I sat up clutching my chest, heaving long, deep breaths. As I looked around, I slowly realized that I was in the hospital ward. Head Buhari stood over my bed with a soft smile on her darkened, withered face. The bright purple of her suit and the smoothness of her white hair contrasted in my mind with the chaos from before.
“Good morning, Miss Paige,” she said in a deep, cool voice. “We’re glad to have you back.”
I pushed myself up to sit against the pillows. “What happened?”
She lowered herself onto the edge of the bed and crossed her legs at the ankles. Her soft hand lay on top of mine. “We found Miss Everest banging on the door outside the Records Room, trying to get in. When we opened the door we found the place blackened and blown away, paper everywhere, shelves knocked over—a real mess.
“Through the wreckage we located you and Mr. Rutherford. You were in critical condition, but Mr. Rutherford did not make it. Apparently, he had been the one to steal from the Dark Artifacts room. He was also the one who lead me away on the pretense of business. I should have seen right through him. He had been such a loyal member of the Chamber for so many decades that I never questioned him, never thought he could do what he did.”
She paused and removed her hand from mine. Her high cheekbones seemed to press against her eyes and lift them up as she smiled. I couldn’t believe it. I had stopped Casimir from unleashing the demons.
“You did a wonderful job, Kamlyn. You followed your instincts when no one else believed you. Casimir had everyone fooled, but not you. You saved a lot of lives by tossing that silver into the goblet. The true heart of a Huntsman lies within you.”
Her words touched me and warmed my insides. But worry quickly crept up in me and took over as I shifted on the bed.
“What happened to the goblet?” I asked.
Casimir had said there were others like him and if that was true, they would be after it once word of this got out.
“No need to worry. We destroyed what little was left. No one can ever use it again.”
Her smooth voice put me at ease. I sank back down into the pillows and let out a sigh. She patted my leg and stood from the bed with her hands clasped in front of her.
“How’s Barnaby?” I asked.
A soft smile spread across her face. “He’s doing just fine. Thanks for asking.”
It was my turn to smile. I had saved everyone.
“Now, how about you get dressed and come down to the Ceremony Hall? Everyone is waiting.” She lowered her head to look at me through her long, black lashes.
She walked away, leaving me alone in the hospital ward with nothing but confusion clouding my head. I couldn’t control the smile that swept across my face. My first real hunt ended exactly as I had intended it to. The traitor was dead, the goblet was destroyed, and everyone survived—well, everyone except Casimir. There was no guilt whatsoever over what I had done to him. He deserved every bit of what he got.
As I got dressed in the bathroom, I examined my face in the mirror. The spot where Casimir had struck me across the side of my head showed no signs of trauma. There were no cuts, bruises, or marks. I assumed I had Dahlia, the Caladrius, to thank for that one. She was probably off somewhere, lying low while she discarded my pain from her snowy white body.
My uniform had seen better days. The fabric was torn and stained with blood from various creatures. It was the true uniform of a Huntsman of Darkness. There was no ponytail holder around my wrist to sweep my hair up into. Instead, I pushed my long brown waves behind my shoulders to rest against my back.
Normally, the thought of everyone waiting for me in the Ceremony Hall would have sent butterflies fluttering through my stomach, but I was oddly calm. It was the end of my training. Soon, my journey to find Danny’s killer would begin. This filled me with a sense of peace I had been lacking in my life.