Chapter 3

I remember walking into the room in the cathedral where my mother was. I'd always loved the way she walked with confidence and the way her horned necklace swayed when she walked, not realizing that she walked with the knowledge that everyone was scared of her and that she'd killed innocents for those horns. Mother turned and smiled at me, but it quickly faded into a frown when she saw my bloodshot eyes. It had been two days since Hazel's funeral and I'd been crying every day since then, but Mother didn't seem to show any emotion or mourning.

"Stop crying, Wren. You are my daughter and we do not cry. You must continue your training to become a hunter. Do what your sister failed to do," Mother said in her stone's voice.

She was only 15 when she'd been sent out on the hunt. She was the last one of that age to go on a hunt. The age then turned to eighteen for safety, and we'd be older and more mature. She'd died trying to save a child who had gotten lost in the woods and the hands of a witch, but she'd been stabbed in the heart by the witch's sharp fingernails, or so mother had spun the story. Even to this day, I don't know what happened to my beloved sister and all I know is that I can't stand my mother.

I'm snapped from the memories when I notice Astrid has stopped walking on the path we've been making for the last hour since we left our small camp to continue our journey,

"You alright?" She adjusts her skirt and I notice pants underneath the thick fabric, not feeling so alone in my want to not bend to feminine fashions.

"Yeah, just lost in thought" I shrug as she walks towards me, standing on her tiptoes to brush some loose branches tangled in my hair as we walked. Her fingers brush the curve of my ear, making me shiver at the feeling of her being so close. I never felt this way around a boy, all warm and soft. Even if she is a witch.

"Let's keep moving. It looks like a storm is brewing" Astrid nods to the dark clouds that linger in the sky.

...

"Emmeline, what should we do?" Gajiel asks my mother, who is looking out the window of the cathedral, ignoring the metal-clad men that surround her. Everyone assumes that she had some part in my survival since my body wasn't found with the others.

"You know I would never do that. I treat my daughter the same as the other Hunters" her voice is angry with a slight hint of fear. My mother has never seemed scared a day in her life, until this moment when she is being accused of helping her daughter survive.

"I want what is best for the village, for the world. I will go to the Council of Witches and destroy them myself if that's what it takes for you to believe me!" she shouts as the soldiers grab her arms, pulling her away from Gajiel. The sharp points from her horned necklace scratches at her neck and ears as it swings all over, getting tangled in her hair.

...

Astrid leads us to yet another cave. Since we're nearing the large mountains, there are a lot of caves tucked into the woods, along with secret pools of icy water.

"How do you know the way to the Council so well?" I climb after her as we scale small cliffs and venture through the valleys tucked in between said cliffs.

"My mother and sisters would often take me to the Council, so I knew the route. Should I have to come here" she responds as we collapse next to a waterfall, tucked into one of the small mountains we just climbed. A winding staircase leads up to a village that is hidden among the cliffs. I don't ask Astrid why there is a village there. I'm just happy we might sleep in proper beds tonight.