Tomin released a breathy, manic laugh. His teeth were coated in the blood oozing from his bitten lip, giving him the mask of the monster he was deep inside. “I don’t believe you. You know I cannot die.”
Bahmet leaned closer still. “Test me. See what the outcome is when your fingers, your toes and that pathetic member you call a cock is broken. The only way out of this trial is truth. Ten—no, eleven chances wasted, and you will be stuck here, with me, for your long, sad, immortal life. Am I clear?”
I didn’t care if Tomin resisted or not. I wanted him to feel every ounce of pain that Bahmet could give him. Immortal life was a long time when spent in the claws of a demon who savoured suffering.
“I won’t.”
Bahmet grabbed Tomin’s lower face and squeezed. Leather against flesh squeaked together. “Say it.”
“No.”
Say what? Tomin was hiding something, and Bahmet knew. A small part of me desired to know his secrets. Bahmet’s reaction was enough to tell me it was important.
“Is that your second answer?” Bahmet asked, head tilted.
Tomin clamped his mouth closed, chin jutting in defiance.
Snap. Another bone ruined, more skin twisted into a mangled mess. Tomin leaned into Bahmet until their faces were inches apart. He screamed. Tomin released all that agony out in a single breath, until his cheeks turned red and his eyes bulged.
“Pretty voice you have, Tomin Hopkin,” Bahmet said once Tomin had exhausted the air in his lungs. “I like the sound of your screams. It is almost better than all the witches you have sent to me over the years. I can imagine it now, me and you,here in this realm forever together. It’s a noise I could get used to hearing.”
I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing.
With his final concealed threat, Bahmet withdrew. I didn’t notice it at first, but Bahmet’s retreat suggested that Tomin wasn’t going to resist again. I didn’t know how the demon had worked it out, but he was right to drop his hand from the thumbscrew. It wouldn’t be needed again.
“I can’t win,” Tomin said beneath his breath, so quiet that I almost missed it. “I can’t.”
His head sagged, chin hitting his chest.
Bahmet’s eyes smiled with success. “And what can you not win, Tomin?”
Veins bulged in the Witch Hunter’s neck, sweat beading down his temple. “The Witch Trials. I cannot win the fucking trials.”
“Fantastic!” Bahmet bellowed. “Finally, you speak some truth. Freeing, is it not?”
Tomin didn’t answer. He leaned back in his chair, panting for breath, only for Bahmet to encourage him to continue with the wave of a hand. “Do not stop now, my old friend. You are nearly there, nearly at the gates of freedom. Say it. Free the load from your chest. Why can you not win the Witch Trials?”
Once again, Tomin refused to answer. But in the end, he didn’t need to. It was Verena who spoke up for him.
“Because he isn’t a witch,” Verena said so matter-of-factly, I couldn’t believe I’d not pieced this together. “Tomin needs a witch to win, someone onhisside, someone to accept the great power of Bahmet and use it on his behalf. That is why Tomin Hopkin cannot win. Not without one of us… not withoutme.”
Bahmet paused his reaching for the thumbscrew. When he withdrew, he looked pleased with himself. He took a deep breath in, and released it.
“Very good.” Bahmet waved a hand, manipulating shadow until the bindings around our wrists and ankles disappeared. “You have each passed the trial…”
I didn’t even wait for Bahmet to finish speaking.
I wasted no time leaping from my chair, and grabbing hold of Arwyn’s unconscious body before he slipped to the floor from his lack of conscious control. His skin was both hot and cold, trembling slightly. Damp with sweat. I didn’t see what the others did next. My focus was on pressing fingers into Arwyn’s neck, locating a pulse and determining how weak it was. I couldn’t look at his hands without my stomach turning into violent knots. These were scars that wouldn’t be healed at the end of the game… I knew that like a truth etched on my bones.
Bahmet had weakened us both physically and spiritually.
“Romy!” Kai shouted.
It was the panic in his voice that drew my attention from Arwyn just in time to see Romy throw herself atop Tomin, nails and teeth bared. Tomin grunted, flailing back as Romy latched onto his shattered fingers and pulled, hard.
His keening yowl was a song to my soul.
Verena was running towards them, to do what, I wasn’t too sure. I hoped Kai stopped her just so Romy could continue beating the man who was at the crux of all this agony. If my hands were not full I would’ve joined her, but alas I would let Romy have all the fun.
