“You can thank a few people. Namely Hekate for giving me a reward for successfully getting rid of the thorn that has been in every witch’s foot.”
“Hekate?” Arwyn gasped. “You saw her?”
“Saw her. That doesn’t even touch the sides of the experience.”
Arwyn laid a long, drawn out kiss upon my forehead. Then he placed one on the tip of my nose, each cheek and finally came to rest on the single place I needed him on.
Our lips met. Both wet with our tears of joy, fixing together like pieces of a puzzle that Hekate herself had handcrafted for one another. I melted into his embrace, caring little for the increasing chill against my half-naked flesh, or the numb arse I had from sitting on the cold floor.
There were still conversations to be had, urgent details we both had to voice, but we did so in breaks between the kisses. As we caught our breath, Arwyn would ask me a question and I would quickly answer it before lowering my mouth back to his.
“Bahmet’s gone then?” he asked. “Like really gone?”
I nodded, delighting in the taste of him across my tongue. “Yup. Destroyed puts it lightly. He would be better roasted over a fire and served in a Sunday dinner now.”
There was more kissing, deeper urgency and tongues that danced with one another. I groaned into his mouth, wanting more—needingmore, but knowing the time wasn’t yet upon us for such things.
“And Tomin?” Arwyn finally asked, which low key ruined the mood a little. It was a bucket of ice-cold water over my head, which was a good thing I guessed, considering I needed something to help me focus.
It was easy to get drunk off of Arwyn, especially when we had both thought this would never be possible again.
“I… dealt with him too.” Admitting it was harder than I expected. Above everything that had happened, Tomin was still Arwyn’s father.
Arwyn’s eyes dropped from mine so suddenly, it tore the breath from my lungs. “Please tell me that ‘dealt with’ is a kinder way of telling me that he is gone. Like, forever.”
I took a deep breath in, preparing myself. “I gave your father a choice. Offered an olive branch so to say. He decided, after I showed how honest I was being by removing his curse, that the rot in him was never because of Bahmet’s influence. It had been there, before Bahmet and your father ever got tangled together. So, with his newfound freedom and the suggestion of peace between him and us, he didn’t want that. He… tried to kill me. But it backfired, as I knew it would deep down. Thanks to you, Arwyn Hopkin, and your brilliant mind, I was able to use the same rune markings you’d used on me, to cast back any pain or physical repercussion on your dad. I didn’t kill him, per se. His actions and hate just caught up to him in the end.”
Arwyn nodded, taking in my words, chewing on them so to say. When he lifted his gaze back to me, it was firm and relieved. I expected sadness, maybe just a slither of the emotion, but there was none.
“Thank you,” Arwyn said, taking my hands in his and squeezing. “You didn’t need to give my father a chance, but you did. As you said, his own decisions got him in the end, just as I knew they would.”
“Do you want the details?” I asked, preparing to answer any question he had.
Arwyn shook his head. “Not yet. It doesn’t matter right now, not when you have found your way back to me.”
“With a little help, remember.”
“Ah yes. Of course.” His brow furrowed. “Who else was it then?”
My confused expression urged Arwyn to expand on his question.
“You said a few people could be thanked for bringing you back from the dead,” Arwyn said. “Who else?”
“Well, Eleanor Letcombe was there. She apologised by the way… for everything. I told her not to bother.” I took a hulking breath in, still feeling my mother’s presence on me like a physical thing. “And, my mum. She was the first one to greet me, and the last one to say goodbye.”
“Oh, Hector.” Arwyn drew me onto his lap, both of us tangled together in the middle of a stark corridor. “It’s not a goodbye. It’s only a see you later, you know that.”
“I do,” I said, tasting the salt of my tears as they melded with the taste of Arwyn on my mouth. “There was something she wanted me to say to you.”
A flash of what could only be fear passed behind Arwyn’s eyes. “There was?”
I leaned in, bringing my lips to his ear. Before I got there, I planted a kiss on his cheek. Then I whispered my mother’s message to him, wanting Arwyn to hear it alone, not the cameras watching in the corners where wall met ceiling, or the few people I sensed lingering behind closed doors.
It was important enough for my mum to use her limited time with me to share it. And I felt it was equally as important that Arwyn had the time to really take it in… down to the marrow of his bones where it could live for the rest of his life.
Arwyn barely moved a muscle. I pulled back, feeling weightless as I gave him the one thing I knew he’d craved since we both met.
“She actually said that?” he asked, face straight although his lower lip trembled slightly.
