Chapter 26 - Hector
HECTOR
The room was utterly still as Bahmet regarded me, a smirk playing across his mouth. Strange, I never thought it was possible to see a goat smile, but there Bahmet was, beaming from curled horn to horn.
“Interesting,” he chirped, head tilted ever so slightly. “Are you sure that is who you wish to choose?”
“I am.” I kept my voice neutral of emotion, trying to hide just how desperately I needed to keep Kai close to me.
It was as though the crowd held bated breath, waiting for Bahmet’s acceptance or decline before they joined in by screaming the names of their choices. I was proven correct when Bahmet added. “So be it. Hector and Kai, please be the first to walk through the doors behind me.”
I didn’t get a step before everyone else began shouting names. It seemed that even Verena voiced her choice because Kai’s abhorrent shock at my choice melted into a mask of pure terror as he snapped his head to the half-conscious witch he had been feeding.
I made a move as Arwyn shouted a name. “Romy.”
“Declined.” Bahmet snapped his head around, fur shivering in cold, dead wind. “She has already been spoken for.”
Panic shone like bright beams of sun as Arwyn looked to Romy, and then to me. “By who?” I asked.
I almost sensed the answer as Kai cleared his throat, stepped back from Verena in horror, pointing to where she sat. “Her.”
Someone began to laugh. I didn’t need to search for the culprit to know it was Tomin Hopkin, utterly delighted by the turn of events. I swore, given the chance, I’d cut that man’s vocal cords out.
“This is certainly going to be an enjoyable game,” Tomin said, eyes glittering with thrill.
“I agree. However, you must pick someone, Tomin Hopkin,” Bahmet answered, displeased with how much he was delighting in the chaos. “Even you are not above my rules. And this is not the type of trial one would like to find themselves alone in.”
Tomin stared down the demon lord with no fear on his face. In fact, he looked as desperate to cause pain to the demon as I did with him. “Then I pick my son.”
“His name.”
Arwyn’s entire body tensed, and yet he didn’t open his mouth to refuse his father. We all knew what was coming.
“No,” I shouted for him. “You can’t have him.”
Arwyn took my wrist in his large hand, fingers gentle. He lifted them quickly to his mouth and laid a tender kiss there. “Let him. This way I can keep you safe by leashing the wolf.”
I shook my head, blinking away tears. In an ideal world, if I didn’t need to hide Kai’s truth from Bahmet, I would’ve picked Arwyn. But he knew too that Kai needed protection—not necessarily from those out to hurt him, but from himself.
Tomin was gracious, allowing us to discuss the inevitable. When there was nothing left to do or say, he lifted his chin and gave the name we all expected.
“Arwyn Hopkin,” Tomin finished, tongue clicking over the last syllable.
Bahmet spun quickly on his heel, satisfied that everything was in order.
“So be it. Oh, wait. One more rule to really spice up the stakes. You are not permitted to harm your partner in any way. Magic, as I mentioned, is outlawed. Violence towards others, however, is encouraged. Just make sure that you don’t harm a single hair on the head of your partner, otherwise it will automatically lead to a fail, and both will suffer the consequences. ”
“Sir—excuse me—but…”
All heads turned to the meek voice that spoke up from the back of the room. A singular Hunter stood, trembling, hands clutched before him. Trepidation rolled off him in waves.
“Yes, contestant?” Bahmet cooed, glancing subtly over his broad-suited shoulder.
“I haven’t got a partner… I mean, there is no one left for me to pick,” the nameless Hunter said.
Bahmet considered his words for a moment, burring softly in his animalistic throat. “Well, that just will not do, will it? I was confident the numbers were even before I brought you all here to feast.”
My eyes fell on the slumped and battered form of the Hunter that Arwyn had just killed.
“Oh dear, never mind,” Bahmet cooed, his voice the type of soft that was like a serpent hiding in a wicker basket, unseen but promised. “Come to me, my child. Let me see what I can do for you.”
The Hunter, not wanting to displease the entity ruling this fucked-up place, walked across the room and came to stop before Bahmet.
A gloved hand lifted to his cheek, running down the side in a gesture of kindness.
“It would not be fair for me to allow you to partake,” Bahmet said, amber eyes darkening as he leaned in, mouth brushing the soft of the Hunter’s ear.
“You really should have picked a partner quicker.”
Death came swiftly for the Hunter. He couldn’t get out a scream before rivers of black shadow filled his veins, starting where Bahmet touched him. Rot and ruin spread like a wildfire across his face, ageing skin until he looked as though he was a puppet made of old leather.
Bahmet opened his mouth and inhaled deeply, sucking the life force out of the Hunter before our very eyes. Soul, as black as ink, left the human’s slack mouth like an exhale on a frosty morning, before drawing into the demon lord… feeding him.
I had wondered what it was like… Bahmet sustaining himself of the life force of hundreds of witches who’d died during previous Witch Trials. Now, I knew. Witnessed it first hand. And it brought me no joy to know that this was how it would end if we didn’t find a way to destroy him.
Bahmet released his hold on the Hunter. The corpse crumbled to the ground, skin cracking apart and spreading across the stone floor like ash.
“Needs more seasoning.” Bahmet licked his lips, a displeased moan escaping the deep bowls of his twisted soul.
“Humans. Disgusting creatures. Is there anyone else who has any issues before we begin?”
No one spoke. I still hadn’t made a move to get to Kai and enter the doorway as previously instructed. Suddenly I feared my hesitation would lead to that very same death as we’d witnessed. Then again, none of the other partners had moved. Not even Tomin with all his confident bravado.
“I take your silence as a satisfaction,” Bahmet added, lifting two hands up beside him, palms cupped like claws. “If that is the case, may the trial begin.”
With the sharp turn of his hands, the room tilted on an axis.
Hell, it didn’t just shift, it turned upside down.
Gravity betrayed us as our bodies lost all sense of control.
And like a box of toys overturned by a child having a tantrum, Bahmet used his power over this realm and tipped us out the open door, into the next arena.
* * *
My skull softened my landing as I hit the ground. A dull ache speared up my spine, making sure every bone in my body felt it. Mud and dew-slick grass did nothing to catch me, nor did the slab of stone that I happened to roll and crack the side of my ribs into without discrimination.
“Shit,” I groaned, digging fingers into soft mud to try and gain purchase.
Disorientated and struggling to fill my lungs with air, I blinked up at a darkened sky.
There was no sign of the door we’d just been dropped through, or the room that had held us like cattle before Bahmet grew bored and kicked us out.
There were only stars. Thousands of them, glittering in the blanket of night.
I blinked, trying to focus on steadying my spinning vision, as a face came into view.
My first instinct at the sudden arrival was to fight, but as my eyes caught up, and the blur of features sharpened, I saw exactly who it was.
A very angry, very dangerous-looking Kai.
“Why the fuck did you pick me! Of all the people… me!”
I groaned, shifting my back slightly to make sure nothing was seriously broken. Besides a little pain, and the faint promise of bruised skin, nothing inside of me was seriously damaged.
“Could you at least offer me a hand up before we discuss my reasonings?” I asked.
Kai’s eyes widened a fraction. It wouldn’t have been a surprise if they literally popped out of his skull. “Your decision has just jeopardised Romy’s life. Do you even know what you’ve done!”
Groaning, I sat up myself, using the strange stone slab at my back to right myself. “If you really know Romy, you’d know she is more than capable of looking after herself.”
Kai got into my face and screamed, “That doesn’t mean she has to!”
I lifted fingers to a tender spot of skin on the side of my head, wincing as it sent a bolt of discomfort across my skull. “Alright, I get it. You’re pissed off at me.”
That stumped him. “Is that supposed to be a joke?” Out the corner of my eye I watched as Kai’s fists balled up at his sides, freckled knuckles paling. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. Believe it or not but I do know Romy… very well.”
“You’re right,” I snapped. “I don’t have a clue.
Funnily enough, Romy never brought you up before.
In fact, she never mentioned your name, let alone the slightest hint that you existed.
And now you are here, looking like you’re heading to batter me with those little fists, all because I’ve put myself in a position to keep you alive. Oh, you’re welcome by the way.”
“Keep me alive?” Spittle flew out of his tense lips. “You have a death warrant stuck to your back, Hector. If anything, you’ve just put me in the firing line.”
Oh, you have no idea how wrong you are.
I recognised there was no chance of Kai helping me up, and more of a chance he’d punch me for my discretions. So, with the will of an army, I used my arms and pulled myself up to standing.
Kai quickly rocked back a step, noticing a flash of annoyance in my stare.
“Is this the thanks I get for bringing you back from the dead?” I asked. “Whilst also wanting to make sure you don’t find yourself back in Bahmet’s clutches?”
“You have no faith in me,” Kai growled, loosing a breath out of his taut mouth.
“I don’t.”