Chapter 10 Hector #3
“That’s just it, Hector.” Kai picked at his nails, which made me realise that I was doing exactly the same beneath the table. “Tomin and the Witch Hunters who came before him have been hunting us because he believed witch-kind was demonic in nature. Our power given to us by something evil…”
Romy’s eyes flared wide. “And he wasn’t wrong.”
“No, he wasn’t. But that hasn’t always been the case, has it.
Hector has shown us a path back to the old ways…
back to Hekate. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that we became the very monsters the Witch Hunters wanted to destroy, all to give us a chance to fight back against them.
Odd that, how their belief and narrative made us, well, the problem. ”
My eyes narrowed on Kai, seeing him in a different light.
Of course I wasn’t quick to trust a person, and especially after Arwyn’s betrayal, I found it close to impossible to believe anyone but Romy.
But for a moment, I wondered if this was just another Witch Hunter sympathiser trying to continue witches on a path to destruction.
“Regardless of what we are, and our ties to demons,” I began, hyper-aware of Emon uncoiling from his ball and looking at me, “Tomin has Bahmet under his control. We can speculate as to what he wants him for, but with all the evidence put before us in the past twenty-four hours alone, I think it’s clear to think that his use of Bahmet is to finally destroy witch-kind for good. ”
Kai’s chair screeched across the floor as he pulled it out and sat upon it. “Perhaps.”
He wasn’t convinced.
“You are stuck on the idea that he wants to destroy Bahmet,” Romy announced, gaze fixed to Kai. “I can tell.”
“You know me well,” Kai replied almost without thinking. “I haven’t had long in this position, but the time I have had has been spent trying to find as much information on Bahmet as possible, in hopes to destroy him myself.”
“How incredibly alluring this conversation has become.” Emon slithered from the table, back up to my arm. The demon’s forked tongue lapped at the air as if tasting the truth in Kai’s words. Emon swung his diamond-shaped face to each of us in turn.
Romy didn’t flinch from the viper, but Kai did.
“It has been too many years to count since we have heard of someone wishing to destroy Bahmet,” Emon hissed into my mind. “It is refreshing. At last, you mortals may be useful to us at the end of the day.”
“Bahmet… he can be destroyed?” I asked aloud, my question meant for the viper but it was Kai who replied.
Kai cleared his throat, fingers threading into the collar of his shirt and tugging as if it was too tight. Even across the table I could see the sudden sheen of sweat coating his brow.
“From my research, I believe that demons exist upon a pyramid of hierarchy based on who is literally strong enough to hold that power,” he said.
“Bahmet is at the top of that pyramid, no doubt. In fact, it leads the conversation back to when Eleanor Letcombe made a deal with the demon, exchanging power for power. One has to wonder why Bahmet would want a witch’s innate magic.
What possible need would the King of Demons want for such a thing… ”
“If Bahmet is king of anything, it is of being a pretender.” Emon was shifting frantically, as if unsettled by the conversation. “It is high time Bahmet is destroyed, do not you think, Hector?”
“I do,” I said, relaying back to the group what the familiar had shared. “Emon dislikes Bahmet by the sounds of it.”
“He does?” Kai lifted a single, inquisitive brow. “That doesn’t really answer the question as to how though.”
“Give them a moment to discuss it then,” Romy announced for me, smiling as she leaned over and reached out with steady fingers towards Emon.
He hissed, but that didn’t deter her. She brushed sensitively over his black scales, and I felt the very moment Emon’s distrust melted into pleasure as she stroked him.
Unbelievable.
“Oh, you killjoy. Allow me to enjoy the tender touch that has been kept from me for so long,” Emon sang, an almost purr lingering beneath his inner voice. “Hector, would you do your familiar a favour and tell the witch to never stop doing what she is doing.”
I blinked and saw an image of black feathers. Caym. My heart ached at the memory of my familiar, which only encouraged my sharp reply. “You’re not my familiar, Emon.”
“Am I not? Did you not call me from the void itself?”
“You know I didn’t,” I forced out my reply mentally, to the strange looks of those watching around the table. “I was… desperate.”
“How charming.” Emon’s voice was grating on me, and quickly. “It is a miracle how my brother was able to stand you for so many years.”
My heart stopped for a moment. “Brother?”
Emon drew away from Romy’s hand, to her displeasure, and slithered back across the table to me. Beady eyes fixed to mine, and if it was even possible, I felt the viper smile. “Well yes, little Caym. Oh how I missed him.”
“That’s enough!” I shouted my command to the shock of the room. It was easy to forge my control over Emon, as I had many years of practice with Caym. But I couldn’t—I wouldn’t talk about Caym, especially not to this demon. Regardless of what Emon suggested, I refused it.
Emon, under the strength of my will, curled into a tight coil and looked more like a smudge of shadow upon the table than a snake. I knew that he wouldn’t be able to converse with me again until I released my will, and I had no plans on doing that anytime soon.
“Listen,” I said, turning my attention back to Kai.
“If what you are saying has any merit, then we need the same information Tomin is searching for. Regardless if Tomin wants to destroy Bahmet or use him, we must destroy him. Once and for all. So, the floor is yours, Kai… you’ve done the research. Tell me everything you know.”
“Umm. That’s where we come to a problem,” Kai announced, and I was sure I felt every bone in my body grow heavier.
“You see, only Bahmet can destroy… well, Bahmet. If he is returned to his void, then he is vulnerable. But in the body of a vessel… well, you can only destroy the witch, thus banishing Bahmet to his self-made limbo to restart the cycle. I believe that the Witch Trials are held in his safe haven… a sliver between the mortal and demonic realm. A place Bahmet can be kept safe from those in his own realm that would wish to destroy him, a place he can lie in wait for the next witch to give their soul to him.”
My mind sparked with an idea, although it made me sick to my stomach at the thought. “Then I know what I need to do.”
“I know that look, Hector.” Romy must’ve recognised the meaning behind my words, because she snapped her head around and managed to shout a single word. “No! Not happening.”
Kai’s eyes scanned between us. “Is there something you’d like to share?”
Even though Romy shook her head at me, I couldn’t stop the truth from finally being set free.
“I can destroy Bahmet.”
I’d never been surer of something in my life.
“Didn’t you just hear what I said?” Kai asked.
“I did.” I took a deep breath in, clearing the iron-clad cobwebs that longed to trap the truth from leaving me. “I have a part of Bahmet inside of me.”
Kai’s eyes flared wide. “Excuse me?”
“Hector, don’t,” Romy warned.
“I can’t keep this to myself, Romy. If this is our chance, we must take it. We don’t have the time to waste.”
She leaned back, displeased but silently agreeing that I was right.
“So Arwyn doesn’t have access to Bahmet?” Kai asked, hope lingering in every word. “All this time I thought Tomin was in control.”
“He does, and Tomin is,” I answered. “At least, Tomin has the majority of it. But there’s a small part inside of me, left over from whenever my mother was pregnant. It… broke off in me, enough that maybe that dark power could be used against Bahmet?”
Kai’s face brightened, whereas Romy’s faded into a storm.
“That would mean killing Arwyn,” she said as if reminding me of the obvious.
“Oh, I know,” I said, sick to my core but pretending otherwise to myself and those around me.
I sensed that Romy had something else to say, likely along the lines of ‘could you do it’?
My answer wasn’t simple.
It depended on which Arwyn she spoke about. The memory of the man I thought I knew, or the truth of the man who hid behind his illusions.
Regardless, if it meant saving thousands of people, I would have no choice.
“Problem is, I don’t understand that power inside of me, and if Tomin has taken all the information on Bahmet, it will take longer to find out.
And right now our issue is saving those about to be burned at the stake.
So, let’s start there and when we succeed, we can come back and discuss the shard of a demon lingering in me and how we can turn it into a weapon. ”
No one disagreed. We’d wasted enough time having this conversation in the first place.
Romy, who shot me cold looks after cold looks, was the one to ask the obvious question. “How do we stop witches burning at the stake when the entire world is watching, and every person is currently on their own personal witch hunt?”
I opened my mouth to reply but Kai got there first. And, to my pleasant surprise, he spoke aloud the very answer I was about to give.
“We fight fire with fire, all magic blazing, and show the world exactly what we are capable of.” I saw it again, the flash of danger that Kai possessed, something that called like to like with the very same darkness within me.
“And what is that, Kai?” Romy asked. “To me that sounds like giving Tomin more fuel.”
It was my turn to answer for him. “No, he wants us to be monsters. We will prove otherwise. We are capable of saving innocent people from unnecessary danger, with the very thing they are trying to use against us. Magic. And we do it together, old magic is stronger together then apart.”
“The Coven?” Romy asked, eyes narrowing in on both Kai and me.
I shook my head. “A coven. A true one, just how the old ways suggest. And a fucking good one at that.”