Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
‘ Y ou’re shaking,’ Arwyn announced as we left the confines of the castle’s warmth. The cool night breeze wrapped around me, sending a violent shiver across my skin. Arwyn noticed. Of course he did. Romy was right all those days ago—if I wasn’t looking at him, Arwyn was certainly studying me.
‘Nothing gets past you, does it?’ I asked, teeth chattering alongside my sarcasm.
‘Not when it comes to you,’ Arwyn said, pausing for a moment so he could take his jacket off.
He offered his jacket to me, holding it up for me to thread my arms into it. I was made to turn my back to him, which only encouraged more gooseflesh to prickle. I could hear his steady breathing, smell his tantalising scent caught on the wind.
‘What about you?’ I asked as we got back into step with one another. ‘Aren’t you going to be cold?’
Arwyn shrugged, wrapped his arm around me and pulled me in tight. ‘Such a considerate little kitty. You do worry about me.’
‘Oh shut up, Arwyn. Any more of that behaviour and your head will be too big to get back inside.’
‘Which head?’
I nudge him in the side, encouraging one of his luxuriously rich laughs to erupt from him.
It was so easy, slipping back into our flirtatious banter. It was as if Arwyn knew I needed the distraction from the grimoire in my pocket and the ripped-out page.
We wrapped around the outer grounds, opposite to where the graveyard was. I recognised the view, although it was warped since I was usually looking down at it. One quick glance up towards the castle, and I could see our old bedroom window. It was so high that vertigo assaulted me as I looked up.
‘Do you know the importance of tonight?’ Arwyn asked, fingers drumming on my side as he navigated us forwards. A thin layer of mist clung to the ground, the overgrown grass damp from evening dew.
‘I should say yes, but then I’d be lying.’ If there was a clue, then whatever Arwyn was going to show me was, somehow, related to my mother.
‘It’s well documented that on the end of the second week, your parents returned from their third trial to discover their room?—’
‘Burned.’ I knew the story well, as every witch partaking in the Witch Trials, did. ‘The other contestants who survived the Trial weren’t happy with my mother’s success, so for the first time in the Witch Trial’s history, they banded together to kill her.’
I clutched at my chest, recognising the discomfort of talking about her so openly. But it was easy with Arwyn, like he could coax light from shadows with his presence alone. I wondered if that was the night my mother took Jaz’s mother’s life.
‘I’d say you and your mother have that in common then,’ Arwyn said. ‘There are obvious lines of symmetry between her experience and yours.’
It should’ve made me sick. Should’ve made me rage at knowing such an event occurred. And yet the opposite happened. I felt, in that moment, close to my mother. Her presence was imprinted in everything around me.
I was so deep in my thoughts, Arwyn didn’t question my silence.
‘So you don’t need me to tell you what happened next for them, but I will.’ I closed my eyes for a moment, allowing Arwyn to control where we stepped whilst taking the lead on the story. ‘They were both forced out into the grounds. It was here, under that very tree, where they both took refuge.’ His arm gestured forwards to a grove of willow trees. There, long fingers of leaf and vine hung like a curtain which shrouded what hid within.
Arwyn released his hold of me, stepped forwards and swept a portion of the willow away. ‘After you.’
‘Is it safe?’ I wrapped my arms around myself, looking back to the glow of the castle, wondering how many witches were watching. ‘If you know this story, others will too.’
‘Except those other witches have already been here, night after night, searching for the clue. But what they didn’t account for was how knotted you and your mother’s experience is. Where they’ve looked for the clue on previous nights with no meaning, I know the importance of this night for your parents. As do you.’
I took warmth in knowing Arwyn studied my parents’ time. It felt, for the first time, that someone other than I was trying to keep their memory alive.
Arwyn gestured for me to pass him again. I did so, ready to forget the world and relive my parent’s very movements. As I passed Arwyn, he leaned in and whispered. ‘And since when have you worried if the dark is safe, Hector? If anyone could face it, it would be you.’
Perhaps he caught my smile, or maybe the shrouding dark coated it. Either way, I let it slice across my face as I entered the blanket of darkness.
It made sense why my parents hid here, from those who wanted to hurt them. Kill them. It was so dark, so impenetrable, that I couldn’t see my hand before my face. As Arwyn released the curtain of willow, darkness overcame me. I continued walking ahead, hyperaware of Arwyn’s footsteps behind me and the swaying brush of leaves against leaves. In the distance, I caught the sound of running water, likely from a stream. The air was fresh with the scent of pollen and damp bark. I felt as though the earth had swallowed me whole and kept me imprisoned in its deepest belly.
A hand snaked out of the dark and took mine. ‘Lay with me.’
Three little words and I swore they upended my world.
‘Haven’t you had your fill?’ I asked, enjoying the dark and the way it made us rely on tone and pitch of a voice, rather than the nuances of facial expressions.
Arwyn stepped close, the warmth of his body and the hardness of his presence, a pillar of support in the dark. ‘As much as the idea of devouring you again excites me, little kitty, no. My request isn’t nefarious.’ Disappointment rose its ugly head, if only for a second. ‘At least not yet.’
‘Promise?’ I asked.
‘We’ll see.’
Arwyn used his hands to guide me to the ground. Side by side, outstretched across blades of grass and roots of willow, we laid down. His body barely brushed mine, but he kept his fingers a hairbreadth away from mine. I felt like a schoolboy again, toying with the idea of taking the hand of a crush, whilst pondering if they felt the same. It was exciting, it was thrilling, and most of all, it was exactly like the story of my mother and father.
‘I think I know why tonight is special,’ I said to the dark, facing the endless expanse above me as the wind sung beautiful melodies through the shifting willow.
‘Tell me, Hector,’ Arwyn said, his voice deep as the dark surrounding us. ‘I want to hear you say it.’
‘Because the night my parents were driven here…’ Tears stung at my eyes, some escaping down the sides of my cheeks. I had gone through my life without barely shedding a tear, until Arwyn. Since he’d barrelled his way into the orbit of my life, it was as if my emotions were no longer reliable. ‘…it was believed to be when they conceived me.’
One usually would cringe at the idea of their parents having sex, but the thought of it only warmed me. It told me that they were in love. That even in the darkest of times, they discovered enough light to continue living on.
‘But there is an important detail which you’re missing.’ Arwyn finally took my head, and an exhaled breath left me. Relief, that was what the sound sang with. That finally he was touching me, flesh to flesh. ‘Something that, even in all the different written accounts of the last competition, was agreed on.’
I blinked and a golden star of light birthed in the air above us.
‘Fireflies,’ I exhaled the world as the sky lit up with them.
As soon as the word left my mouth, the dark expanse ignited up with sparks of gold. A constellation of fireflies were born from the dark, glowing as bright as stars, casting our little haven in rich light.
I started laughing, the tears falling down my cheeks whilst joy and sadness melded to one. Reaching up, I brushed my fingers amongst the sea of winking lights, feeling the buzz and warmth of a thousand little creatures.
‘It’s beautiful,’ I said between laughter, watching the bugs dance around my fingers.
Arwyn was silent for a moment before his reply bore through my chest. ‘Yes, Hector. It is.’
I rolled my head to look at him, only to find he was looking at me. He didn’t need to explain himself, but I got the impression that he wasn’t talking about the fireflies at all.
There was a sudden tension between us, something only words could break. I waited for them, watching Arwyn’s mind whirl through his bright blue eyes. Whatever he was thinking about was heavy.
‘I brought you here tonight to ask something of you.’
My heart thundered in my chest. ‘Steady now, Arwyn.’
He ignored the light-hearted nature of my reply, his stare only growing darker. ‘It was after this night that your mother convinced your father to withdraw from the Witch Trials.’
I sat up, fireflies dancing out of my way. ‘What are you suggesting?’
‘I want you to withdraw.’
I shook my head, blinking away my confusion. ‘No, Arwyn. I mean… why? I don’t understand.’
‘It’s dangerous,’ he began, which only made me laugh.
‘No shit,’ I barked. ‘You’d think I’d have worked that out by now.’
Arwyn continued to study me. Except this time, his attention didn’t warm my skin. It made it itch. ‘There are things at play here, Hector. Things I don’t think I can protect you from. Those demons…’
I pressed my finger to his mouth, squeezing my eyes closed as if not looking at him would help myself pretend this wasn’t happening. ‘Weren’t you the person who just told me about how I can face the dark better than anyone? I’m not leaving. I’m not giving up. I think my mother knew that there was something wrong about this, and that was why she dismissed my father from the competition. And then why her dying wish was to keep me hidden from witches. She didn’t want this to happen again.’
‘Her burden is not your burden.’
‘Yes,’ I shouted, fireflies shooting away from me. ‘It is. That is exactly what this is. Because she died before finishing her duty, it is my job as her son to ensure that whatever she wanted, is seen through to the end.’
‘There can only be one Grand High,’ Arwyn said, as if I didn’t already know this. ‘You know what happens in the final Trial. Survival rate is low. Now is the time some can walk away with their lives. Maybe that’s what Romy did. Maybe she saw sense.’
‘Stop, Arwyn. I don’t want to hear this.’
‘And I don’t want you to die .’ The words cut through my universe, striking me to the core. ‘I don’t want you, Hector Briar, to join the list of those who died before you. I can’t have you dying.’
‘I don’t plan to,’ I said, the answer coming to me quickly and with ease.
Hector looked up at me, eyes wide with pleading, lines of worry etched into his face. He opened his mouth to say something, maybe to give me another reason to withdraw, waste more breath. But then his eyes shifted from me to something just over my shoulder, and his entire expression shifted.
‘The Dreading.’
I turned, looking over my shoulder, to find the two words hovering in the air at my back. The fireflies had taken formation, spelling out my possible doom. The clue for the next trial. A trial we all knew. A trial that supported Arwyn’s previous statement about low survival rates.
Fear . The Dreading placed its contestants in a maze constructed from nightmares itself. What happened during the trial was not as clearly documented. But what witches knew was those who did survive, came out changed. In the Dreading, you died trying or broke surviving.
‘Have you changed your mind?’ Arwyn said softly at my back. I dared look at him as the golden light of the fireflies imprinted the two words into the back of my mind. As quickly as the breeze changed, the creatures dispersed, bathing us in shadow once again. ‘Now you know what we’re going to face.’
My body was trembling, my mind whirling with unspent possibilities. But regardless of the anxiety, my answer didn’t waver. ‘No. I’m sorry to disappoint you, Arwyn, but I’m staying.’
I stepped towards the direction of the willow, pushing the curtain aside.
‘Hector… please.’ It was Arwyn’s last desperate plea. ‘If I need to get on my knees and beg you I will.’
‘Arwyn, stop. I’m going to beat this next Trial, and the one after. Do you plan to stand in my way?’
His silence was enough of an answer. I was confident I heard something splinter, like glass cracking, except it came from inside of my chest.
‘I’ll never hurt you,’ Arwyn said as I stepped into the natural dull light beyond the willow. ‘I want you to know that.’
‘Someone once told me not to make promises I cannot keep,’ I said.
We both knew who’d said it.
Arwyn had.
‘It sounds like you surround yourself with idiots and fools,’ Arwyn called after me, a knowing glint flashing in his bright eyes.
‘No,’ I replied, ‘ he wasn’t a fool.’
My mind was whirling, conflicting thoughts fighting for space within my busy head. The Dreading, just the name of the trial alone made me sick. Arwyn wanted to bring me to a place that would weaken my shield, only to use his chance to manipulate me out of the Witch Trials.
I left him, walking away, knowing he was watching. I didn’t even wait to see if he followed me or not. Part of me longed for him to shout out for me, to run and place his body before mine, block me from taking another step and wrap his arms around me.
But like all my life before, only the dark around me was comforting.
I made a plan in the minimal clear space in my head. I’d get back to the castle and find Romy even if I had to turn the entire building upside down. Then I’d find my own way through the next Trials. Without Arwyn. I’d focus on surviving, on winning, so I could find out what scared my mother so much she’d turn against her own people.
I looked up to the window of our old bedroom, focusing on every step when I saw movement behind the glass. A tired face. Curly hair. A fist banging on the window.
Romy. Her mouth was split open, as though she was shouting something. Although I couldn’t hear her, I sensed her panic and fear. It emanated from her silent scream. She was up there, in our room.
Terrified.
‘Romy!’ I screamed.
‘What’s wrong?’ Arwyn called after me. I dared to take my eyes off Romy, but there was a draw about his voice that won me over. He parted from the strands of willow, looking between me and the room to our window.
‘She’s up there,’ I exhaled, sparing a second to glance at him. There wasn’t a need to lift a finger and point, but I did it anyway. I was shaking. By the time I turned back around, the window to the room was empty. Romy was gone, like she was never there. But I’d seen her. She was real and frightened.
‘There’s nothing there, Hector,’ Arwyn said, trying to reach out for me.
I shrugged him off, ignoring the siren call of his calm voice.
I had seen it. My mind was busy, but it was sharp. Before Arwyn could say another word, I was running. The castle was a blur around me. Arwyn was calling my name, but his voice was barely audible beneath the beating of my heart. But as I threw myself up the stairs, I realised the noise wasn’t my heart at all.
It was the toll of a bell.