Chapter 57: A wife who starts fires.

He leaned in further, straining to hear more about this, his heart thumping against his ribs. If this was the case, wouldn’t his plans to go beyond the veil with his own team be in jeopardy?

"Have you heard anything else?" Someone asked.

Plates crushed in the distance, drawing the attention of the scrawny man. His angry scowl instantly melted into a goofy, gap-toothed grin. "Ba! Who cares about that anymore. The bounty is gone, that’s all that matters to hunters like us. We must focus on new things, like the view in this dump. It isn’t bad tonight. Look at the legs on that new waitress over there. Hey, sweetheart! Bring us another round, I have a big tip for you!"

The other men immediately burst into boisterous laughter, completely forgetting about Zyra Scorpion to jeer and wave at the young woman carrying a heavy tray.

Hunter tilted his head, his expression dropping into utter disbelief. Seriously? You go from important talk to that? He let out a breathless, frustrated laugh, shaking his head. It was no wonder small-time hunters did not make it far in life, they focused on the wrong things.

The reason behind the termination of the bounty was as important as the person that declared it in the first place. A wise man would dig around.

The food wasn’t even on the table yet, but his appetite was completely gone.

Standing up, he pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed Achilles’ number. He needed answers on the new development, and he needed them before the news reached Zyra’s ears. Walking past the rowdy tables, he stepped outside the wooden doors of the lodging house, breathing in the cool night air. Out here, there were fewer ears to listen to their conversation.

The device buzzed twice before a sharp, familiar voice clicked through.

"Hunt? I have been calling you all day you bastard, my head is about to explode because I could not reach you," Achilles sighed, sounding like a man who hadn’t slept in three days. "I was beginning to think that you were dead! Has your wife who talks to voices in her head put you in danger already? How bad is it and where are you?"

"I am okay, we are at the Starise dungeon," Hunter said, pacing back and forth on the dirt path. He kept his voice low, his eyes scanning the dark perimeter. "I just overheard some local hunters throwing a tantrum. They’re saying the bounty on Zyra Scorpion is officially dead. Terminated this morning."

"Starise! That is the dungeon that she was talking about!?" Achilles asked.

"Yeah....now tell me about the bounty." Hunter pressed.

There was a long, dead silence on the other end of the line.

"Achilles? You still there, or did you faint?"

"I’m here," Achilles finally muttered, his voice dropping into a tense, serious whisper. "It’s true. The order came from the capital after the high council had a meeting with Trinity. I don’t know the specifics yet, but I will have more details before tomorrow. The real question is why the high council cares about Zyra Scorpion and the bounty. They made up a story about her being kidnapped and claimed the kidnappers killed all those people in her village. They are lying for your wife and erasing her criminal history. There is more going on here."

Hunter’s stomach did a nervous flip. "I agree?" He hated how small his voice sounded just then. For a man who did not fear any beast, he felt incredibly worried about the affairs of his human wife.

"There is more," Achilles said heavily. "It is about Ocean. The bastard knows that Zyra is alive. Apparently he and some of our men ran into her in the jungle. It was them that brought her to Greenwich after your wife made a deal with Ocean to take him to a dungeon.... the same one that she took you to it seems."

Hunter looked back at the warm, noisy restaurant windows, then out at the dark, vast sky. "God damn it! Ocean will not let that matter go..."

"The bad news is that I cannot find him in town." Achilles cut in. "Your wife burned down Madam Cammy’s brothel before escaping. Ocean owns part of it, and he is not one to take a loss. He will hunt her to the ends of the earth if he has to, to recoup his investment."

Hunter recalled when Zyra was telling her squirrel to wiggle his tail like he had done at the brothel. He shut his eyes tightly and cursed. "Damn it! My worry is that she might cancel our contract if she finds out that she is no longer being hunted." His grip tightened on the device.

"Then make sure that she doesn’t find out," Achilles sighed.

Hunter let out a small sigh, "That will be hard because it is all everyone is chattering about."

Achilles asked himself why Hunter was stressing about Zyra so much. He let out a dry laugh "Look, buddy, I know she’s pretty, but you’re acting like your wife is the best Soul maiden out there. You can always find another. The world is full of talented women that can open a portal through the veil. Why fixate on a troublesome one that likes starting fires?"

Hunter kept quiet. He stared at his own boots, the silence stretching so long that Achilles thought the call had dropped.

"Hunter? You still there?"

"She wasn’t lying, Achilles," Hunter finally said, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "Zyra... she was telling the truth about the dungeon."

"What do you mean? We have been there a few times...there is nothing new there."

"No," Hunter said, his heart thumping hard against his ribs. "There was a hidden spot. A dungeon within the dungeon that no one else knew about. She found it. There was harmonization liquid inside, a small pond of it." It was why he had to stick with her. Other Soul maidens lacked her special abilities, or trinkets. Whatever it was.

There was a sharp gasp on the other end. "I’ll be damned!" Achilles barked, his voice filled with absolute shock. "A double-layered dungeon...."

The screen flashed red and went completely black.

"Hey? Achilles?" Hunter tapped the screen, but the cheap device was completely dead. The battery had given up the ghost at the worst possible moment.

"Son of a..." Hunter cursed loudly, nearly throwing the useless phone onto the dirt path. Of all the times for a battery to die! He pinched the bridge of his nose, taking deep breaths to calm his racing heart. He had not told him about Cade.

Shaking his head, he stuffed the dead phone into his pocket and turned back toward the lodging house.

When he re-entered the restaurant, the rowdy hunters were still laughing loudly, trying to flirt with the poor waitress who looked like she wanted to pour hot soup over their heads. Hunter ignored them entirely.

He marched up to the counter, grabbed the heavy paper packages of steaming, greasy roast meat and potatoes, and headed straight up the creaky stairs to their private room. "To tell her or not, that is the question." he muttered.