The mask of the raven - Hunter x reader

Chapter twenty six

Tw: Hollow mind 

Chapter 26 (updated)
Hollow mind
Y/N

Vix is gone. She didn't come with us. That's probably a good thing because I can't see Eber, Raine or Darius anywhere either. I rub my head with the palm of my hand, blinking my eyes open. Around me are a thousand paintings in bright, golden frames. Every moment, a memory caught perfectly in time. These can't be right..

"Where are we?" The human- Luz, directs her question at me. I answer by a pointed glare, the answer is...

"You know exactly where we are human, you got us trapped in the emperor's mind!" Hunter gestures around frantically, determindly not looking at me. I know I've messed up. Titan, I push my palm further into my forehead, he'll hate me. He must know I joined the C.A.T.S by now. How am i meant to explain that one?

My eyed flicker to the paintings as I try to distract myself from the obvious problem at hand. I've been inside someone's mind before, it was nothing like this. There were more... trees. This place looks like another replica of the castle, too perfect to be natural. The paintings too, they look fake.

"Ooh- look at this memory!" Hunter walks up to me, placing a hand on my shoulder. I flinch at his sudden acknowledgement of my presence. He gives me a pained smile. Does he- not hate me? "You know, wild magic wiped out our entire family. That's why Belos made the coven system. It's why he's so well liked!" his face falls at my stern expression, "ah um- l-look, it's when i inherited my staff."

I spin on the balls of my feet to see a picture of Hunter kneeling before Belos, staff in hand. "Darius looks sad-" I comment. He nods in agreement. This is all wrong, this is the first time I've seen Hunter in days, and I- I haven't even given him a hug. It just feels so awkward now.

"Hunter-" I'm not sure what I'm about to say really, just something, anything, to fix this. I want everything to be the way it was before, is that too much to ask?

"Belos?"

I leap backwards, cowering behind my fingers as the shadowy figure of the emperor strides past us.
"Emperor, you're here!" Hunter tries to block me from Belos's line of sight. Even though my heart is beating five times faster than it should, I still manage to smile.

"Watch out Y/N!" Ah, so much for that. Luz pushes me and Hunter to the ground, so we're uncomfortably pressing into eachother. My eyes graze Belos's stag mask as we fall through the floor.

"ARGH," Hunter yells. Falling, down.. down..  down.. Until Luz's glyph stops us from hitting the ground. My sides ache and I swear I've got a stitch, I gasp for air until I've recovered enough to give Hunter a hand up.

"Woah," he accepts my hand and dusts off his pants, "Where are we now?"

"We must be in the emperor's real mind," Luz rubs the back of her head.

"What do you mean the emperor's real mind?" Hunter dismisses her, thoughtlessly, "that gallery-"
"Was made of all the lies he tells," I say, so quietly it's almost to myself, "he isn't who I thought he was-"

Hunter stoops down, picking up something invisible to my eyes, his hands shake as he emerges from the ground, dust covering his gloves.