There wasn’t a relief that came with the dark power vacating my body, and entering another. No euphoria or the lightness of freedom. If I focused hard enough all I felt was… hollow.
Every single flame in the room extinguished as if the room exhaled. The winds died to nothing, and the ground ceased its trembling. Bathed in darkness, I couldn’t see anything. However, I could hear the heavy breathing of my coven.Fourhearts beating as one.
Silence ruled the room.
“Did it work?” I gasped, sagging over the table.
“Kai?” Romy’s trembling voice cut the shadows apart. A bud of light flashed in the palm of her hand, illumining the space. “Kai… are you…”
I rocked back a step as Kai bolted upright on the table, his back heaving with his great inhales and exhales. His head turned from side to side, mouth panting as he took in everything around him. Colour rushed back to his face, filling his cheeks with the pink vitality of life.
“Oh, Hekate. Thank you,” Romy mumbled, wide-eyed with a hand over her mouth. “Thank you.”
Arwyn carefully stepped towards the reanimated body. “Go steady. You are going to need to take your?—”
He never got to finish when Kai began to scream.
22
HECTOR
Ipaced outside of one of the pub’s upstairs rooms, ears keen to the soft murmuring of voices coming from inside. My boots scuffed over a worn runner, the frayed edges chaotic as if an army of mice and rats lived in the hollow walls, devouring the soft furnishings when no one was looking.
I only hoped the beds hadn’t suffered the same fate.
If I had access to a watch in this hellscape, I might’ve known just how much time had passed since we successfully brought Kai back from the dead. It felt like hours, but that was just going on instinct.
He’d screamed until his throat was hoarse, then collapsed back on the table panting like a dog beneath mid-summer sun. Kai hadn’t resisted as Arwyn picked him up and carried him up to the first room with a bed he found. Since then, he had been left inside alone with Romy who’d explained what had been missed.
She could fill in the gaps, but there was one detail she had no knowledge about.
Kai now hosted the shard of Bahmet’s power inside of him. It was like glue, forging his soul and body back together with dark thread. And for all I knew, Kai was currently telling Romy aboutwhat I had done, what I’d willingly given up just to make this moment possible.
I hoped not. I would’ve quite liked to be the one to tell her myself.
After a while the promise of footsteps getting closer to the door caught my attention. I stopped pacing, knuckles forced between my teeth as I bit down just for something to quell my nerves.
The door squeaked on old hinges as it was opened slightly, enough for Romy to slip out.
She looked exhausted. Dark circles hung beneath her eyes, her skin an ashen colour. I wanted to take her in my arms and hold her, but Romy’s body language—arms wrapped around her chest and head bowed—suggested that wasn’t the right move.
“How is he?” I asked, trying to catch a glimpse of Kai in the brief opening of the door.
Romy closed it, giving him privacy he deserved. “Better. It’s all a lot for Kai to take in at the moment. He understands what happened to him, but that doesn’t mean he accepts that fact that he was certifiably dead only twenty minutes ago.”
Twenty minutes? Had that really been all that had passed? Or was that just an educated, hopeful guess?
It felt like we were sinking hours into this conjured pub, not minutes. An unseen sand timer had been turned, and the second trial was upon us.
“Hopefully he can continue getting some rest. None of us know what it feels like to die.”
“You and Arwyn do,” Romy reminded. “And I don’t want anyone else to find out either.”
“I’m sorry, Romy. He must mean a lot to you.”
Romy paused, gaze lost to her thoughts. She offered me soft hands, which I took, threading her fingers with mine. “He did—does.” Romy shook her head. “I’m going to stay with himtonight. I want to make sure he gets as much rest as he can. And then, when he wakes, I can be here to answer any more questions. Besides that, I have the means to calm him down if the moment calls for it.”
“Good idea,” I replied, squeezing her hand. I’d prefer if we all stayed together, in the same room preferably, where I could keep my eyes on them. But if I started acting all possessive, Romy would ask questions I wasn’t ready to answer. “It’s worth mentioning that we don’t know when the next trial will begin. Could be now, could be in a few days. Best we all get some rest.”
