Placing steady hands over the bullet wound on his stomach, I called upon Bahmet to heed me. The demon rose inside of me as I knew he would, taking his place of power beneath my skin. But the moment I reached out for the power he awarded me, there was tension.
“I will not,”Bahmet growled through my skull.
I ignored him, battling my will against his, clawing myself into the dark power of death, and wishing to use it to battle away that which crept over Hector’s life force. “Yes, you will.”
Bahmet didn’t want to save Hector, because the demon knew exactly what lingered inside of him. A small part of me wondered what would happen to Hector when death truly claimed him.
Would the shard of the demon inside of him depart his soul, and return to the void? If the logics of demonology were the same for Bahmet, there would be no doubt that he would want Hector to die, banish the shard from threatening his existence, and then claw out of me so he too could return to the void and claim it.
Either way, my options were limited. I’d either let a monster of dark power win, or let the man I called father, who was a monster of flesh and bone, succeed.
Hector’s lips moved slightly, a mumbled sound filtering out of his blood-caked lips. I couldn’t hear him, so I lowered my face down to his, laying my ear so close to his mouth as I begged him to repeat it.
Whatever Hector tried to say for a final time was missed as my father’s shout smoothed it.
“Verena, I will give you another chance to prove yourself to me,” my father called out. I continued to grasp for Hector’s life-threads, tangling them in my hand and holding firm whilst fighting off Bahmet’s refusal. “Sink into my son’s mind, and command him to do what I need of him. If you are successful, then I will allow the witch-girl to heal Hector. Do it soon, otherwise it will be too late to save him.”
I didn’t look up when my aunt came to kneel beside me. She laid a soft hand on my shoulder, leaned in close and whispered something to me and Hector. “Arwyn, I’m sorry. I have no other choice… Ihaveto do this.”
“Romy, just go. Leave… whilst you can,” Hector muttered, eyes fighting to open. Something he said stumped Verena. She gasped at the name that wasn’t hers, and yet had power over her. It awarded me one last chance to hear what Hector was trying to say to me.
Hector was defiant. As my unseen hands grasped hold of his life-thread, I sensed his will also fighting against the never-ending shadow.
He used his last scrap of strength to give me a command. “I… forbid you from giving Tomin what he wants.”
“Do it now, Verena!” my father bellowed, followed by a sharp scream from Romy. I spun around to see that the gun had been replaced for an athame to her neck, pressed hard enough into skin that a dribble of fresh blood traced the metal edge.
The male witch at her side snapped alive, fighting tooth and nail against his captives, screaming for them to release Romy. I sensed something in him, an emotion I shared with such potency, I recognised it for what it was.
Bedlam ensued around the room, all but the single speck of peace that was still dying in my arms. Hector was fighting death with everything he could, using my leverage on his life-threads to stay as alert as he could.
Bahmet might refuse to heal him, but I would make sure he stayed alive for as long as I held on to him.
“Give Bahmet up,” Hector said to me. “Send… to the void. Destroy the?—”
Verena reached out for me, eyes glowing, magic radiating from her skin. Before I could blast her away, a coiled spring of darkness rose up and shot towards her. The fangs of a serpent made of shadow sunk into Verena’s shoulder, sending her toppling backwards.
I heard the crack of bone, and something told me that Romy had just broken free. Heat seared, winds roared, and ancientmagics spoiled the room. Bahmet was repulsed, his disgust becoming my own.
My father demanded death from his Hunters. A bullet sang. A cry of agony rose over the basement, telling me someone else had found death.
In it all my father gained closer to me, eyes wide and demand vicious. “Give me what I want, you ungrateful littlecunt.”
Holding firm onto Hector, I spun on my father with years of pent-up hate exploding in my veins. Deep inside, where the demon had made a home, I sensed him sigh with relief as if he knew what was coming.
“If you want it so badly,” I sneered, my face a mask of ruin, pinched with hate and smeared with Hector’s blood. “Then you can earn it.”
Hector had begged for Bahmet to save my life, and I had no choice but to accept it. But when I decided to give the demon up, to banish him back to his realm, it was easy and without resistance.
After all, it was what Hector asked of me. If he wanted me to jump off a mountain for him, I would. No hesitation.
Tomin’s eyes widened, mouth splitting as he gargled out his refusal.
I didn’t hear him. All that took me over was the demon’s joy as the single command I gave him allowed him to vacate my body. Bahmet’s celebration pierced through me as I evicted him, sending him back to the void.
I’d finally given Bahmet the one thing he wanted, and that was freedom from someone he could not control.
The peace of being freed from the clutches of a demon lord lasted all but a moment.
