“Then that’s where we will go.”
“But you… ifyougo, you will be putting yourself at risk, Hector.”
I shrugged off her concern, because right now there was no place in the world safe for me. “It doesn’t matter. None of this will matter until we can find a solution to this fucking mess.”
“I sense that a command is imminent, master-oh-master of mine.”
I spun towards the corner of the room, where the shadows swelled, and the demon lurked. “Would you stop it!”
Pain radiated in my head. I clutched either side of it to stop the awful swelling of my brain against my skull.
A hand found mine, firm fingers steady compared to how mine shook. “Who are you talking to, H?”
Regret hung heavy in my chest, likely reflected in my eyes as I looked to my friend. I didn’t know what to say really, not without admitting to what I’d achieved with the darkness inside of me.
Would she fear me to know what I’d achieved? Especially when I didn’t have the answers as to how.
“Emon,” I said the name aloud, refusing to look away from Romy. “Time to get us out of here.”
The shadows broke like a wave against a sandy shore.
Romy looked over my shoulder to find the demon as he slunk from the shadows. As my skin crawled with the idea of the viper getting closer to me, I expected Romy would react in the same way. But a smile broke her face, a devious one that glittered in her eyes. “Well, well, well, that might be the cutest little thing I’ve ever seen!”
“Again with the little? At least someone has some taste I suppose.”Emon slithered across the floor, coming to stop between us.
Romy reached down for him, letting the viper slink up her wrist like a bracelet of sun-devouring glass.“If only the fates were kinder to me, and I would’ve been conjured by someone who actually would appreciate my company like this pretty witch.”
“You’re welcome to have her,” I replied, which made Romy pull a face, reminding me she couldn’t hear what Emon was saying. “He likes you. Can’t say the same for me.”
“Alas, you have worked me out. I’m stuck with you. Until death do us part, something you should be familiar with, Hector.”
Emon was referring to Caym again with his dig. I knew it. Apparently, my offence was greater than my fear, because my hate for snakes was forgotten as anger rose within me. That was enough for me to reach out, wrap my fingers around his slender throat and lift the demon up before my face. “Time to get out of here, demon. Romy is going to share our destination, and you are going to make sure we make it in one piece. If not, that death-do-us-part bit is going to happen sooner rather than later.”
Emon split his pointed face, flashing sharp twin blades at me.“Do not tempt me with a good time, witchling.”
For the second time, shadows seeped from the demon’s scales. Like the blanket of winter night, they rose over Romy and me, swallowing us whole.
The old magic keeping the bedroom door secured broke, allowing the personnel who’d come to get us to barge in. What they found was an empty room with nothing but the memory that we’d ever been inside of it.
9
HECTOR
“This is war!” I shouted, taking my time to sweep my gaze across those looking up at me. “You can continue pointing the finger at me, or stop wasting your time and look out for the true enemies who’d sooner kill you than help.”
I stared at a room full of disgruntled and wounded witches, reading the multitude of emotions in every single one who looked at me. To be fair, regardless of my past discretions, I had just arrived in this forgotten London Underground in a bundle of shadows, courtesy of my demon.
My version of a grand entrance didn’t really help my cause. If it wasn’t for Romy, who’d literally put her body between me and the crowded room, I thought I’d already be torn in two.
“If we are speaking about the obvious, yes, Hector, this is war,” a red-headed witch said, the orange glow of the emergency light reflecting off pale skin.
He was handsome, but not in the tall, dark and alluring category. In fact, he was the polar opposite. Not short, but certainly nothing to write home about. His hair was a light strawberry blonde, soft curls framing a heart-shaped face. Andhis eyes, well they shone like beacons of green light, piercing through the room to me. It didn’t take a scholar to work out that he had some command over the people in this room.
“But do not forget that this war has been brought to our door because ofyourprevious failure. Now wouldn’t be the time to forget that very important detail. You failed the Witch Trials, blinded by your admiration for a Witch Hunter, thus handing over our greatest weapon to them.”
Romy cleared her throat, almost shocked at how outwardly this young man was berating me. Whereas I thought it was rather tame, all considering. “Kai, really?”
“Romy,” he echoed her name, weaponising it like she’d done to him. “Yes, really. Look around you, look at the repercussions of Mr. Briar’s inability to win the Witch Trials. We are weakening by the second, our Gifts failing us. Today’s attack couldn’t have been stopped because we no longer have the means to do so. And why? He allowed Bahmet to be taken by Tomin. Him!”
