Chapter 47 Hector #2
He trembled beneath my touch, but I kept it gentle. If anything it was proof he could trust me.
“This was all I have ever wanted,” Tomin whispered, breaking my line of concentration.
His voice broke, and for a moment I thought it was a snivelling child kneeling beneath me, not a grown and ancient man.
“I was much younger when this all began. But I did love Eleanor. I only wished she loved me more than the sway of the darkness that called to people like her. You may look down on me and see someone evil, but the truth is far simpler than that. I was just a man, looking to purge the world of sins, even at the cost of the one person he loved.”
I refused to look away. I wanted Tomin to see just how much I lacked the care. “The time of pleading your case is long behind us, Tomin. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d very much like to focus.”
A single tear fell from his eyes when he bowed his head again.
I kept my hand on his head, focused on what I desired, and sent Bahmet my request. “Allow me to lift this curse. Tomin will be kept in your realm, just as you wanted, free from harm or ill will. I just ask, if he sticks to his promise, you let him live the life he wants.”
Bahmet’s presence rose like smoke from a fire. “And if he does not. If he goes against his promise?”
“He is yours to do with as you wish.”
It was an odd feeling, to sense a demon prickle with relief at the words of a mortal, but that was exactly what it felt like. And, for the sake of my plan, it was what Bahmet needed to hear.
Lifting the curse was simple in the end.
Bahmet did most of the work. Inside of Tomin Hopkin, spread like a web throughout his body, soul and mind, was a rot.
A decay of shadow. Dark magic. The once-strong strands that couldn’t be broken, fell away.
They crumpled and broke, webs coming apart until there wasn’t an ounce of darkness inside of him left.
I stumbled backwards, glad that the stump caught my hips to stop me from falling. Something cold fell from my nose. I lifted a hand to the sensation, only for the tips of my fingers to come back red.
“A great power takes a great toll,” Tomin said, standing straight, not an ounce of sadness on his face. No doubt he could feel the change in himself, the freedom from power… “I thank you, Hector. We both know I have not deserved this, and yet you’ve gone out of your way to give it to me.”
There was no point fighting my weakness. I fell to my knees, knowing I’d end up on them eventually. “My end of the bargain is complete. Now, crown me. Prove yourself worthy of the freedom I’ve awarded you. Accept me as the victor, so we can both move on with our lives.”
Tomin gritted his teeth, stifling his smile as he focused back on the crown. Two steps and it was in his hands, nails tinkering over the metal as he regarded its deadly beauty. His shadow fell over me, bathing me in a cold chill.
“Your heart is kind, Hector Briar,” Tomin said as he gazed down at me.
“It’s no wonder my son has found something inside of you.
It was the same with Eleanor. She… trapped me with one look, forever tangling me in a web of her own making.
Then she left me, as you will no doubt leave my son, and the effects linger.
I hope you are prepared to break his heart one day. ”
“Respectfully,” I said, glad the adrenaline was returning to my once numb body, “I’m not going to take romantic advice from a man who burned his lover to death. I hope you understand.”
“I do,” Tomin said, lifting the crown up. “Now, shall we get this over with?”
“Yes,” I replied, closing my eyes. “I would very much like that—”
The crown whistled through the air, cutting me off.
I watched in the reflection of Tomin’s shadow as he spun the crown upside down, and plunged it into my back.
Hard and heavy, the force should’ve been strong enough to knock the wind out of my lungs.
But as the pointed tips of the crown connected with me, I felt nothing but the tickle of butterfly wings.
Tomin gasped. Bahmet screamed.
“What have you done!” Bahmet filled every inch of my consciousness with his cry.
I didn’t bother replying. Instead, I looked up to find Tomin grasping helplessly with his back. Eyes wide, blood spewing from his mouth and nose, he tried everything in his power to reach for the wounds that no doubt cut into flesh behind him.
He fell forwards, as I stood up.
It was my turn to stand over him, gazing down as Tomin gasped like a fish out of water, a puddle of blood spreading beneath the side of his face.
“I trusted you to do the right thing,” I said, breathless from adrenaline. “But as I knew would be the case, you couldn’t do the right thing even when the time called for it. If you had, your future would’ve been a lot different.”
Since his back was on display, I could see the six deep gashes between his ripped shirt. Blood pumped out, thick and black. No doubt he’d pierced a lung or two, when his intention was to have me be the one bleeding out on the floor. Whereas my back barely tingled.
“You can thank your son for this,” I said, kneeling down and sticking my hand in his pocket.
I withdrew the note, just as he had earlier.
Except, I didn’t show him the side which had my writing on.
I turned it over, held the paper up to the light streaming in between the trees, and allowed it to reveal another mark that I felt.
Invisible lines, only visible beneath the sun, showed a symbol.
It was one of runes joined together, a sigil of protection that was my one and only insurance.
The same markings that Arwyn had painted upon my skin before The Burning.
The marks that stopped me from being hurt, instead transferring over my fate onto another.
“Witchcraft really is a devilish thing,” I said, screwing up the paper into a ball and throwing it down onto Tomin’s suffering body.
His breathing had slowed, his eyes fluttering closed.
All the while his mouth was moving, harsh sounds leaving blood-stained lips.
I didn’t even bother to work out what he was saying.
It was useless after all. His words no longer mattered, because he was dying.
“I gave you the chance to be a better man,” I called down to him as I turned my back and faced away. “But you decided that your hate was more important than the chance to learn how to put it aside.”
Bahmet was battling inside of me, but his once demanding nature was no more than an annoying itch in the back of my throat. “And for you, Bahmet. Lord of Tricks. I worked you out too. Just as Hekate figured it out and banished you, I too cast you out.”
I pictured the symbols for each element. I connected myself to old magic, turning my back on the unwanted power this demon could gift me. I wanted nothing of it. And Bahmet, no longer held up in strength by his secret tether to Tomin’s immortality, was weak enough that he couldn’t refuse me.
“Out,” I commanded again, willing myself with the fresh spring air that was Hekate’s magic. It was a tidal wave, a broken dam of water, that flushed out the evil with ease.
“You need me,” Bahmet cried as shadow peeled from my skin, and gathered into a form in front of me. “The world needs my power to save them. You said as much…”
It was no longer in the shape of a man. Bahmet was small, no higher than my shins. A goat, a proper goat with red eyes, and curled horns. No different to Emon, or Caym. No different to what a familiar should be.
“Witches will not look towards the likes of you again,” I said, ready to kick the living shit out of this bastard for everything it had put witches through. Bahmet was no different to Tomin. They had been, after all, joined.
Eleanor may not have known how her decision affected both powers, but I had worked it out… with a little help.
“You will need me!” it bleated, rotten teeth chattering, its head thrashing from side to side. “Kai will die. Witches will be burned. The crone’s magic isn’t enough to sustain you”
“Would you shut the fuck up,” I said. “No wonder Hekate booted you to the curb. You’re one annoying little goat.”
Bahmet was certainly less imposing in his animal form. No suit, no gloves, no overbearing demeanour.
Flames dripped from my hands, spreading across every beautiful part of the forest. I conjured winds to spread the flame, sucked the moisture out of plants using my connection to the element of water.
I didn’t stop until the fire crept up and over Tomin either.
I hoped he was still alive long enough to know how it felt to burn.
I wanted him to feel every ounce of pain just so he got a fraction of how he’d made countless people suffer.
“You need me,” Bahmet tried again, hopping from rivers of my fire that spread around him. “You need me for more than just getting out of this place. Kill me, and you will never leave”
“Save yourself the bother,” I said, flicking my hand in dismissal, whilst also making the wind rage wilder, the earth shiver and crack. “It’s over. Really over. No more Bahmet, no more Witch Trials. In fact, when demons die you make a bunch of really beautiful flowers.”
I had promised Arwyn that I would burn the world for him, and I meant it. Although I hadn’t specified, I’d known all along exactly what I meant with those words.
Bahmet’s four little legs smacked the ground, and he charged. I laughed, lifting my hands and gathering the fire into a wall before it. It was effortless magic, magic that felt right and justified.
A dull thud caught my lower stomach, but it was only brief. The once demon lord screamed out as flames engulfed its skin, eating away through its fur. Once it was over, all that was left behind was streams of thistlebane that withered amongst the heat of my magic.
I stepped back, suddenly tired to my bones.
My hands fumbled with my lower stomach, wondering why a cold ache was spreading.
Looking down, I saw why. Blood oozed from a gash left when Bahmet had charged at me.
His horns, short and stump, and yet deadly all the same, had met my stomach as he’d leaped at me.
I lifted my shirt up, recognising the wound was deep and horrid. I tried to plug the gawping hole with my hands, but found that I could no longer feel them.
No. No. Any harm upon me should’ve been shared with Tomin. Except, not now. Not now my fire had burned his body to crisp, alongside the sigil that I’d tricked Tomin into carrying.
Somewhere, where the pain should’ve been, I felt a sense of lightness. When my knees hit the charred earth for a second time, I couldn’t stop myself from smiling.
Bahmet was destroyed, saving the world from that demon.
Tomin was dead, saving Arwyn from ever facing that evil again.
Witch-kind was free.
And I, Hector Briar, would die happily knowing I had done it. I had done it. Me. I had…