Chapter 32 Arwyn #2
Fresh, boiling hot anger flooded me. It was so sudden and potent I was surprised the lake’s water didn’t start to bubble. “They hurt you?”
Hector scoffed. “And they died because of it, so calm down.”
I was glad to hear that anyone who attempted to hurt Hector had met the fate they deserved. But selfishly, I wished it was me who’d shown them to their end.
“At the end of the trial,” Hector continued, “I used old magic to protect you from Bahmet’s undead army. I should’ve been the one to burn for breaking the rules—or following the rules—I don’t know… that bit’s still murky. But you burned instead. You took on the consequence and…”
“And passed the trial.” I drew him closer. “Don’t regret anything. We all made it through.”
“I almost didn’t.” Hector blanched. “There wasn’t a pyre left for me. I tried to use my magic, but Bahmet wouldn’t burn me. I… I…”
“I’m sorry.” I bowed my head.
Hector pressed a wet finger beneath my chin, and forced my face back up until our gazes met. “I cheated the trials, Arwyn. Bahmet knows. I threw myself into the pyre which burned with the Hunter. If I didn’t, I would’ve been stuck there. I would’ve failed.”
I figured it out then. A snap of realisation that turned my previous anger into guilt. Overwhelming, all-consuming guilt.
My attempt to protect Hector had almost made me lose him.
“Fuck,” I said. “I didn’t think—”
“No, you didn’t.” Hector was slowly distancing himself. I sensed it happening, and found myself helpless to shop it. “But regardless, I understand you were only trying to protect me so I can’t hold it against you. Is your rune-mark still on me?”
I nodded, looking back down to the flesh over his heart.
“Remove it,” Hector commanded. “I won’t tell you off for making that decision, because if I’d thought about it before, I would’ve done the same.
But it is too dangerous to leave be. No doubt, Bahmet knows about it now too.
He will use the knowledge against us, and affect our chances in the last two trials. You’ve got to lift the spell.”
I’d known this was coming. Truthfully, I would’ve scrubbed the rune-mark from Hector’s chest even if he’d not asked it of me. “All I have ever wanted was to keep you safe.”
“No,” Hector exhaled. “All you’ve ever wanted was to pay penance for what you were made to do as a child. There’s a difference.”
“Is that what you really think?”
Hector’s lip quivered. “We both know it. Don’t pretend otherwise, Arwyn.”
I knew he wasn’t wrong. But hearing the truth out loud hurt all the same. However, my love for him, that wasn’t born from my guilt. It was real… it had to be real.
“Please.” A soft hand trailed down the side of my face. “Lift the spell.”
I did as he asked. Cupping the lake’s water, I focused my will and intent into it. Then I splashed it across the mark on his chest and watched it wash away. Gone, just like that, the marks fading until his flesh was back to normal.
Hector released a sigh just as the final etching disappeared. He closed his eyes, inhaled deeply, and said, “Thank you for listening.”
“I will find another way to keep you safe,” I admitted. “Know that. Rune-mark or no, I will not allow any harm to befall you. Not here, not outside the trials.”
“And I don’t doubt it.” Hector waded closer, returning his legs back around my waist. “But next time, keep me included in those decisions. I think the remedy for us is open communication, as naff as that sounds. Talk to me, and I promise to do the same to you.”
There was so much I could’ve said, but I chose the easy option. Diverting the conversation. Because, deep down, I knew that I would lie tenfold if it meant getting Hector to the end of Bahmet’s final trials.
“I think we should go back to the base,” I said, although I wanted nothing more than to simply exist here, in the heart of a peaceful lake, with Hector as company. “There are some other, rather shocking, bits of information that I’ve learned, and I think we should all be together to discuss it.”
“That’s ominous. Such as?”
“The reason for all of this,” I said. “Bahmet, Eleanor Letcombe, deals and demons… my father.”
Hector’s eyes widened a fraction. “Yeah, that really does sound ominous.”
“Trust me, it’s fucked up.”
“Oh goody, my favourite type of secrets.”
I grasped my hands on Hector’s arse, and hoisted him into my arms. He held on tight as I walked us out of the lake, knowing I’d rather dive back in and devour him… but there was a time and a place. We had business to see through, before indulging in pleasure. No matter if that fact killed me.
Only once we were on dry land did I let him down. “Get changed,” I said, patting his arse.
Hector saluted. “Yes, sir.”
My cock jolted, Hector noticed and smiled to himself.
It took everything in me to dress myself, and not give in to what I really wanted. To my luck, the universe offered me some reprieve from my sexual desire when the tall reeds shivered around us, and a small black-scaled serpent poked its nose into the clearing.
“We’ve been summoned,” Hector said after a moment of silence. No doubt he was communing with the familiar through their mind-link. “Just in the nick of time by the sounds of it.”
“Romy?” I asked.
“No.” Hector shot me a look, and I sensed there were a lot of unspoken theories brewing behind his bright eyes. “Your aunt.”
“Verena. She’s found us?”
“It would seem so.”
My heart raced so rapidly it made my chest ache. “But why?”
Hector’s eyes narrowed in a flash. “You tell me.”