That was when I smiled through my tears, making sure he saw every one of my teeth. I opened my mouth, ready to laugh in the face of a man who would never find the peace he sought, when a small voice distracted me.
“He… can’t die,” Hector chirped, eyes fluttering closed as if the dark room was made of pure light, and he couldn’t handle facing it. “Tomin can’t die.”
“I know,” I replied, leaning my forehead upon his until the damp touch of his skin grounded me. “And he never will, because you need to destroy Bahmet. Now.”
Even as I said it I felt the demon’s force lick against my flesh, attempting to break free.
“I can’t.” Hector exhaled the words as if they were the heaviest things to say. “You will.”
I took his blood-soaked hand where it lay on the leaking wound of his stomach, and laid it upon my chest.
Bahmet jolted beneath the touch, frightened at the potential it poised against him. A shard, jagged and worn from years of lingering in a man out for revenge, already carved into a piece that was sharp enough to use as a weapon, if only he knew how. “Please, Hector. I know you owe me nothing. I know that I deserve to be hated by you, punished and tormented for what I’ve done, but I ask this one thing of you. Destroy Bahmet, try. If not for me, for everyone else the demon will ever threaten.”
Hector managed to keep his eyes open long enough for me to see just how bloodshot they’d become. Dark circles clung beneath them like bruises made from fists, his skin so pale it was as if he had one foot in death, and the other in life. Then his hand slipped from my chest, and fell upon his lap.
“I already… forgive you, Arwyn.”
“Stop it,” I snapped. “I don’t need to hear that. I don’t need…”
Hector’s eyes fluttered closed, and my universe cracked apart.
“No,” I said, refusing the one thing I had craved more than air—Hector’s forgiveness. “No, Hector. No, no, no.”
I longed to be gentle with him, but I couldn’t stop myself shaking his body, screaming at him to wake up until my throat was raw.
Hector wouldn’t open those beautiful eyes, and if I didn’t do something he would never open them again.
“You said you wanted todestroyBahmet,” Verena shouted over the chaos. “I told you how, Tomin. Hector Briar is the key to this. He dies, your hopes to cleanse the world of evil dies with it.”
Tomin waved the gun in my aunt’s direction, dismissing her. “Bahmet will be dealt with once, and only when, he lifts the curse put upon me.”
“Then you still need Hector alive,” Verena persisted. “If he dies, Bahmet will no longer be vulnerable. Once released from Arwyn, Bahmet will return to the void and the cycle will continue.”
Their argument became a background buzz in my frantic mind.
My father looked to Hector again, seeing him as a means for success instead of a life that meant everything to me. “It would seem we are too late for that. The witch is already gone.”
Agony tore through me. I tried to block it out, but there was no ignoring how assured my father sounded.
Tomin lowered the gun, and that was enough for me to know that he no longer believed Hector was worth another bullet. Hector was dying without it.
“Let… the witch heal him.”
My father snapped his gaze to Romy, who’d not stopped struggling in the hold of the Hunters.
“Tomin,” Verena continued, placing her body between me and my father, shielding us from my desperate father. “I beg you to see sense.”
“Quiet, Verena. I’ve heard enough of your petition. Remember who it is that you speak to.”
Verena ignored him, instead getting louder. “Let her heal Hector!”
I couldn’t see his face anymore, but from his raised tone that hissed with fire, I knew she’d hit a nerve. “Another word, and I will take something from you next. Do not make me second-guess your loyalty to me, not in such a precarious position we’ve found ourselves in.”
She didn’t speak again. Instead, she looked to someone in the crowd, bowed her head and then stepped way.
“Now, Arwyn. About my little curse—breakit.”
I refused to reply, instead focusing back on Hector and looking nowhere else. I caught the slight rise and fall of his chest, telling me he wasn’t gone. Not yet. But if my father didn’t let Romy help heal him with her Gift, that left only one choice.
