I had to do something. This was my chance to act and protect those who I loved.
I paused, laying Kai’s body against step and the cliff wall. Time wasn’t on my side, especially if Hector turned to find me no longer following. Acting swiftly, I dug my fingers into thesofter clay part of the rock way. Closing my eyes, I drew up the elemental symbol for earth until it was the only thing I could think of. As if sensing my connection to the old magic, Hector cried out my name, but I refused to listen. If I did, I wouldn’t follow through with intention.
Picturing clearly what I desired in my mind’s eye, I imagined fine trembles spreading out through the wall, cracking it apart and sending rock falling atop those who gave chase. My breathing evened, my eyes sparking with the telltale sign of magic use.
When I’d used my Gift, conjuring illusions was all about intention and focus. I would picture what I desired, and fix it in place for as long as I could. My intention, although not always good, was iron in will. When I was younger, my Gift had become a new tool for my father to use. I had barely been able to hold the illusion of an apple instead of an orange for a few seconds. The more he forced me to practice—the gruelling treatment he put me through over and over—I mastered my Gift.
I supposed it was thanks to him that I was going to save us now.
The earth rumbled beneath my hand. Down below, far below at the base of the cliff where the Hunters were beginning to climb the path, the very ground beneath their feet shuddered, weakened, and then split wide open.
They had no chance to turn back before the earth turned against them.
I couldn’t hear the Hunters’ screams as the path melted like liquid, spilling over them in a landslide. All I cared about was keeping those fuckers away from us. Until Bahmet decided it was time for the next trial when we would all be reunited.
But, until that moment, the safety of the two people ahead of me was the only thing that mattered.
Satisfied no one could follow us up this path, I withdrew myself from the old magic, hoisted Kai’s body across my back with a cry, and then continued to climb. I didn’t stop again. I refused look back. It didn’t matter how many of those Hunters I had killed; as long as it was a few less that would threaten Hector’s life, I was content.
I almost cried when I finally reached the top of the climb. As my fingers clawed into the soft brush of grass, my eyes pricked with tears of relief. I flopped over the top of the cliff face, helped by Hector and Romy who dragged Kai’s body off my back.
I rolled over and unleashed a feral laugh to the sky.
Hector stood over me, blocking out the budding light of the sun as it finally peeked through Verena’s storm clouds. I swore he was far brighter than the sun itself, more beautiful than anything the universe could create.
He extended a hand out to me, his mouth drawn into a line, his eyes wide and full of so many held back emotions. “Do you think you’ve got it in you to keep going?” Hector asked.
My body said no, but my heart couldn’t refuse him. I took his hand, delighting in how real and hard his grip was. “Always.”
With a great heave, Hector pulled me up, squeezed my hand a final time before letting go, and declared, “We need to find shelter, and quickly.”
Romy was knelt over Kai’s body, trembling fingers searching for a pulse in his neck, and wrist, but her continuous checking proved she was finding nothing. “Dead,” she whispered at first, then cocked her head back and bellowed to the sky. “He’s dead!”
I thought I’d known pain before, until I felt the emotion of heartbreak pouring off someone I cared about. I blinked, finding myself taken back to when Hector was dying in my arms, and how that reality drove me to make my own deal with the devil just to save him.
Hector clapped a hand over his mouth, catching a sob. I wanted to support him, but found myself needing to help Romy and only Romy in that moment.
I reached her side, buried the ache in my body once again, and scooped Kai’s body from the ground. “That doesn’t mean we give up on him yet, Romy.”
She looked up at me with wide eyes glistening with tears, and the suddenness of something hit me like a truck to my chest.
“He. Is. Dead,” she spat. “What do you think can be done to reverse that!”
My jaw tensed, teeth gritting together. I refused to give up on him, just as I refused to do the same for Hector. “This is the realm of demons, Romy. Anything is possible.”
“Arwyn… is right,” Hector added, breathless as silent tears traced down his cheeks. “We can’t give up. There has to be something we can do.”
And there was. I needed Hector for this next part. I hated to ask anything of him, but he was my only chance. As Romy sobbed over the lifeless body of the man, I turned to Hector. “You’ve proved to yourself that you are as much tied to this place as Bahmet is. Death all but feeds Bahmet here, making him stronger. That was the purpose. Which means Kai’s soul is somewhere… it has to be.”
There was no ignoring the moment Hector’s eyes widened in realisation to what I was saying. “I can’t—I don’t think.”
“But you will try,” I said, hoisting the body up as my arms began to numb. “Because you are Hector Briar, and you are the most powerful person I know. So, do me a favour, use that darkness inside of you and do something good with it. Prove to Bahmet that his power doesn’t need to be a tool for punishment and ruin.”
“How,” Hector choked, resolve hardening the lines of his face.
“Start with a place for us to shelter in, and then I will help you with the rest.”
Hector closed his eyes, took three long breaths in, and when he opened them again there was not an ounce of colour left. His iris was swallowed by shadow, the veins across his temple throbbing as they too filled with the dark power.
