Chapter 13 Hector
HECTOR
“You might want to take a look out the window, Hector.”
Just to spite the bastard, I wished I could’ve refused, but familiarising myself with my surroundings, whilst sitting in a confined space with my greatest enemy, was likely the best thing to do at that moment.
Trailing my gaze out the tinted glass, I watched the crowds outside of the White Tower begin to disperse from the seven pyres.
Although I couldn’t hear anything but my heartbeat, and Tomin’s aggressive breathing, I could see the disgruntled looks across faces.
“You really called it off?”
Tomin shuffled in his seat, leant forwards and reached for a fresh bottle of water that stood waiting in a cup holder. “I’m many things, but always a man of my word. However, I wouldn’t exactly say I’ve called the executions off, no. Merely postponed, depending on how our collaboration goes.”
I should’ve guessed his promise came with caveats, but I still took comfort in knowing that no witches would burn today. “I haven’t agreed to anything yet. You’re taking a risk thinking I’m going to do anything that’s going to benefit you.”
“You will, in time.”
I hated how confident he sounded. Or was it delusion?
“I can’t imagine a world in which you’d possibly think that I’d believe you. Destroying Bahmet, the one tie to your power, seems like such a waste of all the effort you’ve put into all of this. Not to mention it’s your one and only son who’s currently… hosting the demon.”
Tomin reached for the second bottled water, plucked it out the holder and offered it to me. I recoiled into the warmed leather seats.
“It’s not going to kill you,” Tomin said, continuing to hold the bottle out for me. “If I did, it wouldn’t be in the form of water.”
I grimaced at the bottled water, then back to Tomin’s face. “You’ve dedicated your life to killing witches, forgive me for my hesitance.”
Apparently, my sarcasm was wasted, because Tomin replied as if he didn’t catch it.
“Forgiven. Regarding the matters of Bahmet, I haven’t been given a choice in the matter. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that your mother’s decision to squander Bahmet with thistlebane during her outlawed pregnancy resulted in part of that demon finding a home inside of you.”
All the blood rushed out of my face. There was nothing I could do to stifle my reaction. “Have you been having some heart-to-hearts with your son about me?”
Tomin laughed. “Something like that. If I’d known about your little ‘demon issue’ at the time, perhaps I would’ve put more of my time and energy into searching for you. That way I could’ve killed you.”
“And now you need me.”
“Correct. I need you. Hindsight is a blessing at times, but it can be a curse without context.”
It was pointless to pretend that he was wrong about the darkness inside of me, but that didn’t stop me from trying.
“I don’t know what you are talking about.” I snatched the bottle from his grasp, only for his eyes to fall on my wrist. It was a mistake to be so sloppy, because the widening of his eyes told me that he’d seen what I’d tried to hide up my sleeve.
“You’re bleeding,” Tomin said with the grace of a concerned father. His hand snapped out, fingers harsh as they gripped my wrist and tugged it towards him. My skin ached beneath his hold, flesh bruising with the ease of overripe fruit.
Turned out how he sounded and acted were two opposing parallels.
Before Tomin could locate the two neatly positioned puncture wounds, I fought for my arm back and slipped the wound back into my sleeve.
“I never thought the day would come when the man who called for the death of so many witches would be concerned when one is bleeding before him. Are you worried I might smudge my blood on your fancy car?”
“You speak on my distaste for witches as if you haven’t been lurking in the shadows, being led by powerful demons all this time? Am I wrong to cleanse the world of such creatures?”
I opened my mouth to reply, but his question stumped me. In a sense, the hate and vitriol that Witch Hunters spewed wasn’t entirely untrue after all. Not now the curtain behind the Coven had been torn back to reveal Bahmet being the one who pulled the strings.
“And before that? When it was Witch Hunters who drove witches to make deals with devils? I bet your ancestors just loved that outcome, didn’t they. Finally they forced actual evidence behind the claims you’ve been pushing for hundreds of years.”
Tomin ignored me, eyes pinned to the hand I was hiding up my sleeve. A storm clouded behind his eyes, dark and brewing with danger. “When did you hurt yourself?”
I shrugged, looking back out of the window to see the car had taken a turn towards the ruins of the White Tower, not away from them. Odd. “Does it matter?”
The silence that followed after my flippant question sent blood thrumming through my body. It got so hot that I could’ve smashed a window open and still that wouldn’t change how I felt.
I was alert for many reasons, but I got the sense that Tomin’s forced kindness was dwindling.
“Of course it matters. You’ve become the most important person in my life, Hector. You matter very much to me actually.”
I placed a hand on my stomach, hoping to calm the vicious rolling of my stomach.
How dare he think that of me. How dare he even imagine for a second that he had some form of authorised concern over my well-being when he literally tore my life apart, not once but twice.
Fuelled by my hate for the man, I turned back on him, eyes wide and tongue lashing. “Your son only fucked me once, Tomin. That doesn’t make you my father-in-law or something. Drop the forced care, and get to the point.”
Disgusted, Tomin looked ahead of him, lines creasing his taut mouth as he held back whatever reply he wanted to say. I studied his profile, hating the way I saw Arwyn in some angles and yet pleased in the small moments when they looked nothing alike.
“Oops, have I hit a nerve?”
He pursed his lips. “I understand that anger can make a person speak from places they don’t necessarily want to acknowledge, but there is no need for such foul language, Hector.”
“Trust me.” I smiled, teeth flashing. “If I say something, best believe I meant it.”
“So when the time comes, will you be able to destroy Bahmet, knowing the risks?” Tomin reached for his phone, pulled it out his pocket and balanced it on his knee. “Knowing doing so could result in the death of Arwyn?”
That sounded like a trick question to me. “And how do you expect I do that, Tomin?”
“You’ll figure it out, I’m sure.”
The car took a sharp turn just as Tomin’s phone began to ring.
“One moment,” he said to me, before lifting the phone to his ear without greeting the person on the other end.
A shadow passed over the car, drawing my attention back out the window.
We’d just driven off the main road into the worker’s entrance to the White Tower.
Was this what he’d meant when he said ‘where it all began’?
Because for a moment I thought we were going on a drive to Oxford, to the apartment where Tomin’s hate painted the walls of my flat with the blood of my family.
Shame, I would’ve enjoyed killing him there—poetic justice and all that.
“Fuck.” My ears pricked as Tomin’s raised voice cracked at the person on the other end of the call. “Verena, if I cannot rely on you to do the smallest of tasks, then what good are you to me?”
Although I couldn’t make out what was said back to Tomin, I recognised the muffled buzz of a voice speaking back to him. And whatever they said made the storm in his eyes turn into a hurricane. A thick vein throbbed on the side of his head as the whites of his eyes turned red.
“He will find his way back to us,” Tomin said. “Be sure you are all ready to greet him the moment he arrives. Am I clear?”
With a flare of the dramatics, Tomin swept the phone away from his ears, cut off the call, then practically crushed the device in the mass of his large hand.
“Problems at home?” I asked, delighting in seeing the man crack.
“You could say that,” Tomin replied. “Although it’ll be a problem for us all if my resolution does not bring forwards results.
I’ve just received word this morning that my son broke out of his carrier and has since disappeared…
much like you did after the attack on the White Tower. Poof. Gone in a smudge of smoke.”
“What did you just call me?”
Apparently my sarcasm was wasted because Tomin just faced forwards, furious gaze fixed to the dark tunnel outside of the car’s window.
“Arwyn won’t be gone for long. He never is.”
Every muscle in my body turned to lead, forcing my weight into the firm seat. “Arwyn… your little lapdog, running away from home?”
Hope and fear all mingled together into an emotion I couldn’t place.
“Yes, and from my understanding he did so to find you.” Tomin turned and fixed his gaze to me. I felt lightning spear through my veins at his clear-cut admission. “Hence the need for all of this.”
“Finally, you get to the nitty-gritty of why you need me. You’re using me as bait.” Even saying it aloud didn’t seem right.
“If that is what you would like to refer to it as, then yes. Bait. If Arwyn is searching for you, it will lead him back to me. And then I will have you both for what must come next, killing two birds with one stone and all that.”
My hand shot for the door handle, only to find that it was locked.
That didn’t stop me from shaking it for good measure, all whilst Tomin silently watched in amusement.
“Now, now, Hector. I was good with my promises, and it is your turn to do the same. We’re one phone call away from witches being rounded up and set to blaze. Don’t fuck it up for them now.”
Wounded wrist aching, I flopped back in my seat, eyes scanning the car for my way out of there. “If Arwyn left you, that means he is in control. He isn’t…”