Disorientated and struggling to fill my lungs with air, I blinked up at a darkened sky. There was no sign of the door we’d just been dropped through, or the room that had held us like cattle before Bahmet grew bored and kicked us out. There were only stars. Thousands of them, glittering in the blanket of night. I blinked, trying to focus on steadying my spinning vision, as a face came into view. My first instinct at the sudden arrival was to fight, but as my eyes caught up, and the blur of features sharpened, I saw exactly who it was.
A very angry,verydangerous-looking Kai.
“Why thefuckdid you pickme! Of all the people… me!”
I groaned, shifting my back slightly to make sure nothing was seriously broken. Besides a little pain, and the faint promise of bruised skin, nothing inside of me was seriously damaged.
“Could you at least offer me a hand up before we discuss my reasonings?” I asked.
Kai’s eyes widened a fraction. It wouldn’t have been a surprise if they literally popped out of his skull. “Your decision has just jeopardised Romy’s life. Do you even know what you’ve done!”
Groaning, I sat up myself, using the strange stone slab at my back to right myself. “If you really know Romy, you’d know she is more than capable of looking after herself.”
Kai got into my face and screamed, “That doesn’t mean she has to!”
I lifted fingers to a tender spot of skin on the side of my head, wincing as it sent a bolt of discomfort across my skull. “Alright, I get it. You’re pissed off at me.”
That stumped him. “Is that supposed to be a joke?” Out the corner of my eye I watched as Kai’s fists balled up at his sides, freckled knuckles paling. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. Believe it or not but I do know Romy… very well.”
“You’re right,” I snapped. “I don’t have a clue. Funnily enough, Romy never brought you up before. In fact, she never mentioned your name, let alone the slightest hint that you existed. And now you are here, looking like you’re heading to batter me with thoselittlefists, all because I’ve put myself in a position to keep you alive. Oh, you’re welcome by the way.”
“Keep me alive?” Spittle flew out of his tense lips. “You have a death warrant stuck to your back, Hector. If anything, you’ve just put me in the firing line.”
Oh, you have no idea how wrong you are.
I recognised there was no chance of Kai helping me up, and more of a chance he’d punch me for my discretions. So, with the will of an army, I used my arms and pulled myself up to standing.
Kai quickly rocked back a step, noticing a flash of annoyance in my stare.
“Is this the thanks I get for bringing you back from the dead?” I asked. “Whilst also wanting to make sure you don’t find yourself back in Bahmet’s clutches?”
“You have no faith in me,” Kai growled, loosing a breath out of his taut mouth.
“I don’t.”
“By choosing me you’ve handed Romy into the hands of the enemy, Arwyn too. Seems like you wasted your time.”
“That’s still to be determined,” I said, getting a glance around me for the first time.
For as far as the eye could see, we were surrounded by neat rows of familiar stone slabs. It went on and on, stretching into the dark. I looked back at the stone I’d smashed into, finding the faint etchings of words and dates carved into its face.
“Grave-site,” I murmured as I realised we were stood in one, surrounded for miles and miles on either side.
“Don’t divert the conversation,” Kai warned, finger pointing in my face.
My head was split in two places. One: trying to calm down an angry red-headed man who’d not long been brought back to life. Two: figuring out the trial and how we could both get out of it… alive. “A conversation we can have once we are safely back in the tavern. But until then, if you want to make sure Romy is okay, we need to find out how to pass this test so we can inform our allies how to do the same.”
“Look around you!” Kai shouted, his voice echoing over and over as it skipped across the endless grave-site. “There’s no one else here. We’re alone.”
He wasn’t completely wrong. “I have a sneaking suspicion that you’re missing something,” I said. “The fact that weseeno one else only tells me that this grave-site is even bigger than I thought possible. They will be close.”
The Burning. The title suggested nothing but agony. It gave no obvious clues. I didn’t like our odds, nor did I like that Kai’s voice was getting progressively angrier and louder.
I got to spinning around, centring myself in this strange place when a firm hand gripped me, harsh nails pinching through my shirt.
“Hector, stop. Didn’t you even hear what I’ve said. Verena—picked—Romy. The fucking witch on the other fucking side has fucking chosen…”
Well, shit.
