Kai nodded once. “Which is where I’m hoping you’ll come in.”
“You want me to go and find her?” I already knew the answer just from the way Kai looked back at me. “Is that safe?”
“It’s either you, or Romy. The only reason she hasn’t gone yet is because I convinced her to go and take over the watch for Arwyn. If you’d refused her, she would have already been out there looking for Verena by now.” His eyes hardened like diamonds of determination. “I can’t let her go out and risk herself, not again.”
Checkmate. Kai was playing a game of manipulation, moving the pieces of the board himself.
“You have been busy, haven’t you?” It wasn’t really a question, but more of a statement.
“I can’t comfortably let Romy go out there alone,” Kai admitted. “We both know that Romy isn’t going to be satisfied finding her… Verena. She will go after Tomin. Hekate knows what would happen if she came across him.”
“But you’re okay with me going?”
Emon slithered across the floor, wrapped around my leg and began traversing my body until he came to rest on my forearm. The demon’s tight grip calmed me, if but a little.
“Do you really need me to answer that?”
I balled my hands into fists, trying to steady the violent tremble that took over my limbs. “What’s to say I won’t do the same… I could go after Tomin myself.”
“I wouldn’t say I’m okay with it, exactly.”
“But,” I added for him.
“ButI certainly feel a lot better.” Kai itched where he stood, hopping from foot to foot with nerves. “The world is still in danger, Hector. We leave here with nothing to show for it, and we have no way of turning back the tides. There’s no point wasting more energy on a man like Tomin who doesn’t even fear death. There’s nothing you can do to him that will hurt him enough. Nothing that would justify going off plan. You know that, I know that… we all do.”
“I think I see where this is going, Kai.”
His silence was confirmation enough.
“I can’t believe I’m going to admit this. WeneedBahmet, Hector,” Kai said, jaw set with the tension that came from saying those words. “With a power like Bahmet, there’s no saying what change we can set back in the world of witches. Just like the demon fixed the issues of the past, it can happen again. The world is… off. Dangerous for people like us. If there was a way we could reverse it, surely that would be worth the risks presented before us?”
“Do you want me to save Verena, or win the Witch Trials?”
Kai didn’t pause before he replied. “Both.”
It was all beginning to make sense. Kaihadplanned this.
“How much does Romy know of your little plan?”
“Not much.” Kai looked down to his feet. “But just enough to keep her on side.”
“She won’t take kindly to being manipulated, you know that, right?”
“If it means keeping her safe from any more harm, then I will face the consequences at a later date.” Kai picked up ahandful of fries from the pile, swatting away his demonic kitten who thought it was all some big game. “Arwyn needs medical attention. Getting him out is paramount, as is all of us leaving. Verena included. You heard what Tomin confessed. He can’t win these trials… he needs a witch. Romy’s convinced if we all leave then we can leave Tomin here, stuck with Bahmet, and they both will not get what they want.”
“Which would’ve been a great planifthe world we return to doesn’t require Bahmet’s power to right the balance back in the witches’ favour. Got it.” And I did. Except I was hyper-aware of every inch of my skin against my clothes, the beads of sweat trailing down my temples and soaking into my dirty strands of blonde hair. “Forgive me, Kai, but I think I’d feel better going along with this if you showed me what the real world was like. Not to mention what we do with Bahmet if I do win. Let’s say I’m successful, what happens when we get out of here and then there’s the issue of Tomin to deal with? He isn’t going to trust me, and the concept of trust is also not something possible in regard to him either.”
“I know it’s a big ask,” Kai said. “Risky. And I wish I could show you myself, but I haven’t attempted leaving this realm yet. I worry that if I do then Bahmet will sense it, and start the final trial before we’re all ready to go.”
“So how do you know what’s happening on the other side of the veil?”
Emon’s scales pinched the skin on my arm as he coiled harsher.“He sends me off to babysit that feline, and then demands answers the second he conjures us back. I am warning you, Hector Briar. If you send me out there again, I will ruin your life.”
“From your face I guess your familiar has just explained how…” Kai said, noticing the subtle shift of my attention down to the creature around my arm.
“He has. My question is how did you work this out?”
“Well, I gathered that the demons were out of Bahmet’s parameters. It was a risk the first time, but doing so was necessary. One that worked out.”
