hug and it was helping him stop crying.
It was nice to have a hug from someone he liked. With Emrys' strong body, it was almost like a less-muscular Zekaj was hugging him. Zekaj's hugs were strong and tight like he wanted you as close as possible. Emrys' were the same just less of everything and calmer. He didn't feel like Emrys would break his back like Zekaj's sometimes seemed they would.
"If Arthur saw us hugging he'd definitely beat your ass."
"I can take him," Hunter laughed. It felt good to laugh.
"Dude you're a twig and Arthur is pretty muscular. He'd snap you in half. He is a shorty though." Emrys smiled cheekily.
"Ow!" Emrys suddenly hissed. He looked back at his ankle and rubbed it.
"You ok?" Hunter asked.
"Yeah, damn ghosts," Emrys mumbled.
"Ok so," Emrys changed the subject. "Anything else?"
"Uhm," Hunter twiddled his thumbs trying to think.
"What could cause a demon to not be able to answer a summon?"
Emrys sat there thinking.
"Not much besides themselves," Emrys said. "Now of course I'm not an expert on demons, heh. Basically, the only thing that could keep a demon from being summoned is themselves or, well, it's rare and hasn't happened for years."
Emrys started rambling, seemingly to himself. "Demons used to sometimes have another demon that they could basically merge with, sharing the same summoning mark and if the two weren't together they couldn't be summoned. But that hasn't happened since-"
Emrys looked at Hunter, his eyes wide open.
He coughed before continuing, "It was apparently a thing spirit demons could do. Yeah. I read it from some random books that survived Amet's sinking."
"Oh, but can two demons have the same mark and not be able to do this merging thing?" Hunter asked. He knew there was no way the two of them could merge like that. At least he assumed so, Zekaj was way too big compared to him for them to be anywhere near compatible.
"Well I've never seen it happen," Emrys said. "Well, read about it."
"So theoretically it's possible?"
"Well anything is possible," Emrys smiled. "Why do you ask?"
"Oh just wondering," Hunter lied.
Was it possible that because both him and Zekaj shared a summoning mark now, that he couldn't summon Zekaj because the two weren't together? It made sense based on what Emrys said. He was shocked he hadn't put two and two together.
Zekaj wasn't ignoring his summons. He wasn't receiving any because Hunter wasn't there. Hunter breathed a sigh of relief.
The two ended up diving into books, Hunter reading the book about the lost city of Amet and Emrys reading some random book he pulled off the shelf. The two together had read for about two hours when Hunter's phone suddenly rang.
"Hello?" Hunter answered the phone without looking at the contact.
"Hey Hunter, I've finished everything I needed to and was wondering when you wanted to head home?" His father said on the other side.
"Uh, I can right now." Hunter looked at Emrys who was simply smiling at him.
"Sounds good do you want to meet at the entrance then?" Jaxon asked.
"Alright, bye dad."
"See you there kid," Jaxon hung up the phone.
"Here's mine and Arthur's number, we share a phone," Emrys said. "If things ever get tough don't hesitate to call. You can rant to us all you want,"
"Alright," Hunter shyly smiled. "I'm sorry I have to go."
"It's fine, don't worry Hunter." Emrys smiled. This guy smiled a lot. "I was wanting to go home and cuddle with Arthur anyway."
"Graham doesn't mind if you leave early?" Hunter asked, standing up from his seat and holding the three books.
"Well my shifts are up in the air, I more or less come in whenever I want," Emrys said., taking the two books and talking to Hunter as they made their way back to their spot. "I like to help Graham stock shelves and Arthur is usually with me so I stay longer then."
"Do you want me to put this one back?" Hunter asked, holding up the book on Amet.
"Nah, I'd take it with you. I'll check it out for you when I come in next." Emrys replied. "Don't worry about it."
Hunter just smiled back and Emrys and the two left for the entrance to the institute.
It took only a couple of minutes to get to the entrance when Hunter came to a stop and threw his hand at Emrys' brick wall of a chest and pushed them into another hallway.
"Hunter what are you-"
"Shh," Hunter said, peering around the corner.
There his sister stood at the entrance to the institute blocking the exit.
"It's my sister," Hunter answered.
"Oh," Emrys peered around Hunter and got a look.
Ben and her were talking and Hunter was lucky enough to hear what they were saying.
"Forget your coven and come back to Arizona with me! We'll be safe there," Ben pleaded.
"We are fine here, that demon is not coming back anytime soon," Hannah rolled her eyes.
"No, Hannah, listen to me. That's not just some lowlife demon, that was Zekaj. Son of Aegon, ruler over the void. When he gets back, and he will, he will come for us!"
"You can protect me, baby," Hannah said.
"Hannah, I promise you. Nothing is going to stand in his way. If I had known-"
"Well, you didn't know. Neither of us actually thought Hunter had a demon inside of him and there he was. Keeping a demon with him until the right moment to take over our coven. Now my dumbass father is playing family and trying not to be a disappointment to him."
"Baby, please just listen to me-"
Hannah cut him off again, "If you didn't fail to get it into my father's head that Hunter had some dangerous demon inside of him that wanted to kill us all as we planned then my family wouldn't be falling apart. Hunter would be shipped off to some psych ward where he'd never see the light of day again and it'd just be us four."
Hannah pushed through the doors and Ben quickly followed her, pleading she would listen to him and move to Arizona.
Hunter sat there wide-eyed and Emrys' face mimicked his.
"Well, I didn't expect that," Emrys mumbled.
"Me neither," A voice suddenly said from behind them.
Hunter jumped back and smacked his head into Emrys who didn't even flinch. The two turned to an angry Jaxon who stood behind them. Hunter was shocked to see his father there, but Emrys didn't.
"Hunter let's," Jaxon sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Let's go home."
"Bye Emrys," Hunter said.
"Jaxon do you mind if I keep Hunter for a second?" Emrys suddenly said. Hunter didn't know what he wanted.
"Sure, meet me at the car Hunter," Jaxon said, his voice stern. Angry, but not towards Hunter.
Emrys smiled at Jaxon who didn't return it as he left through the double doors. Emrys' smile disappeared as he suddenly looked at Hunter with a serious expression. It was slightly scary and reminded him of Zekaj.
"Remember what I said, alright? Never give up. Things will get better."
"Ok," Hunter calmly smiled. Emrys' smile soon returned.
"Have a good rest of your week Hunter," Emrys said. "It's time for me to go demand cuddles from Arthur."
"Well have fun then," Hunter said.
"I hope the two of you get to meet soon. And I hope I get to meet him too soon. See ya."
Before Hunter could even reply Emrys was gone with a sudden wink, heading in the opposite direction of the parking lot.
Hunter just stood there before, leaving the institute. Which he hoped was for the last time.
A/N:
Emrys is a fun character that I've thought about for so long and am finally happy to introduce him to you all. He's definitely suspicious at the moment, and for good reasons.
So what did you think of the two reveals?
Zekaj (possibly) can't be summoned due to them sharing a mark. Do you believe this or could it be a different reason?
Hannah and Ben had formed a slightly elaborate plan to get rid of Hunter. Showing that Ben is a big ol' fraud. How's Jaxon going to react?
With the start of a the month a new payment period of Patreon begins! Subscribing now for 5 dollars is best as it helps you get your moneys worth of early chapter! Things are about to start heating up and you don't wanna miss it! <3
Thank you all for reading!
-Mek
P.s
this is the last chapter of httad as i am bored of it. i will now be writing omegaverse mpreg fan fiction. fank yew. <3333
also zekaj is dead
and happy april fools!
<3