“What… happened to him?” I asked.
Hector didn’t need to ask who I spoke of. “I killed him.”
“Good,” I replied. “Very good.”
I wanted to ask Hector questions, and I would’ve if I had the chance.
“Just like I’m going to kill your father. And you. And every last Witch Hunter that wastes the air they breathe.”
“Not if I beat you to it,” I spat without thinking.
My reply gave Hector pause, but it didn’t last long enough. He turned back for my bedroom door, swift and unstoppable. I made a move, but found my legs were frozen to the spot. Looking down, I saw what kept me immobile. The wooden panels of my flooring had come alive like serpents, wrapping around my boots and ankles. My shins ached as I fought against them, but I was too late. Hector had already dragged the door open, revealing the shocked faces of my two armed guards beyond.
There was so much I wanted to say, so much I wanted to do. For starters, I should’ve dropped to my knees again, and begged Hector to believe in my apology until my throat bled. But our time had run out. He was moments from discovering where exactly this room was and putting himself in danger.
How did I know? Because for the first time, as Hector prepared to reveal himself to an encampment full of Witch Hunters, Bahmet was overjoyed. The demon’s fear turned intohope, proving that Hector was throwing himself into a pit of vipers he would not survive.
Bahmet wanted Hector dead because he was scared of him.
Why, why, why?
Hector lifted a hand and waved at the shocked guards. “Hello, boys.”
Gathering the demon’s power, I grappled with the void of shadows from whence he came and cast them out across the room. The darkness clawed at the scene before me, drowning everything before us until we no longer were in my bedroom.
“No!” Hector cried, and for a moment I felt the control over this place slip, as if Hector had a grapple of it too.
“Warn the witches,” I bellowed into the void, hand poised and ready to banish Hector from it, returning him to the place I’d stolen him from. “Stop my father from turning you into the monsters he always thought you were. If you don’t believe me now, you will. But I beg you, Hector Briar, don’t ignore me.”
Just before I forced Hector with the grasp of this darkness, I heard him reply.
“We are all monsters already.”
Then he was gone. As the shadows receded, I was returned to my room with the open door, and Hector was once again hundreds of miles away from me. He couldn’t know where I was or else he’d come back looking for me.
As I opened my eyes it was to come face to face with the barrel of two guns. My guarders were in the room, one of them hissing into the earpiece he wore. I heard him say Hector’s name, followed by what they’d witnessed with him disappearing into shadow.
Between the guns pointed in my face, the threat of their hate towards Hector Briar, and my natural possessive feelings towards that witch, I did something which I would later regret.
I attacked with the full force of Bahmet, unleashing the power that I had kept squandered for so long. Regardless if my father would find out, and know he could once again use me, Ihadto do this.
Because of the plain look of undiluted hate in the eyes of these men that looked upon Hector.MyHector. Regardless if he listened to my warning or not, I wouldn’t let a hair on his head be touched by another. Anyone who harboured the desire to harm him would face my wrath.
The gargled screams of the two Witch Hunters were devoured in moments, until the only parts of them left in the mess of their death were two sets of bloodied eyes rolling across the bloodstained floor of my room.
Bahmet groaned inside of me, satisfied with the meal he’d been given.
I sat amongst the torn bodies, breathless and full of a darkness that I was losing grip to. And there, I waited for more armed guards to come, as I knew they eventually would.
A clapping sound rose from outside of my room, announcing the arrival of Tomin Hopkin. He stepped into view, looking around at my destruction with the widest of grins, the pride in his eyes so potent it reduced me to a child, because it was the one emotion I’d craved to see in him for years.
“Well done, my son. I see you’ve finally harnessed the power I was hoping for. Now…” He extended a hand, not an ounce of trepidation shown towards me. “Shall we get a move on and begin the next steps of my plan now you are ready?”
I could’ve killed him, but I didn’t. Instead, I took his hand and allowed him to hoist me from the floor. Instead of keeping me locked inside my prison, Father Tomin beckoned me to follow him out of the room.
I did, not because I wanted to, but because my act had finally given Bahmet the grasp over my body that I’d worried hewould achieve. By giving in to the darkness, I had made a grave mistake. No matter how hard I tried to claw back control of my limbs, I failed.
Just as I was forever doomed to do, because as soon as I stepped outside of the room into my freedom, my father stood out the way as the guards lifted their guns. I barely had time to raise a hand before they emptied every bullet into my torso.
