A darkness I recognised.
I was in their way, unable to move an inch, utterly transfixed by the writhing mass that was closing in.
The person who’d been running was one of my father’s Hunters. He was now past me, still running and screaming for help. And to think I would’ve helped him. He barely stopped for me, even when it was his fault I was knocked to the floor.
I didn’t even have it in me to care. The only thought that occupied my all-too-still mind, was Hector.
I pinched my eyes closed, conjured an image of him as I prepared for death to finally take me. Then I heard him, his voice as clear as day, so real that it was almost like he was with me in my final moments.
I smiled.
“This isn’t the time to be fucking smiling,” the voice came again, more frantic than the first time. “Arwyn, get off the fucking floor and run!”
My eyes snapped open, and there he was, surrounded by three other people.
“Hector,” I exhaled his name.My Hector.
Maybe this was the universe offering me some peace in my last moments. But that thought shattered as I realised what he was doing.
Hector was running away from me again, this timeinthe direction of the wall of undead. He wove through gravestones as he prepared to put himself before me like a shield.
The winds danced. Flames of the single burning pyre warding off the endless dark rose in height. The earth trembled beneath me, and I felt the particles of water in my blood shiver in anticipation.
Old magic. Someone was conjuring it.
Hector was.
“No!” I bellowed, hand outstretched towards him. “Hector, stop!”
But it was too late. Hector unleashed every ounce of power he could, sending it blasting towards the dead in a whip of boiling gusts of air and fire.
He broke the rules to protect me.
He broke the rules to save me.
My relief lasted all but a second before the fire snatched at my body. One moment I was watching him, and the next I was engulfed in unnatural flame which ate away at my flesh, and singed my bones. It happened so quickly that I couldn’t even register the pain… the sheer agony of burning alive.
30
HECTOR
MOMENTS BEFORE ARWYN BURNED
Icleared the spit and bile from the corners of my mouth, hyper-aware that Verena was watching my every move. She’d taken a step towards me as I vomited, teetering on the edge of offering help, or watching me suffer. Romy didn’t notice because her focus was on the now-rousing Kai who fussed away the small demon cat from licking his face relentlessly.
“All good?” Verena asked, brows creased over bruised eyes.
I spat a glob of nasty-tasting saliva onto the ground. “I don’t know, is it?”
She looked at Romy briefly, as if answering the unspoken question that fired through my mind. When she looked back to me, it was with eyes full of pleading.
Her mouth moved, but no words came out. I didn’t need to hear what she said to know what she implied.
Not here.
Two clear words. One obvious plea.
I gritted my teeth, and nodded. Her shoulders relaxed a fraction.
