Chapter 26 - Hector #3
I wasn’t even deserving of the release of pain like I wanted, for even it evaded me.
“Hector,” Kai said my name, this time with an ounce of kindness to it. “Maybe it’s best you don’t piss off the dead, yeah?”
Considering my kicking of the undeserving gravestone wasn’t giving me what I wanted, I gave up.
Breathless, and on the verge of tears, I turned slowly back around.
“I know we haven’t seen eye to eye, Kai.
But believe me when I say I have your best interests at heart.
I might not have known about you before, but not even Romy’s silence about your…
past can dull just how important each of you are to one another.
I wanted you to leave, with Romy, because it was one sure way of keeping you safe.
So, me picking you for this trial is my way of ensuring that.
No matter what happens, you will make it out of this trial. And the next. I swear that to you.”
Kai blinked, expression hardening all but his forest-green eyes. “Are you trying to convince me, or yourself?”
“A little bit of both.” I stumbled over a laugh, which surprised me. “Trust me, I’m far from giving up. I know what I want from this, and even if it ruins me, I will get it.”
“Winning the trials, you mean?”
I didn’t have a straight answer for him. Fitting, considering being or doing anything straight was practically against my personality now.
“If that’s what it takes,” I replied. “But winning isn’t the be-all and end-all.
Destroying Bahmet is.” I made sure to say that part a little louder, hoping the demon lord was listening in.
“Making sure Tomin suffers for his treatment of witches.” And his son.
“Ensuring that not another person is lost to this hateful, churning wheel that has been the constant punishment of mortals with differences.”
I caught the moment something twigged in Kai’s mind, like a light bulb had just been turned on.
He looked over my shoulder, scrutinising the expanse of silence and death.
“All these gravestones… I think that’s exactly what they represent.
Death… obviously. But I mean the people lost to the accusation of being witches.
Except we all know the history, don’t we…
There were many innocent humans who were wrongly accused during the witch trials, many who faced hanging, burning, drowning…
all because they were seen as different. ”
Kai wasn’t wrong. It was part of the reason humans hated those they called witches.
They stopped relying on their local healers, people with access to magic that aided the growth of crops, or the ease of childbirth.
Because suddenly being accused as the very people who helped them, was a death sentence.
There were more powerless mortals who died during the witch trials, than actual witches.
“Kai, you brilliant, beautiful ginger man!”
I could’ve grasped his face and kissed him.
“Excuse me?” His finger itched at his head.
“I could kiss you!”
“Please don’t.”
“You actually might be onto something,” I said, following his stare.
“Find the witch, locate the key, and escape with your life.” Kai’s focus sharpened as he repeated Bahmet’s rules. “That’s what the demon said. Maybe it is just that simple. We look for the gravesite of a real witch, find the key… and then get out.”
“It sounds like the best lead we’ve got,” I replied, finally understanding the sheer gravity of the task.
There were hundreds, if not thousands of gravestones.
Maybe more. The grave-site was so large there was no seeing where it began or ended.
Let alone the fact we couldn’t see any of the other competitors.
“Question is, where do we start?” Kai asked.
It was certainly a good question, and one I had an answer to that would appease us both. “We start here, and move on whilst simultaneously finding our allies. If we get the answer on the way, great. If not, we gather our coven along the way, and work together.”
Kai’s resolve hardened, his focus sharp as a blade. “It could take us weeks.”
We didn’t have weeks. Without water to drink, we had a maximum of three days to pass this trial. Even if the third day without sustenance would render us basically useless.
“How about we look at this with a glass half full kind of vibe, yes?” I encouraged, even though I didn’t particularly feel very optimistic.
I trusted Romy’s ability to protect herself against a witch who’d already proven herself loyal to us, and faced punishment for it.
It was Arwyn I worried for.
He was stuck with his father, the man who had tormented him, changed him, and used him, and I couldn’t waste a moment to tear him from Tomin’s grasp. At least he was physically safe from his father, but that said nothing for his mental state.
“I say fuck the glass entirely then,” Kai said.
I shrugged. “Then we better get started.”
Kai was physically trembling, nerves getting the better of him. “Can’t you do something…” he whispered, cautious that anything or anyone could be listening. “You’ve got that part of Bahmet in you, surely you can use it to speed this up?”
I placed a hand on my hip, using sarcasm as my shield once again. “Are you asking me to cheat?”
“I’m asking you to get us out of here,” Kai reiterated. “And quickly.”
I shook my head, focusing on the gravestone nearest to me for any signs that would determine if the person buried was a true witch, or a falsely accused one. “You heard Bahmet, no magic.”
“But it isn’t magic, right?” Kai added. “In fact, it is the complete opposite. Hence why our Gifts have been taken away. How we couldn’t use our Gift or old magic without weakening the other. Whatever Bahmet controls is like anti-magic. Like—”
“Death.”
Tension was rising in Kai, something he might not have noticed. But I did. “Yes, something like that. So, try.”
“I can’t risk it.”
“Try.”
“Kai,” I said, lifting my hands to calm him. “I think we need to—”
“Try! Try! Try!” Kai shouted, his voice changing. It was layered, ancient almost. I snapped my head around, noticing the veins of shadow overcome the sides of his face, the way his eyes darkened to something ancient and threatening. “Do it. Hector. If not for us, do it for Romy and Arwyn.”
The problem was, I couldn’t because he had that power now. And, from the looks of it, Kai was unknowingly using it.
“I think you should calm down, mate. Like ASAP.”
What had I said earlier about telling an angry person to calm down? I should’ve heeded that warning, because a pool of ink spread out across the ground between us, conjured by the shard of Bahmet inside of Kai. And out from it came the sounds of strange, dangerous beasts.
A feral hiss sliced the skin from my bones, and the growl of something with sharp teeth and the taste for flesh.
I thought this was maybe the punishment given for using magic, but like Kai said, what Bahmet was stood for the anti-Christ of magic.
Kai relaxed as he looked down into the puddle of shadowy ink. “Thank you,” he hushed, still not fully understanding this was his doing. “Hector…”
“You’re welcome?” I said. Kai thought I was doing this, when he was the one to blame. He was the one whose veins swam with dark magic instead of fresh blood.
Out from the pool of shadow lurked two small beasts.
A snake, and a cat. One was recognisable, whereas the other was something I’d not had the pleasure of meeting before.
“What the fuck are those…” Kai gasped. “What have you done?”
Well, actually I haven’t done anything. You did.
“Demons,” I answered, just as a sharp voice slithered into my skull.
“I would say I am happy to see you, little witch,” Emon said, obsidian-scaled body slithering across the grass towards me. “But, as I can sense, you have done something very naughty. Haven’t you?”
“Now isn’t the time for a berating, Emon,” I replied, noticing the black-furred kitten that slunk towards Kai who had happily scooped it up into his arms. “But it’s good to see you too.”
Emon shot Kai a look of pure disgust. “Does the witchling know?”
“No, and I want to keep it that way.”
Emon slithered up my leg, scales gripping over my clothes until the demon came to rest around my wrist like a bracelet. “Well, the witch may not, but Bahmet will know now. That is why I brought backup with me, just in case it is required.”
Bahmet will know now. Who knew it took only four words, hissed by a demonic snake, to make me want to vomit.
“You think we’ll need it?” I eyed the cat, one brow raised as Kai nuzzled his face into its fur like a child receiving a pet they’d always asked for on Christmas day.
“I think we will soon find out.”
The universe answered my deepest fear with the shout of two voices. Witch and demon looked up to see the flash of bodies running in our direction. At first I thought it was Romy.
Then they got closer and I saw the truth.
I caught eyes with Kai. “Ready to let out all of that pent-up tension?” I asked, preparing my body into a fighting stance.
Kai nodded, teeth gritted as he laid his cat gently onto the ground. “I can’t tell you just how excited I am.”
Two Hunters ran towards us, something sharp and glinting held in their hands, a bloody cry of battle expelled from their lungs the closer they got. And I knew, deep down, that there would be two more dead bodies in a matter of minutes.
Silently, I put my bet on whose exactly, as I started running towards them in greeting, Kai chasing quickly at my heel.