Bahmet dusted the spittle from his shirt with the wave of a finger. “Is that your next answer, Verena?”
“Fuck your answers.”
Snap. In a blink, two more bones broke. It caught Verena off guard, so this time she screamed. A keening banshee cry that ripped at my eardrums. Tomin was laughing now, full-blown hysterical bellows that ruined my soul.
“Aunt!” Movement to my right distracted me from the chaos, enough to see Arwyn thrashing in his chair. “Give him the answer he wants! Just say it.”
Aunt. Verena.
Something horrific clicked in my mind. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it before. I’d never been good at puzzles, and this proved it.
Arwyn’s plea reached its intended target, and was enough to calm Verena down. Bahmet was threading her thumb, the only digit on her left hand that wasn’t completely ruined, into the hole. Verena sucked in a breath, buried in her agony, eyes pinched closed. “I… can’t.”
“Oh, but you might as well.” Tomin leaned forwards in his chair, enjoying the torment as much as the demon lord himself. They were so similar it was hard to ignore. “I give you permission to break a heart.”
To break a heart.Fuck. This really was bad.
I sensed the world was about to break when Verena opened her eyes. She took a deep inhale, dark eyes glistening with tears of torment. Spittle lined her lips as she trembled, opening them slowly, preparing to shatter someone’s world.
“Romy is my daughter.” Verena said the four words with every ounce of might she could muster.
Bahmet paused his task.
The air was sucked out of the barn. A sudden pressure on my chest felt like the weight of the world had just fell upon it. I couldn’t turn to face my friend, to see her reaction. Instead, I focused solely on Verena as her mouth opened again and she continued to shout her admission.
“Romy is my daughter. I left her as a baby in the hands of someone I thought I could trust. I was ambushed by Tomin. He… He took my baby away from me! He took everything from me. I was meant to kill him just like he did with my sister, my husband… but he trapped me. Then I found out Jonathan was working with Tomin the entire time. They used Romy against me… kept her from me… used her life as a means to make me do things I never wanted to do. If I hadn’t she would’ve been hurt. Everything I’ve done was to protect her.” Verena calmed in a blink, her eyes opened and focused on the demon before her. She turned her wicked eyes back on Bahmet, glowering up at him. There was enough hate in that gaze that it was a surprise the goat-man didn’t combust on the spot. “And I will do anything to continue protecting her. I trust that was the answer you looked for, Bahmet?”
Bahmet withdrew the torture device, metal squeaking against leather as he tightened his grip. “Yes, Verena. It was. Congratulations…”
I didn’t hear the rest. Romy released a gasp, so soft and quiet I shouldn’t have heard it. But I did. Finally, I was brave enough to look at her. She sat to the right of Arwyn, and he was looking at her too.
“Is it true?” Arwyn asked, still looking at his cousin… hisfuckingcousin, and yet I knew it was his father he wanted answers from.
Tomin smiled wildly to himself. “Fabulous,” he said. “Isn’t it? Finally, my son, you have family. How do you feel? Fulfilled? Sustained? Happy…”
Romy snapped. She threw her weight so viciously to the side that her chair tipped over in Tomin’s direction. The thud of wood hitting the straw-covered floor sent a bolt through me. Romy might’ve been without her hands, but she snapped teeth like she was a creature out for blood.
Shewasout of blood.
Expletives and curses snapped in the air. Romy did everything in her power to harm Tomin. Verena was crying out for Romy to stop, but there was no stopping someone on the path of vengeance.
I urged her on silently, wishing I was close enough to join her… help her.
Bahmet allowed the disorder for a short while, soaking in the madness as though he was sitting front row at a West-End show. Finally, he got back to business, waving a hand, conjuring shadows and forcing Romy off the floor back to sitting upright.
“Once the trial has ended, you may take out your emotions on each other as much as you wish. For now, we move on. If you believe that answer was groundbreaking, just you wait until you hear the next one…”
Bahmet moved on to me.
I worked out something else in the seconds that followed. Kai’s answer and Verena’s answer were direct attempts to hurt Romy. Mine would be no different. He was driving a wedge in between our coven. At least attempting to.
There was nothing I could do but allow Bahmet to thread my fingers into the thumbscrew. The room was still in the throes of anarchy as the cold metal made my very soul shiver.
One day I would work out how I knew that a goat could smile, but I practically tasted Bahmet’s enjoyment on the air like a foul thing.
“You’ll regret this,” I whispered to Bahmet, and Bahmet alone. “There’ll come a time when I will make sure that you feel the very same pain that you are gifting us. Trust me.”
Bahmet leaned in close, wiry hair scratching against my cheek. “I have seen how this ends, Hector Briar. Soon enough, you will see. For now, I will have some fun.”
