Chapter 38 - Hector #2
“Romy is my daughter. I left her as a baby in the hands of someone I thought I could trust. I was ambushed by Tomin. He… He took my baby away from me! He took everything from me. I was meant to kill him just like he did with my sister, my husband… but he trapped me. Then I found out Jonathan was working with Tomin the entire time. They used Romy against me… kept her from me… used her life as a means to make me do things I never wanted to do. If I hadn’t she would’ve been hurt.
Everything I’ve done was to protect her.
” Verena calmed in a blink, her eyes opened and focused on the demon before her.
She turned her wicked eyes back on Bahmet, glowering up at him.
There was enough hate in that gaze that it was a surprise the goat-man didn’t combust on the spot.
“And I will do anything to continue protecting her. I trust that was the answer you looked for, Bahmet?”
Bahmet withdrew the torture device, metal squeaking against leather as he tightened his grip. “Yes, Verena. It was. Congratulations…”
I didn’t hear the rest. Romy released a gasp, so soft and quiet I shouldn’t have heard it. But I did. Finally, I was brave enough to look at her. She sat to the right of Arwyn, and he was looking at her too.
“Is it true?” Arwyn asked, still looking at his cousin… his fucking cousin, and yet I knew it was his father he wanted answers from.
Tomin smiled wildly to himself. “Fabulous,” he said. “Isn’t it? Finally, my son, you have family. How do you feel? Fulfilled? Sustained? Happy…”
Romy snapped. She threw her weight so viciously to the side that her chair tipped over in Tomin’s direction. The thud of wood hitting the straw-covered floor sent a bolt through me. Romy might’ve been without her hands, but she snapped teeth like she was a creature out for blood.
She was out of blood.
Expletives and curses snapped in the air. Romy did everything in her power to harm Tomin. Verena was crying out for Romy to stop, but there was no stopping someone on the path of vengeance.
I urged her on silently, wishing I was close enough to join her… help her.
Bahmet allowed the disorder for a short while, soaking in the madness as though he was sitting front row at a West-End show. Finally, he got back to business, waving a hand, conjuring shadows and forcing Romy off the floor back to sitting upright.
“Once the trial has ended, you may take out your emotions on each other as much as you wish. For now, we move on. If you believe that answer was groundbreaking, just you wait until you hear the next one…”
Bahmet moved on to me.
I worked out something else in the seconds that followed. Kai’s answer and Verena’s answer were direct attempts to hurt Romy. Mine would be no different. He was driving a wedge in between our coven. At least attempting to.
There was nothing I could do but allow Bahmet to thread my fingers into the thumbscrew. The room was still in the throes of anarchy as the cold metal made my very soul shiver.
One day I would work out how I knew that a goat could smile, but I practically tasted Bahmet’s enjoyment on the air like a foul thing.
“You’ll regret this,” I whispered to Bahmet, and Bahmet alone. “There’ll come a time when I will make sure that you feel the very same pain that you are gifting us. Trust me.”
Bahmet leaned in close, wiry hair scratching against my cheek. “I have seen how this ends, Hector Briar. Soon enough, you will see. For now, I will have some fun.”
The demon lord pulled back, clapped his hands, and silenced the room.
“The sooner we move on, the sooner you can each face each other and deal with the reactions to these damning secrets. Until then, I appreciate that you keep your emotions to yourself as I really would like to get through this as quickly as possible.”
Why was Bahmet in a rush? I hadn’t noticed it, amongst the bedlam, but there was an air of rushing around him.
“Hector Briar, it is your turn.”
I wiggled my finger. “No shit.”
Bahmet’s piss-yellow eyes narrowed an inch. “Go ahead, confess.”
I had two options. Lie, break my fingers and thumbs, and fail. Or, tell the truth, leave the trial whole, and save myself a world of physical pain. There was no point giving Bahmet the enjoyment of the former, so really there was only one thing I could do.
“I confess,” I said, jutting my chin in defiance, even though I knew I was willingly entering his web.
“Go ahead.” Bahmet swept a hand.
“I’m no longer the host of the shard of your broken power.”
It was the truth, although the half-arsed answer. I missed a big chunk, and Bahmet knew that.
“Is that all?” Bahmet asked, gloved hands reaching for the thumbscrew.
Before his fingers could brush the metal, I finished.
“I gave up the shard of power when we brought Kai back from the dead. It was the sacrifice that had to be given. And now, that power lives inside of him. Kai is the host of Bahmet’s lost power, and without it…”
“Yes…” Bahmet hissed like a serpent wearing an Armani suit.
He stepped around my chair, coming to stand behind it.
He leaned down, hot breath itching the side of my face.
Repulsed, but not wanting to move a muscle to give the demon the satisfaction, I faced forwards and steadied my breathing.
“In the spirit of transparency, let me help you with this next part. I only give this guidance because the root of your truth is far too delicious to skip. What, Hector Briar, would happen if, let us just say, Kai here would no longer have the power that was stolen from me?”
“Without it,” I choked, throat closing as if gloved hands wrapped around it and squeezed, “he would die.”