Chapter 26 - Hector #2
“By choosing me you’ve handed Romy into the hands of the enemy, Arwyn too. Seems like you wasted your time.”
“That’s still to be determined,” I said, getting a glance around me for the first time.
For as far as the eye could see, we were surrounded by neat rows of familiar stone slabs. It went on and on, stretching into the dark. I looked back at the stone I’d smashed into, finding the faint etchings of words and dates carved into its face.
“Grave-site,” I murmured as I realised we were stood in one, surrounded for miles and miles on either side.
“Don’t divert the conversation,” Kai warned, finger pointing in my face.
My head was split in two places. One: trying to calm down an angry red-headed man who’d not long been brought back to life.
Two: figuring out the trial and how we could both get out of it…
alive. “A conversation we can have once we are safely back in the tavern. But until then, if you want to make sure Romy is okay, we need to find out how to pass this test so we can inform our allies how to do the same.”
“Look around you!” Kai shouted, his voice echoing over and over as it skipped across the endless grave-site. “There’s no one else here. We’re alone.”
He wasn’t completely wrong. “I have a sneaking suspicion that you’re missing something,” I said. “The fact that we see no one else only tells me that this grave-site is even bigger than I thought possible. They will be close.”
The Burning. The title suggested nothing but agony. It gave no obvious clues. I didn’t like our odds, nor did I like that Kai’s voice was getting progressively angrier and louder.
I got to spinning around, centring myself in this strange place when a firm hand gripped me, harsh nails pinching through my shirt.
“Hector, stop. Didn’t you even hear what I’ve said. Verena—picked—Romy. The fucking witch on the other fucking side has fucking chosen…”
Well, shit.
“I get it, your favourite word of the day is fucking. Something we actually have in common. But for the love of all things good left in this world, can you calm down!” I yanked my arm out of his grasp. “And if you’re serious about staying alive, don’t grab me like that again.”
Kai shivered on the spot. Every muscle trembling with rage.
Rule one, never tell an angry person to calm down.
Especially not a redhead. I was almost going to ask what his star sign was, but I got the impression it started with Scor and ended in pio.
And if star charts were anything to go by, a Gemini and a Scorpio weren’t the most compatible at the best of times.
Let alone lost in a grave-site with no idea what to do to stay alive.
This was going to be one hell of a bonding session.
“Kai, I understand how you are feeling, okay? But let’s discuss how we navigate the next few minutes. A focus will help—”
“Our focus is finding Romy and making sure that witch doesn’t hurt her,” Kai spat.
“Is it a trait of yours to also not listen to suggestions?” I asked, unable to help the sarcasm.
I didn’t know what it was about Kai; he really coaxed it out of me.
“Verena can’t hurt Romy. Not only on the basis of Bahmet’s rules, but if anything, Verena is far too weak.
You saw her, in that state she couldn’t hurt a fly, let alone Romy.
As long as she is with her partner, she is safe. ”
Tears welled in Kai’s eyes. I didn’t know if they were born from anger, or panic… perhaps both emotions mixed as one. “How can you be sure Verena won’t try something to get back in Tomin’s good graces?”
“Weren’t you spoon-feeding her only a few minutes ago? Verena can barely lift a hand, let alone be a threat to Romy.”
“Fuck you!” Kai’s face had turned a beautiful shade of red. “Fuck all of this!”
“No thanks to the first comment.” I brushed his offer off. “I’ve had my fill last night after I saved your arse from being a snack for Bahmet.”
He tipped his head to the blanket of stars and screamed. I gave him the time he clearly needed. When Kai finished, he looked back at me with his beetroot-red face. “Urgh. You are one of the most insufferable people I’ve ever met.”
I placed a hand over my heart, smiling softly. “That might be one of the nicest things someone has said to me in a long time.”
Kai, the usually sweet-faced and freshly undead, started at me like he wanted to tear the skin from my body with his teeth. I was almost surprised when steam didn’t spit out of his ears.
“Is this the moment you try and punch me?” I asked.
“Wait until we get out of this trial, and you’ll see.”
“Oh, because we are forbidden to harm each other. Isn’t that good? I can’t imagine how this would have gone if you were allowed to raise your fist against me.”
Kai huffed, spun on his heel, and began pacing off in a line between two rows of gravestones. Since his back was to me I didn’t bother hiding my smile, but that didn’t last long when he began to shout.
“Romy!” Kai shouted, voice cracking like the chamber of a gun. “Romy, can you hear me? If you can… I don’t know… shout my name back or something.”
Deafening silence responded, all until Kai shouted for her again.
My feet kicked up trodden mud and grass, boots kicking through the swirl of mist as I gave chase. “Stop it,” I hissed. “Romy might not be the only person that hears you!”
Magic was outlawed during the trial, as was violence between partners. But violence towards opposing contestants was encouraged, and there was still a lot of Hunters who’d love the chance to slaughter us.
Kai flashed me a look, his freckled cheeks painted red. “Scared they might find you and kill you, all for that golden ticket that was promised?”
It was on the tip of my tongue to correct Kai, but I thought it best to swallow that back.
“Wait, just for a second!” I laid a gentle, but very firm, hand on Kai’s shoulder and pulled him to a halt.
“If your concern is being stuck with someone with a target on their back, then we should discuss how we pass this trial, and get to work straight away.”
“My concern, Hector Briar, is that you’ve taken me away from Romy.” The heat in his words made it clear he was being very truthful.
“Oh really?” I leaned my weight on my hip. “I didn’t get that impression.”
Call it intuition, but I knew the question that was coming next, before Kai spoke it. “Go on then, why did you pick me over the two people you actually care about?”
Lying now wouldn’t go down well. Maybe in the moment it would be worth it, but down the line when the truth had to come out, it would come to bite me on the arse, tenfold.
“Because yesterday you were lying dead on a couple of pushed together tavern tables, and today you are alive. Forgive me for having concern for a practical stranger, but I thought it would be better to keep you close, especially since I’ve had experience in the Trials before.
My knowledge on old magic is greater, and I’m already well acquainted with Bahmet’s powers. ”
Kai winced. “Boxes Romy ticks too.”
“Goddess, Kai. I get it.” I exhaled. “You’re obsessed with Romy.”
“I love Romy,” Kai snapped, jabbing a finger into my chest. “If I had the ability to tear the walls of this realm down with my bare hands just to find her, I would. Imagine, just for a second, how powerless you might feel if you knew you weren’t able to do the one thing you feel gives you purpose in life? It’s soul destroying.”
His words struck me like a bolt to the chest.
“Then forgive me for not understanding those dynamics between you and Romy,” I said, really trying my best not to sound sarcastic. “But you weren’t exactly a big talking point. Love is a strong word to use for someone I didn’t know existed.”
His eyes narrowed, forcing the tears to fall down his cheeks. “You have no idea. And you are not in any position to dismantle how I feel, Hector. Got it?”
I shook my head. “If it helps, I love Romy too, in a very platonic kind of besties way. There is nothing more I want than to make sure she survives. Trust me. But for that, we also need to find a way out of this trial before our bodies shut down. That doesn’t mean we can’t look for her, I just think we need to also look for the exit at the same time. ”
Kai took in my words, chewing them up and testing how they tasted. Honest, or another lie. “Is that why you asked her to convince me to forfeit the Witch Trials?”
Oh, so she did mention it.
“Oh, is that why you are pissed at me?”
Kai’s expression softened, hands relaxing from their tense fists. “I’m pissed at everything, not just you.”
Hope swelled in my gut. “Then I gather from the fact you’ve not told me that you won’t leave the trials, means you are still thinking about it?”
My hope was shattered with a single word.
“No.”
“No?”
“We tried and it didn’t work. This morning, just before Romy woke you. She asked me, and I said I’d only leave with her. She agreed, although I could tell that wasn’t what she really wanted. But when we said the words, both of us, in tandem, Bahmet refused.”
Every ounce of heat left in my body vacated like an evicted tenant. “What?”
“We asked to leave, Bahmet said no.”
My blood boiled in my veins.
He nodded, looking out across the endless expanse of grave-sites in search for something.
“Bahmet’s response to our request was to start this trial.
It’s like we evoked him, or the request elicited a punishment for even thinking that previous rules to the Witch Trials would ever be upheld now the curtain has been pulled back on the truth. ”
“Shit,” I spat, feeling the sudden urge to hurt something overcome me. “Fucking shit!”
I spun around, boot arching as I kicked it towards a gravestone. The tip cracked, the bones in my foot shuddering from the impact. It was a surprise when something didn’t feel like it was broken, so I kicked it again and again.
Pain. That was what I wanted to use to dampen all my other feelings. But the more I kicked the slab, the clearer my understanding became.