“Commendable,” the demon glowered, talking to himself considering I’d not said a word yet. “Nothing I would do. But a spectacle nonetheless. Fine. I will allow it to happen. But first… Let. Me.In.”
The flickering bulb exploded, raining glass down over us.
The darkness swelled, rose and fell like a tidal wave that no soul, no matter how resilient, could refuse.
One moment I was knelt before Bahmet, the next he was possessing me.
Body, soul and mind.
46
ARWYN
Asteady, high-pitched beep dragged me out of my sleep.
I woke to sheets tangled around my damp body, tucked so tightly at my sides that my initial reaction was to fight.
Rough, guiding hands fought against my bare torso, pushing me back down onto the cloud beneath me. Someone was shouting something, but it was hard to hear a word when the beeping bounced around my skull.
“Don’t be an idiot, Arwyn.”
My eyes were dry, seemingly glued shut. Something was down my throat, rubbing against raw flesh that ached as I tried to scream.
“Lie back down!”
Light blinded me, so stark and brilliantly white that I thought I’d finally made it to heaven. Once it settled, the blurred outline of a face came into view. I blinked back the tears, gagged on my pleas caught at the base of my throat, and found that my momentary strength faded like ash on the wind.
Romy was beside me, her hands forged against either side of my bare chest. She urged me back down against the bed, deep creases cut across her brow. “Please.” Tears rolled down fromher familiar eyes. “You need to rest, or you’ll undo all their hard work.”
Whose hard work?
The last thing I remembered was catching faint glimpses of Hector as he sat at my bedside. But that room had been dark, the air ladened with dust and age. This place was sterile and clean, so much that I could practically taste lemon across my dry tongue.
I began to look around when the choking began. It was like a snake had burrowed its way in my throat, slowly sinking to see how far it could travel into my body. Romy was desperate, but not as much as me. I clawed at the slimy beast in my mouth, tugging it out with numb fingers. As I pulled, I could feel every inch of where it clung, which made me gag harder, encouraging bile to follow with it.
Relief was short-lived. I sucked in a breath, trying to fill my lungs and cope with the ache. What was in my hands was not a snake, but a tube. It hissed like the serpent I thought it had been, except the noise was wasted air from a canister at my bedside.
It was a breathing tube.
I dropped it to the floor, clasping my tingling fingers around my throat. That was when I noticed more wire-like contraptions attached to my arms, and other places hidden beneath the thin sheet.
“Is. This. A. Trial,” I gasped, forcing each word out with determination.
Romy looked at me, eyes wet and glistening. “No.”
“Where. Am…”
“Hector banished us from the Witch Trials, Arwyn. We’re back in London.”
Both statements seemed impossible, but as my sight steadied, I could make out that the room we were in was almost pure white. The floor, the walls, and the ceiling blended into one.It looked like a hospital, except it was small and empty. Besides my cot, the only other one I could see was to my side. Sheets had been lifted over the outline of a body. I could only just see a glimpse of shocking red hair poking out the top.
“Hector,” I cried out, spit dribbling down my lips. I could taste blood, maybe from a nick the air tube had left in my throat. “Where is?—”
“I just told you,” Romy snapped through her river of tears. “He banished us. He used Bahmet’s magic against us, and sent us packing.”
I looked back to the other bed, my foggy mind piecing together who was laid beneath the sheet. Romy clocked it, cleaning her cheeks with the back of her hand. “Kai forfeited the magic keeping him alive. He is… dying. We got here in enough time for the healers to hook him up to machines that will keep his heart beating. But I don’t—” Romy screwed her eyes shut and looked away as if the vision before her was too much to bear. “Without those machines he’d be dead already.”
I reached for her hand, taking it in mine. I noticed that a few of my fingers were bandaged, where the others were mottled with bruises so vicious it would make an artist jealous of the colours.
