“Maiden, Mother, Crone,” I said, recognising the symbol of Hekate. The Greek deity of witchcraft wastheGoddess who witches once worshipped before Bahmet came along and poisoned our minds. I knew this deity because an old memory of my mother resurfaced. Hekate was my mother’s favourite iteration of the Goddess, so much so that she named me after her.
“What are we waiting for?” Romy made a move, but I took her hand to stop her.
“It could be another trick,” I said, unknowing if this was a lure to get us inside only for Bahmet to harm us.
“Do youreallybelieve that?” Arwyn interjected, his voice meek from exhaustion.
I took a deep breath in, pondering his question and trying to allow my intuition—a witch’s most powerful tool—to answer it.
“No,” I finally said.
“Then well done,” Arwyn praised from behind us, drawing my attention back his way. “I knew you could do it.”
If he wasn’t still carrying the corpse of one of our coven members, I might’ve just accepted his praise. But alas, the task was not over. The reason I had conjured this place into existence was because we needed it to save Kai.
I only hoped that doing so was still a possibility.
Romy snatched her hand out of mine, ran ahead. There was no missing the kiss of old magic lingering across her skin as she kept it close.
If danger lurked inside the pub, she would be prepared to face it.
I helped Arwyn the last way towards the old doors, sharing the weight of Kai’s body.
As we passed beneath the pub’s sign and rushed inside, the air was thick with the scent of smoke and ale, the floor sticky beneath my feet. Round tables had been set up across the space, with red-velvet chairs tucked neatly beneath. Set on each table was a burning candle, each one a differing colour. My eyes caught the bar at the far side of the room, a wall of bottles stretching up behind it all the way to the balcony floor above it. A hearth spat embers onto a stone floor to my left, whilst a wall of doors waited to my right.
My heart stopped for a moment when I noticed Romy was nowhere to be seen. Then I heard the thundering of heavy feet above me. I looked up to find her leaning over a balcony, panting down over us.
“All the rooms are empty, but set up as if the pub expected guests,” she announced. “I don’t sense anything threatening about the place.”
Have I really done this?How far had my meddling with reality gone regarding this pub?
I supposed time would tell.
“It’s perfect for now,” Arwyn announced, using a spare hand to sweep a candle off a table and knocking it onto the floor. “Hector, help me bring another table together with this one so we can lay Kai down.”
I did as he asked, carefully handing the full weight back to Arwyn before I rushed into action. Once two tables were neatly lined, it was enough to lay Kai upon them. Romy had already made it back to the main room, using a narrow set of stairs that I hadn’t noticed just shy of the bar’s right.
As the light of the candles and hearth licked across Kai’s skin, I noticed just how pale he had become. His skin was almost blue, his lips certainly a shade of that.
“To give us a chance that this is going to work, we are going to need some items,” Arwyn announced.
“We need more information as to what exactly you are wanting to do.” Romy snapped her head around to meet him. “What do you mean items?”
“Necromancy.”
The single word stole the air from the room.
“It’s a tricky, and frowned upon, branch of old magic. I remember reading up on it during my studies a long time ago, and it always stuck with me. For it to work we are going to need candles, and lots of them at that. And from the looks of it, there’s enough to use. The more light we can make, the brighter our lure will be to guide Kai’s soul back to him. Romy, can you gather them up and set them in a large circle around the body?”
She gritted her teeth and nodded.
Arwyn turned to me, noticing my silent hesitancy. “Hector…”
“Do you really think this is possible?” I asked, refusing to blink in case I missed the smallest expression that gave me my answer. “Necromancy?”
He kept his face neutral. I noticed how taut his body was, how even the muscles in his jaw flexed as he contemplated his response. “I didn’t think it was possible for someone to conjure this building out of nothing but his intention. So yes, I think we have a chance of saving Kai.”
There was something Arwyn was keeping from me, but before I could question it he gave me a command to follow. “I need you to fetch me four items that will represent each of the elements. We will need these to?—”
