My heart stopped for a moment.“Brother?”
Emon drew away from Romy’s hand, to her displeasure, and slithered back across the table to me. Beady eyes fixed to mine, and if it was even possible, I felt the viper smile.“Well yes, little Caym. Oh how I missed him.”
“That’s enough!” I shouted my command to the shock of the room. It was easy to forge my control over Emon, as I had many years of practice with Caym. But I couldn’t—I wouldn’t talk about Caym, especially not to this demon. Regardless of what Emon suggested, I refused it.
Emon, under the strength of my will, curled into a tight coil and looked more like a smudge of shadow upon the table than a snake. I knew that he wouldn’t be able to converse with me again until I released my will, and I had no plans on doing that anytime soon.
“Listen,” I said, turning my attention back to Kai. “If what you are saying has any merit, then we need the same information Tomin is searching for. Regardless if Tomin wants to destroy Bahmet or use him,wemust destroy him. Once and for all. So, the floor is yours, Kai… you’ve done the research. Tell me everything you know.”
“Umm. That’s where we come to a problem,” Kai announced, and I was sure I felt every bone in my body grow heavier. “You see, only Bahmet can destroy… well, Bahmet. If he is returned to his void, then he is vulnerable. But in the body of a vessel… well, you can only destroy the witch, thus banishing Bahmet to his self-made limbo to restart the cycle. I believe that the Witch Trials are held in his safe haven… a sliver between the mortal and demonic realm. A place Bahmet can be kept safe from those in his own realm that would wish to destroy him, a place he can lie in wait for the next witch to give their soul to him.”
My mind sparked with an idea, although it made me sick to my stomach at the thought. “Then I know what I need to do.”
“I know that look, Hector.” Romy must’ve recognised the meaning behind my words, because she snapped her head around and managed to shout a single word. “No! Not happening.”
Kai’s eyes scanned between us. “Is there something you’d like to share?”
Even though Romy shook her head at me, I couldn’t stop the truth from finally being set free.
“I can destroy Bahmet.”
I’d never been surer of something in my life.
“Didn’t you just hear what I said?” Kai asked.
“I did.” I took a deep breath in, clearing the iron-clad cobwebs that longed to trap the truth from leaving me. “I have a part of Bahmet inside of me.”
Kai’s eyes flared wide. “Excuse me?”
“Hector, don’t,” Romy warned.
“I can’t keep this to myself, Romy. If this is our chance, we must take it. We don’t have the time to waste.”
She leaned back, displeased but silently agreeing that I was right.
“So Arwyn doesn’t have access to Bahmet?” Kai asked, hope lingering in every word. “All this time I thought Tomin was in control.”
“He does, and Tomin is,” I answered. “At least, Tomin has the majority of it. But there’s a small part inside of me, left over from whenever my mother was pregnant. It… broke off in me, enough that maybe that dark power could be used against Bahmet?”
Kai’s face brightened, whereas Romy’s faded into a storm.
“That would mean killing Arwyn,” she said as if reminding me of the obvious.
“Oh, I know,” I said, sick to my core but pretending otherwise to myself and those around me.
I sensed that Romy had something else to say, likely along the lines of ‘could you do it’?
My answer wasn’t simple.
It depended on which Arwyn she spoke about. The memory of the man I thought I knew, or the truth of the man who hid behind his illusions.
Regardless, if it meant saving thousands of people, I would have no choice.
“Problem is, I don’t understand that power inside of me, and if Tomin has taken all the information on Bahmet, it will take longer to find out. And right now our issue is saving those about to be burned at the stake. So, let’s start there and when we succeed, we can come back and discuss the shard of a demon lingering in me and how we can turn it into a weapon.”
No one disagreed. We’d wasted enough time having this conversation in the first place.
Romy, who shot me cold looks after cold looks, was the one to ask the obvious question. “How do we stop witches burning at the stake when the entire world is watching, and every person is currently on their own personal witch hunt?”
