Chapter 33 Hector
HECTOR
Ididn’t even need to focus for my magic to swell to the surface. A rough wind, conjured by my nervous energy, shot towards the pub’s doors, practically blowing them off the hinges. Behind me, Arwyn called out my name. His obvious confusion startled me, and yet I didn’t have the time to face it.
“Verena,” I called out as every head whipped around to face me when I entered, except hers. “We need to talk.”
They were all here. Romy, and Kai. Verena, just as Emon had warned me. From the look of the group they didn’t look how I felt inside—disturbed.
Romy took a step towards Verena, who finally turned around as if she’d forgotten her name. My friend’s stance was clear: protective. Her eyes shone with their circlet of amber, then faded away. A spike of magic cut the air before dissipating.
Everyone was on high alert.
“What’s that door ever done to you?” Kai grumbled. His hip leaned against the bar table to his side as his familiar squirmed in his arms.
“Verena,” I said again, jaw so tight every tooth in my gums ached. “Talk. Now.”
“Hector, what’s wrong?” Arwyn caught up, reaching for my wrist as if he could stop me.
How could I voice my problem aloud with so many people listening?
“Perhaps we can all relax,” Romy added, an air of warning in her tone meant only for me.
“Yes, calm down, Hector,” Arwyn added, reaching for my arm.
I yanked myself out of Arwyn’s attempted grip, the suddenness of it nearly making me fall over. Regardless if I loved every pore on that man’s body, I nearly burst at being told to calm down.
“Verena has come for safe sanctuary,” Romy announced, positioning herself between me and Arwyn’s aunt, her body acting as a shield. “Deep breaths in and out, friend. She’s no threat.”
“You sound so sure about that,” I snapped. To regulate the canter of my heart, I took a deep breath in through my nose. The harsh scent of old beer, musky wood and silver dust itched at the back of my throat. “We don’t even know who she is. What games she is playing.”
“If you let me, I can explain,” Verena said, eyes tracked to the floor.
There was a slight shake to her voice, something I’d not recognised in her before. She hugged her arms around her waist as if she had the ability to swallow herself away from this awkward interaction.
“And you will,” I replied, eyes cutting over to her. “Me and you.”
“What happened to the coven?” Romy added, a slight growl in her throat. “If there’s something you want to say, you say it with all of us present.”
“No.” I refused to take my eyes off Verena. “Not this time.”
Emon, who huffed and puffed in my skull, finally reached my side. I felt his slick body as it coiled around my ankle and began slithering up to take his position on my arm. The familiar press of his scales, the way they tightened and pinched at the hairs on my arm, was borderline comforting.
Verena’s eyes widened as my serpent-familiar extended his jaws and flashed brilliantly sharp teeth. This wasn’t the first time she’d been, somewhat, introduced to Emon, and yet it was like she was recognising his danger for the first time.
Good. Let her fear me.
“Me,” Emon corrected. “They fear me, not you.”
Romy flashed her gaze between each of us, the lines on her forehead growing deeper by the second. “Hector, stop. Whatever this is, leave it at the door.”
“I can’t,” I said, every bit of my body trembling with adrenaline. My intuition was screaming, if only I had the sense to listen to it.
“Why?” Romy snapped.
Because I don’t trust Verena. Because she is hiding something from all of us. Because…
“Everything I do is to protect this coven,” I said, attempting to calm my voice. “Everything. That includes wanting a little chat with Verena before another word is shared between anyone else. If Verena has nothing to hide, I’m sure she would be happy to follow me upstairs. Right?”
Verena swallowed hard. After a few beats of tension-heavy silence, she righted herself and nodded. “Yes. Actually, I wish to speak to him alone.”
“You do?” Kai asked, softly. “Because believe it or not, you don’t actually need to do anything you don’t want to do. You’ve proven yourself an ally, with or without Hector’s approval.”
“Thanks for that, mate.” I sneered in Kai’s direction as a gentle yet firm hand landed on my shoulder. “Glad to know whose side you are on.”
“Verena is my aunt,” Arwyn reminded, the press of his hard body a steady wall behind me. “And because of that fact, I will be joining you.”
“No the fuck you will not,” I refused, growing all too familiar with that singular word. “How about we ask Verena to re-confirm if she is comfortable with speaking alone with me.”
Arwyn’s warm breath tickled my neck before he lifted his gaze to his aunt and spoke. “Well, are you?”
Verena lifted her chin, eyes boring through me where I stood. “I am very sure.”
Before anyone else could refuse me, I made a turn for the stairs, and commanded for Verena to follow. Romy was continuing to argue against it, and Kai was agreeing. Arwyn, however, stayed silent and non-wavering as he watched me lead Verena to somewhere more private.
We didn’t get that far.
I was halfway up the stairs when Romy screamed my name. I spun, the world shifting slightly, as a flash of metal caught my eye.
Verena lunged for me. It happened so quickly that Emon didn’t even have time to respond. Her mouth was split in a silent cry as she hoisted an athame over my head, the handle gripped in both hands, and plunged it towards me.
I’d wasted the precious seconds to protect myself.
All I could do was watch the tip of the blade move towards my chest with clear aim.
The best I could do was shift my weight and fall into the bannister.
Wood cracked. Splintered. Pain scorched up my arm, sending a flash of white-hot agony through my flesh.
I lost my footing as Verena threw herself on top of me. We both went down on the stairs, Verena trying to ram the athame into my body, whilst I tried to squirm away.
“How did you know!” she shouted, except her voice was different this time. Deeper, almost.
Where the stair had smashed into my lower back, it drove the breath from my lungs. I couldn’t reply even if I wanted to.
In my last-ditch effort to bid time for someone to help. I lifted both arms up before my face and crossed them. My gathered wrists stopped Verena’s next attempt to stab me. I used my weight to fight against her, but she was far stronger, her position giving her the better opportunity.
Arwyn was running, my name called out in fury and panic.
Romy and Kai shifted in the corner of my eyes, trying to help.
But everything happened too quickly.
“I don’t want to die,” Verena snarled over me, yet her eyes were soft with grief. “Everyone else is dead. I don’t want to be…”
Verena couldn’t finish her sentence.
Arwyn was on her back, hoisting her off me with ease. But before he could unleash his pent-up emotion upon her, Emon attacked. He loosened his tightened grip on my arm, coiled his jet-black body, and sprung.
My neck burned with empathy as my demon sunk his fangs into Verena’s soft, pliable flesh.
An artery severed, blood exploded. A hot gush of red gore showered over me, filling my mouth with its acrid taste.
For a few moments I was utterly blinded.
Panicked at what I was missing, and rather disgusted from being covered in someone else’s blood, I gouged fingers into my eyes just to clear a path to see what was happening.
By the time my vision cleared, the chaos had calmed.
Hands grasped for me. “Are you hurt?” Romy leaned over me, dark curls shielding the view of everything that happened around us. When I didn’t reply fast enough, Romy lifted her voice, and asked again. “Did. She. Hurt. You?”
I shook my head, hating every slick dribble of blood that was staining my face. “I’m fine.”
The relief didn’t last long on my friend’s face. It broke me, to see it. How her care for me outweighed anything else.
“Answer me!” Arwyn’s rage-fuelled voice bellowed around us, rocketing through every inch of the room. I leaned up to get a better look at him, but it was wasted effort. Until Romy moved, I wouldn’t be able to see anything worthwhile.
“Is she dead?” I asked.
Romy grimaced, and looked behind herself. “No, not yet.”
Answers. I needed answers. Apparently my wants matched the same desire that Arwyn had.
“Help me up, please.” My back ached, my arm burned. On the step beside me, I noticed the athame that had been used to try and kill me. It was left festering in a puddle of blood.
Romy did as I asked, pulling me off the stairs where I’d fallen.
She offered me her body for leverage, wrapping a firm hand around my waist to steady me.
My arm ached from where Verena’s first attempt to kill me left a deep cut.
No doubt it was bleeding badly, but no one would notice considering I was mostly covered in Verena’s blood.
A blood-coated monster slithered up the stairs. I caught Emon out the corner of my eye, his once-black scales now crimson with Verena’s blood. His disgust ricocheted through my skull, followed by a quick complaint.
“Vile. Human blood is never as sweet as a witch.”
Human blood? “Impossible.”
“What is?” Romy asked a beat before Emon replied in my mind with, “See for yourself.”
I stumbled down a few steps to where Arwyn was hunched over Verena. Except it wasn’t Verena he held by the scruff of their cloak. It was a human. The same Hunter that I had burned on the pyre with not but hours before.
His chest rose and fell in rapid succession. Dark gore oozed from the torn flesh at his neck. Each inhale and exhale was wet, and harsh. Like Emon’s damage removed any hope for the human to fill his lungs with enough air.
When his eyes settled on me, his pathetic breathing became faster. Arwyn lifted the Hunter up from the step with a jolt, then thrust him into the wall he was partially slumped against. The crack of a skull sent a wave of discomfort through my bones.
“Who sent you!”
The Hunter wheezed out a word, so quiet that Arwyn had to lean in to catch it. We all heard Arwyn repeat the Hunter’s answer in contemplation. “Verena. Why did she send you?”
He’d been sent here under some illusion. That much was clear.
The Hunter hissed something out of his paling lips. Whatever it was, Arwyn bristled. He let go of the Hunter, whose eyes rolled back into his head as death hastened its greedy devouring. I hadn’t heard it, but then whatever Arwyn had heard made him look up to me.
No. Not at me.
Arwyn’s wide eyes settled on Romy.