“Why have I never met you before?” I shouted, grappling with my need of family, even if this woman clearly hated me. “Why… how can you sit back and let this happen?”
“I have my reasonings.”
I wanted to shout that I wouldn’t have been alone. I wanted to scream at her, demand why she would let her sister’s child face so much hate. Instead, I found myself unable to speak.
“Enjoy the show, Arwyn,” she said, shaking off her emotion before becoming the hard-shelled person who I’d first met. “I will leave the guards outside. When you are ready to be collected and taken back to your rooms”
“Wait!” I screamed, questions filling my head, pressing out against my skull and yet incapable of reaching my tongue. “What’s going to happen next?”
Her smile, as forced as it seemed, sent a shiver down my spine. “Tomin will round up every witch he can get his hands on and ensure they meet their justified ends by dawn tomorrow.”
It was what I was expecting her to say, but that still didn’t take away from the sting. “That’s barbaric. Regardless of what is being shown to the public, there are procedures for crime in the human world. The prime minister will never agree to mass executions.”
“Actually, he already has. You see, Tomin is on the way to meet with him now. The prime minister was so pleased to hear from Tomin regarding tomorrow’s planned attack, and is keen to know everything there is to know about witch-kind. Your father will be the one to do that. As you can imagine, there is no prison that can keep witches locked in, not with access to magic. Death is the only answer, history has proven that to us.”
It was the historic burning of innocent witches that had turned them to demonic entities in the first place, but I didn’t have the time to waste in saying that. She likely already knew.
“You can’t do this,” I spat.
“Oh, I know. Hence why I’m here babysitting you, and your father is heading to London. It is in his blood, your blood, to persuade those in power to cleanse the world of evil. Your ancestors have achieved it for years and will do so again. The age of Witch Hunters will once again rule, and we can watch from the sidelines until the world is truly saved.”
“And yet you are saying this to a man who has the very demon inside of him. The witches no longer have access to Bahmet, so they are no longer the threat.We’rethe threat.” I allowed the truth to rush out of me, hot as the fire burning in my gut. “Will you set me to the pyre once every other witch is destroyed?”
“That’s not for me to decide,” she replied, unable to look at me.
“No,” I said, lip curling over teeth. “Because the moment I die, Bahmet will be sent back to his void of shadow, ready and waiting for another witch to claim him.”
Her lips quivered into a harsh smile. “Bahmet will be destroyed in the end, you know that.”
“You’re a mind reader, you out of us all should know that my father would never destroy such an important tool.”
To my surprise, she agreed. “I know that, but I will. I will make sure Bahmet doesn’t poison another person again. You, Arwyn, will be the last. And you will be remembered as such, trust me.”
The death of a Grand High released Bahmet back into his void to wait out the time for the next to claim him. History said as much. And yet, I had an idea of how to destroy him, because out of all the things the demon lord didn’t fear, Hector Briar wasn’t one of them.
For a moment, the dark flashed with bright light. The scene on the television flooded back onto the screen, showing what was happening in London. I watched as military personnel stormed the scene. There were many people on their knees, arms bound behind their backs. Witches, all of them. And yet no one was fighting back. Was this because they didn’t want to make matters worse, or because they were Giftless, as Hector had suggested?
None of that mattered when the camera showed the very man I was searching for. Hector was on his knees, a gun pressed into the soft of his neck. His eyes were closed, a sense of peace locked in his expression, as if he expected his end to greet him. The blood had dried on his skin, masking his beauty in a wash of shadow. And yet, to me, he was everything and more.
“Stop!” I shouted at the screen as if those beyond it could hear me. “Let go of him!”
A hand pressed down on my shoulder. “I’m sorry, Arwyn. But this is why love is a weakness. Once Hector Briar has been slain, you will finally be free to see sense again.”
Hector was going to die, and there was nothing I could do to stop it…
I risked a look away from the television, pinning my eyes on my aunt. “You have to save him.”
“Even if I cared, that is out of my?—”
“I’m not the only vessel for Bahmet. Hector Briar has a shard within him too. You want to destroy Bahmet… you need him.”
Her smile faltered. “Lying will not help you now, Arwyn.”
“Read myfuckingmind and tell me if I’m lying.” My entire body trembled. Time was running out. The seconds it took for my aunt’s eyes to glow with a circlet of emerald were the most torturous of my life. But then I could almost feel it, fingers in my mind, searching for a lie that would never be found.
“When Hector’s mother was pregnant with him, a part of Bahmet retreated into the baby out of desperation. She was smothering the demon with thistlebane, and he wanted control. Bahmet managed to split himself, escaping into Hector before he was born. If you kill Hector, that part will be sent back to the void.”
She didn’t speak. Her wide brown eyes blinked rapidly as she took in all the information.
