No.
Because I had to save him from what waited on the other side when he finally made it.
47
HECTOR
Ileft the illusion of my family home behind, walking out the front door without ever looking back. What waited before the door was a forest of sorts.
Sunlight dappled through the branches of trees, and the ground beneath my feet was soft with moss and bracken. It was beautiful. Birds sang from hidden places. In the distance between a wall of thick trees, the sun glinted off the surface of an azure lake. Swans glided over it, chased by their fluffy-feathered cygnets.
Bahmet stirred within me, like a cat bathing in a beam of sunlight, stretching its limbs and meowing with pleasure. It was hard not to share in the same feeling as the demon lord now using my body as his home, but I tried my hardest. Any discomfort that Bahmet recognised only seemed to humour him.
“Remember, Tomin will face his punishment within this realm,” Bahmet reminded, his voice so clear in my skull that it was like he stood at my side and whispered into my ear. “Do what you wish with him, but when we go, he is to stay.”
“I got it,” I said, fixing my eyes on the very man I’d wanted to see.
Tomin Hopkin stood in the centre of a clearing, pacing back and forth in front of a severed stump of a tree. It was waist height, and had nothing of particular importance on it.
Yet.
A branch cracked under my foot, alerting him to my arrival. He spun around, heavy shadows beneath tired eyes. And yet, he was alert. His fists balled, eyes looking behind me expectantly.
“I was beginning to wonder where you’d gone,” Tomin said, fixing his gaze back on me.
“I’m sorry that I kept you waiting,” I lied, doing my level best to act as confused as he was. “Is this the final trial?”
Tomin’s lip curled ever so slightly. “It would seem Bahmet has some grand plans for us, yes. Perhaps now you’ve found your way to me, it will begin.”
I’d just tested his knowledge of what was happening, which would determine how this all played out. Tomin didn’t know that Bahmet was living inside of me. Not yet at least. He thought, as I had with the illusion of my family’s home, that we were facing the final trial.
Tomin may have been immortal, but time certainly didn’t sharpen his senses as I expected.
“Any clues?” I asked as if I was speaking to an ally, and not my greatest enemy.
His eyes narrowed. “What does it matter, huh? You’re the last witch. You win either way.”
I chewed on the insides of my cheeks, pondering his reply, wondering which path I should take to answer. I opted to cut through the shit, and get to the meat of why I wanted this interaction. “Did you read my note?”
I watched Tomin whisk a hand into his pocket and withdraw the parchment he’d stolen from my pocket after he’d knocked me out. Of course, that was what I wanted to happen. A brush of relief coiled over my skin like a fresh gust of spring wind.
“Over and over,” Tomin answered, brows furrowing as he looked down at the rumpled piece of paper. “And I can’t work out exactly what type of trick you’re trying to play with me.”
“Give it back,” I snapped, feigning panic and desperation.
Tomin’s fingers folded over the parchment, a protective, obsessive nature overcoming him. “I don’t think I will. Old magic I’d gather… must be important if you brought it with you.”
“No tricks.” I smiled honestly. “I got the impression that you wouldn’t have let me explain myself when I came for you. Next best thing was writing it down. Someone once told me that if you have something important to say, write it down. It immortalises it for a time. Words spoken fade on the wind, but it takes fire—or great power—to rid the written word.”
Tomin shook the paper at me. He was stood on the other side of the tree stump, perhaps because he feared me. Or maybe, deep down, he sensed that something was different. A flash of shadow in my eyes, or the way the puppeteer controlling my body had me stand straighter, shoulders broader.
“You vowed, in written word, to lift my curse if you won the Witch Trials. The sentiment is there, but I don’t understand why you’d give me what I have always wanted when I have caused you so much pain.”
I laughed, a sharp crackling sound that ruined the peace of the forest. “It’s never been the pain you caused me that I cared about. It is the ruin you’ve left behind in everything else you’ve touched. Your son, the people you love… all tools to get you to this moment. If I refused your greatest wish, it would mean all the pain you dished out would be for nothing. Perhaps I’m crazy in thinking that, well actually… not perhaps—I’ve always been slightly unhinged.”
Tomin regarded me, let my words sink in and then pocketed the note. I was happy to know it was still on his person. After all,what was scrawled upon it would be useless if he didn’t keep it close to him.
“I appreciate the sentiment, Hector. But your offer is worthless unless you win,” Tomin said, his eyes widening slightly. “Unless you’ve already won. Is my thinking correct?”
