“That is enough, Master Briar. I understandcheatingcomes naturally to you, but you will not spoil my fun.” Bahmet shot me daggers, eyes cutting deep through my flesh.
I ignored the demon lord, focusing on Kai and only him.
Kai nodded, acknowledging he heard me. I could tell he was focusing on the churning of wheels that was his mind, and not really me.
This trial felt so different to the rest. Danger came in the form of a metal device, and yet the concept felt so far away when it was on the fingers of someone two seats over.
“Okay,” Kai said.
Romy took a sharp inhale in, sucking breath through clenched teeth.
“I’m ready,” Kai continued, fingers nervously wiggling in the torture device. I couldn’t help but think he missed‘I think’at the end of his declaration. “Jonathan Bailey did not approve that I was courting Romy.”
Verena let out a noise halfway between a gag and a cough. Bahmet was displeased by the interruption, snapping his maw in her direction and spitting. “Do not worry, Verena. Your time to spill your damning secrets will be next. Let the witch finish first.”
She dropped her head to her chin, announcing defeat.
Kai cleared his throat and continued. “Jonathan came to me a couple of years ago, asking that I stay away from her. I refused. Young and naïve, but deeply in love, there wasn’t a power in the world that I thought could sever me from someone like Romy. I was wrong.” He turned his head to face her, tears rolling down freckled cheeks. “Romy, I’m so sorry. I told you that I didn’t betray you. But I… I did. Jonathan spelled me. I didn’t know how he did it at the time, and I still don’t. Consider old magic was still not something the Coven practiced. But something happened. He sent one of his… colleagues to see me. You need to understand that my mind wasn’t my own. I wasn’t in control. When you asked me afterwards, I… told you I didn’t sleep with anyone, but I lied to you. I did, but I swear it wasn’t my choice. Jonathan took pictures of the event as evidence and held them against me. I told you I fell out of love with you atthe time because I had to break up with you, otherwise Jonathan would’ve used the photos against me. And I knew that would’ve broken you. That alone shattered me. I couldn’t bear to see you… I couldn’t stand to look in your eyes so I just left.”
“Enough,” Bahmet spat, disgusted and bored.
I sunk my teeth into my tongue, prepared for the thumbscrew to be turned, and Kai’s fingers to be shattered. Instead, Bahmet tore the metal contraption from Kai’s hand, bleating in despair.
“Kai, you have passed the trial. Honesty has saved you. Congratulations.” Bahmet didn’t mean a word of his praise, not from the way he whipped straight around to Verena and thrust the thumbscrew onto her too-still hands.
Kai was left breathless in his seat. He couldn’t look at Romy, but she looked at him. She hadn’t stopped. Where I expected to see anger on her face, there was nothing but the softness of sympathy.
“I don’t blame you, Kai!” Romy shouted, literally shouted as if she had to speak over a room of noise instead of the silence that entrapped us.
Kai looked up, eyes rimmed red, snot running down his sharp nose. “You don’t?”
“No. Because I knew… I mean I had suspicions.” If Romy wasn’t bound to her chair I had no doubt that she would’ve tried to reach for Kai, take his hand, and comfort him through his embarrassment. “Don’t let that eat you alive anymore, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Enough talking, witch,” Bahmet demanded as he finalised putting the thumbscrew over Verena’s hands. “Wait your turn.”
For a split second, and I mean split, I thought this trial wouldn’t be too bad. Until I realised exactly what secret Verena was about to spit. Even if I feared my own turn, it was the fallout to what was about to happen that frightened me.
Unlike Kai, Verena didn’t take her time to speak. “I hate Tomin Hopkin with every fibre of my being.”
“Charming,” Tomin chirped from his seat. “Although, even I know that is not a secret.”
Bahmet delighted in the interaction. Unlike when Kai spoke his truth, Bahmet practically buzzed. There was pain on the air, a tang of it across my tongue. Foreshadowing because a second later Bahmet sprung forwards, took the screw in his gloved hand and turned it quickly.
I didn’t think I’d ever forget the sound of Verena’s fingers breaking. The crack of bone shattered through my chest, turning my stomach. I had broken many bones before, and not any of my own. But that sound, followed by Verena’s sharp inhale of breath, was enough to make me sick.
Verena refused to scream. She choked on it instead. Her teeth bit down on her lip, breaking skin until blood oozed over her jaw. Eyes bulged, the flesh around her shattered fingers turning black and blue. And yet, she made no more sound than a gagged whimper.
“As you can see, that was not the answer I wanted from you,” Bahmet said, rushing as he repositioned the thumbscrew over the next two fingers of her left hand. “We both know what I want you to admit, do we not?”
Verena leaned forwards, her pained expression turning to one of boiling, protective fury. She spat at the demon lord, a glob of phlegm and blood that spoiled the pristine white of his buttoned shirt.
“It does not take a genius to know why Hekate scorned you, Bahmet,” Verena cried out, straining forwards, the veins bulging in her neck as she did so.
“That is not—” Bahmet couldn’t finish as Verena continued her tirade.
“What would the Goddess of magic want with a familiar that bleats pathetically? You could not trick her, and you will not trick me.”
