Verena did not reply. The rules were straightforward.
Problem was, there were plenty of secrets I kept inside of me. How would I know which one Bahmet would want me to admit? I supposed it was whatever answer best suited his plans, but even those were still shrouded in mist.
“Welcome, to The Confessing.” Bahmet straightened, gloved thumb caressing the iron contraption like one would with a lover’s cheek. “A brand new,uniquetrial, just for you. Now, who would like to volunteer to go first?”
I couldn’t even get a breath in before someone replied.
“I do!” Kai shouted. “I volunteer to go first.”
Romy leaned forwards, fixing her wide eyes on Kai. “No, Kai.”
“I have to do this, Romy.”
Her broken, soft whimper replied. “Why?”
“To give you a head start,” he admitted, determination shaping his pale brows into a harsh line above his fearless gaze. “If I can work out the loophole first, it gives you a chance to get out of this without suffering.”
“Howverynoble,” Bahmet exhaled. Then, in a blink, he was standing before Kai, shoving two of his fingers carelessly into the holes of his devices. “Now, shall we begin?”
PART IV
TRIAL THREE - THE CONFESSING
38
HECTOR
This was bad. No, it was reallyfuckingbad. Expletive required.
My heart drummed in my ribs, like a bird trapped in a cage of soggy paper. Any second now and it would break free, spill out onto the floor and be trampled on by Bahmet’s size-seven hooves.
You must simply tell your deepest and darkest truth… you mustconfess.
Bahmet’s trial was clear. I knew exactly what secret he wanted me to share. He was taunting me, forcing me into a corner to reveal what I had given up when I brought Kai back from the dead.
Speak aloud the one secret that you have kept that affects the group’s further success.
Whatever answer he knew he wanted was tied to the people we sat amongst. However, he didn’t explicitly say who.
Bahmet had revealed one final detail in his answer to Kai who’d mentioned going first to find a loophole. The demon hadn’t told him that there werenoloopholes. So, in my calculation, there was a way around this trial that was not clear… yet.
“Comfortable?” Bahmet asked, peering down at his handywork.
Pardon the pun.
“Oh, yes. Just bloody great,” Kai replied with his posh-boy accent. “So comfortable I might leave a five-star review when this is all said and done.”
I couldn’t help but swell with pride at Kai’s retort. Turned out my sarcasm was rubbing off on him. Whereas I usually used it as a shield, Kai was no doubt using it as a sharp weapon in that moment.
Bahmet recoiled a step, leaving the torture device set around two of Kai’s fingers. “I take your grating confidence as confirmation that you are ready to begin.”
Kai straightened in his chair, as much as the bindings allowed. Set his jaw tight, the freckles across the bridge of his nose shifting as he scowled. No one spoke. There was a buzzing of tension as we each waited to find out which secret Kai was ready to say.
I couldn’t take my eyes off the frantic rise and fall of his chest, or the pesky drip of sweat that rolled down his temple. He might’ve feigned confident, tricking Bahmet successfully, but I could tell otherwise.
Kai was, in other words, shitting bricks.
“You’ve got this,” I called out to him, finding myself in desperate need to offer some comfort. “One truth. Something that involves one of us. It needs to be personal… it needs to hurt someone.”
