It was Arwyn, but it wasn’t, at the same time. Two voices spoke in tandem, one mortal and one demonic.
“Steady now.” Verena’s firm hand on my shoulder softened a little, but the athame stayed in place. “Arwyn, why don’t you come out and we can talk about it… calmly.”
A growl rose from the darkness, a song of violence.
Shadows parted like curtains of velvet night, revealing Arwyn Hopkin in their midst. He walked on steady feet, boots crushingover a littering of bodies that his tentacles had dragged, attacked and killed.
My breath caught in my throat as I laid my gaze on him. Unlike before, he wasn’t resisting the power inside of him.
He was one and the same.
Dominance incarnate. One of Arwyn’s eyes glowed a violent red whilst the other spun with a band of azure. Both witch and demon, good and evil. I didn’t know whether to rejoice that he was here, or demand Emon conceal me in shadows and keep me safe.
Verena held the blade firmer the closer Arwyn got. “Think carefully about your next move.”
“I told you to take—your fucking hands—off him,” Arwyn commanded, taking his time to lash each word at Verena. “That’s the last time I will ask.”
That time, Verena listened. She withdrew the blade from my neck, keeping both hands up at her sides.
“Bahmet feeds off death,” she said. “The more you offer him the harder control will become, Arwyn.”
He cocked his head to the side, flashing straight white teeth that looked almost sharp at their ends. “I didn’t know you were so well-versed in the matters of demons, Aunt.”
Aunt? The word soured in the air. Verena was familiar, but I’d never thought it was because she was related to Arwyn. Even though now the secret was laid out before the room, it made sense somehow.
Verena didn’t refuse the title either. Instead, she stood up and continued to back away. Not before offering me a final warning out the corner of her mouth. “If you want to end this, you know what you need to do.”
I refused to look anywhere but at Arwyn. His expression softened as soon as Verena was at a distance. Brows furrowedover sorrowful eyes—eyes that drank every inch of me in. “What have they done to you.”
It wasn’t a question, but a statement.
Arwyn lifted a hand, and the pressure around my wrists faded to smoke. I looked down, gun in my now-free hands, dark bruises encircling my skin like a bracelet.
Arwyn extended a hand for me. “Come, Hector. It’s time to leave. If you take my hand we can leave this behind.”
A spark of fire erupted just behind Arwyn, the red as violent as his single demonic eye. He didn’t notice; to be honest I didn’t think he would’ve cared about anything but me in that moment. But I saw it, and the face the flame illuminated.
“He’s not going anywhere withyou, Arwyn.” Romy Bailey’s bud of conjured fire rose into a pillar before she thrust it out in Arwyn’s direction. Old magic. I couldn’t help my traitorous scream of panic as the fire singed through his shoulder, causing Arwyn to drop on his knees.
Kai ran from Romy’s shadow, straight towards me, hands extended to get me off the floor.
“You found me then,” I said, breathless. “About time.”
“I will take that as a thank you,” Kai replied. “But next time you deviate from the plans, warn us both beforehand, okay? I’d prefer if we didn’t cause Romy unnecessary anxiety.”
My eyes looked up to Arwyn cowering beneath Romy’s flame.
Arwyn rose, the side of his shirt singed, revealing burned and blistered skin. His lip curled overdefinitelysharpened teeth. Any second and he would’ve used Bahmet to hurt Romy.
“Hey, dick-face!” I shouted.
Arwyn’s strange gaze turned at my voice, distracted. He fixed his eyes, not on me, but on Kai’s handsonme.
Fuck. This isn’t good.
Arwyn reacted.
“Stop!” I shouted, pushing Kai to the side with all my might just as a bolt of dark power was sent spearing towards him. “Arwyn, enough.”
