Arwyn growled, a spark of his need filling his tired eyes. “Careful. If you look at me like that, I might just have to take you again.”
“Take me? That suggests you don’t already have me.” I looked up, chin resting on the hardness of his chest. “Because let me make this clear, Arwyn. You have me. Body, mind and soul.”
“What about your heart? Is that mine too?”
“Really?” I laid a hand on his cheek, delighting as he leaned into it. “You took my heart a long time ago. It’s been yours.”
“Good, good. Just checking,” he said, patting my arse with the clap of his hand. “Now, let’s get you all cleaned up before Romy and Kai come to check on us. After all the noise we’ve just been making, no doubt they think someone might be hurt in here.”
I blushed at the thought. “I wasn’t that loud.”
Arwyn’s eyes narrowed as he slipped out with a breathy laugh. “Sure you weren’t. Sure.”
** *
It didn’t take longfor the bliss of the last hours to disappear like ash on the wind. And from the awkward glances that Romy shot my way, I had no doubt Arwyn was right.
Note to self, next time I’d ask Arwyn to choke me so I couldn’t make so much noise.
“I’ll say it again, because clearly you are not listening. I trust her.” Romy had torn the bread into chunks on her plate, and yet she hadn’t eaten a mouthful. Unlike my plate, that was now empty. If she left her food for much longer, I’d ask to have it. “The Hunter said he was sent to collect me. If you hadn’t turned up I would’ve gone with him, and you wouldn’t have had your lift threatened.”
Funnily enough, my appetite was ruined by the conversation. “Oh, because going with the enemy sounds like a smart idea.”
“Says the man who literally prepared to go off and have a private conversation with the imposter…” Romy said, one brow raised.
And she wasn’t wrong.
“Listen. Both of you. That Hunter defected from Verena’s task, and died for it,” Kai said, nestled so close to Romy’s side that he was practically forged with her. “I don’t think arguing over it is going to change the outcome.”
“Kai’s right. That Hunter got his justified fate,” Arwyn added over the lip of his glass of ale. “Make it clear that if anyone else lifts a finger against any of you, they’ll die.”
“Your father, and Verena, are the only two competitors left. We all know that Tomin can’t die, so would you happily put youraunt down if the opportunity presented itself?” Romy asked, picking nonchalantly at her bread. “Are you willing to go against family?”
“Is that really a question?” Arwyn asked.
Romy’s silence confirmed enough that she was serious about her inquiry.
“If the moment requires it, yes. Yes, I would,” Arwyn answered.
Kai shivered, leaning back in his chair. “There are two trials left. We outnumber Tomin and Verena.”
“Actually, I’m with Romy on the stance of Verena. She doesn’t stand with Tomin,” I said. “I might not trust her, but I do know that much. She has proven on multiple occasions that she would rather stick her neck on the line forus.”
I watched Romy’s reaction, but nothing seemed out of place. Her focus was on the ruins of her gutted piece of bread. “Bahmet will love this. That demon prick will do anything to tear us apart. We don’t know what’s coming next, but we can guarantee that Bahmet is going to try and turn us against each other. There isn’t enough of us left to stretch out the final trials… not like before.”
“I agree.” I hated to admit it, but Romy was right. Bahmet needed a victor, and we didn’t have long left. “We have to be ready for anything.”
Romy’s warm eyes landed on me. “The next chance you get to kill Bahmet with his own power, you take it. This needs to end and quickly.”
My breath caught in my throat. I coughed to cover my reaction, whilst hyper-aware that Kai was studying me from his seat. “Bahmet isn’t going to let me get close enough to do anything,” I said, hoping she didn’t see through my lie. “No being of such power is going to make themselves vulnerable for no good reason.”
“So we give that goat-cunt a good reason,” Romy snapped, palm slapping the table. “We force him out into the open. We bind him, or something. For Goddess’ sake, we are witches. We have power. More so, we have old magic back. There must be something we can do against a beefed-up goat-man in a poorly tailored suit.”
No one spoke at first. Kai then laughed… as did Arwyn. I couldn’t stop smiling either. At the heart of it, Romy was right. We were witches. We had magic, something previous contenders of past Witch Trials did not have access to. But this far, Bahmet still was in control.
“Bahmet’s not the only issue we need to be worried about,” Kai said, distracting the conversation with the light lilt of his voice. He ran a hand through his ginger curls, leaning back in his chair as his little demon cat purred softly on his lap. “We left the real world in the grasp of Hunters. How long have we been gone now? What’s happening to our brothers and sisters back home? We have no idea how many of them have already burned, or been executed. The longer we spend time here, the more damage is unfolding outside of his fucked-up realm.”
A pain jolted through my chest, conjured by the guilt of not sparing our world a thought since these trials began. Kai was right. Onus unfurled like a flower to sunlight in my chest. I had been so focused on the trials, and what had been lost—or given up—along the way.
