“Call the Quarters,” I said, drawing on my own knowledge thanks to Eleanor Letcombe’s diary. “I’ve got this.”
“Pro,” Arwyn said, gaze reverted to the corpse, the cogs in his mind whirling. “I’m going to prepare the body and cleanse it. By the looks of it, you’ve made sure the bar is fully stocked with booze, so that is a good sign.” He placed two firm hands on eitherof my shoulders, and squeezed. “There is something else I need of you, Hector.”
My stomach turned. “I thought that was the case.”
Regret pinched across Arwyn’s face. I noticed it just he brought his lips to my ear and whispered the one secret he had yet to keep.
What he told me turned my body to ice.
21
HECTOR
Icouldn’t take my eyes off Kai’s lifeless body. It was laid out across two joined tables, as naked as the day he was born.
Romy set up a thick circle of candles around his body, as Arwyn got to work stripping and then cleaning Kai with a bottle of vodka mixed with water. I distracted myself by setting the corners with the items I’d collected.
I placed a bowl of water, a pile of soil, and a lidded mason jar of my breath in their relevant positions. Considering all the candles had been used, I concluded that representing the element of fire had already been ticked off the list.
“Are we ready?” Arwyn asked from where he stood east of Kai’s corpse.
No, I thought. “Yes,” I said.
“I am.” Romy was so focused a worry line had set in over her eyes. She stood within the circle of candles, down by Kai’s feet, her fingers never straying far from touching him. It wouldn’t surprise me if her sheer will alone had the power to claw Kai’s spirit out of Bahmet’s clutches.
If that was even a possibility.
Arwyn offered Romy a warm but fleeting smile, one that drew out into a line when his gaze settled back on me. Ourunspoken secret between us lingered. I gave him a swift nod, reminding him I knew what price had to be paid, and I would see it done for Romy.
“Then let’s begin.” Arwyn rolled his shoulders back and closed his eyes. “Romy, would you do the honours?”
A wave of heat coursed around us. Every wick on every candle erupted in flame, sparking with a snap as her birth element engulfed the room.
Just as Arwyn hoped for, the candles would act as a beacon for a spirit to follow home. The pub’s barroom was illuminated in an angelic glow. The light cast our shadows across the stone walls like some horrific puppet show.
A shiver ran over my damp, aching skin.
Arwyn was next to connect to his element. With a knife I had found behind the bar, he lifted it over Kai’s heart and sunk the tip into his cleaned flesh. I winced as skin parted. Beads of ruby blood blossomed where he cut, leaking down Kai’s prominent ribs. With careful hands I knew too well, Arwyn carved a rune-mark atop his heart.
Having memorised the runic alphabet from Eleanor Letcombe’s grimoire, I knew what Arwyn was painting on Kai’s skin. Raidho, the rune for travel or journey.
“I cast this rune for safe travels. Mayyoufind light in the shadowlands, and return home,” Arwyn announced, voice clear as a summer’s day. “So mote it be.”
“Return home,” Romy and I echoed. “So mote it be.”
When Arwyn was done, he flipped the handle of the knife and handed it across to me.
I took it, fingers trembling as I guided the bloodied tip to Kai’s forehead.
To be honest, I’d never been good at drawing. I was the type of child that grabbed a crayon and scribbled more outside the lines than inside. It took firmed focus to make sure I was carvingthe correct rune upon Kai’s forehead, just north of the bridge of his nose.
Eihwaz, the rune for death, transformations, change and renewal.
I cleared my throat, nervous for what was to follow. “I cast this rune to acknowledge death, with the intention of renewal. May transformation bless you, Kai, may change welcome you, may death return you. So mote it be.”
“May death return you,” Arwyn and Romy echoed once I was done. “So mote it be.”
Romy was ready to take the knife from me, reaching over with deft fingers and practically snatching it out of my possession. From my vantage point I couldn’t see as she cut into the soles of Kai’s two feet, but I knew the runes Romy was casting. Inguz to represent beginnings and a new phase, and Dagaz for success.
