Page 48 of The Witch and His Crow

‘He gives me the fucking creeps,’ she said, not even out of earshot. I hoped that the gusts of cold wind hid her voice.

‘Can you blame him?’ I said. ‘I won’t lie to you, I feel responsible for him in a way. And that’s a feeling I don’t enjoy.’

‘I understand,’ Romy said. ‘But that doesn’t mean you need to pity him and do exactly as he wants.’

Didn’t it, though?

‘Let’s just try and scope out our target.’ I hoped Romy got the clear message that I didn’t want to speak about Salem anymore. His presence, although a familiar anchor to my past, made meuncomfortable. Intuition told me not to trust him, but also that I was responsible for him. Two conflicting emotions that warred within my mind as we continued our hunt for Jordan.

It didn’t take long to find him. Unfortunately.

We rounded the front of the castle and Romy immediately clapped a hand to her mouth, stifling a gag. I was left emotionless beside her, unable to react to the impossibility to what was before me.

This was no different than a cat leaving a dead mouse on a doorstep.

Jordan’s body was strung up outside the grand front doors. Chain was wrapped around his throat. It was the only thing keeping him up, connected to a flagpole ten feet above the ground at the top of the stone porch. His corpse swung like a pendulum, allowing the wind to toy with him. Jordan’s haunted, all-seeing eyes seemed to glare exactly where I stood, dulled and bulging from his skull as though the pressure of the chain noose threatened to pop them.

Death was not unfamiliar to me, but I found myself turning away.

‘Fuck, Romy. That’s him.’

Romy was frozen at my side, her arms wrapped around herself, her wide eyes fixed to the corpse. The rain had soaked her brown curls, making them hang in limp strands around her paling face. I waited for her to say something, but the green tinge beneath her skin proved she was holding back sickness, as well as her reply.

There was a sinking feeling in my gut. It continued its descent, deeper and deeper, the longer I had time to let Jordan’s death sink in. I didn’t need to convince myself that it was my fault in some way. It was a hunch that was confirmed when Romy finally broke her silence.

Salem. The blood. He’d been here only moments before.

‘Witch Hunter,’ Romy almost choked on the words. ‘The Witch Hunter found him first. It has to be.’

‘Not the Witch Hunter,’ I said. ‘Salem.’

‘No,’ Romy spat. ‘Look.’

I spun round fast, drinking in what she was pointing at. Jordan’s shirt had been flayed open, likely by a knife of some kind. I hadn’t noticed until Romy pointed it out, because his skin was marred with blood which had dried the same colour as his dark t-shirt. But on closer inspection, I found his skin scored with a symbol.

The cross within the circle, the mark of a Witch Hunter had been carved into Jordan’s chest, defiling his dead body whilst acting as a very obvious message to us.

I couldn’t voice it, but in my mind, I knew who’d done this. Salem. It had to be. But how was he the Witch Hunter, after what had happened to his parents? It made little sense. I didn’t understand it, and yet I almost ran back for him, poised and ready to kill first and ask questions only when he wasn’t able to answer.

‘He didn’t deserve this,’ I stammered, moving from flight to fight mode like the beats of a drum. ‘This is fucked, Romy. It’s wrong.’

I cocooned my power around Jordan’s swaying body. It took little focus to lift his weight, break the connection between the chain and flagpole, then lower his corpse to the ground. In seconds, I was keeling beside him, my knees sinking into a puddle. Suddenly, the man before me was not the one who broke into my mind, but a victim of the same fate as my parents.

Fury swelled within me, pressing against my skin for release.

He’d died before he could help us. He’d died before he could give me the answers I craved about the block in my mind.

A hand laid on my shoulder. I didn’t need to look to know Romy stood at my side. ‘Hekate will welcome her child with open arms. Find solace in that.’

I shook my head, unable to find solace in anything but vengeance. ‘The Witch Hunter knows. They know we know about them, and they killed Jordan to stop us using him to find…’

It hit me then, all at once.

My eyes locked with Romy, and I could tell she held the same thought as me. ‘It’s Salem. It has to be.’

‘It’s too obvious,’ Romy added. ‘For all we know, Arwyn could still be the Witch Hunter. I mean, where has he been today?’

I didn’t know, but something told me she was wrong. Again, my intuition screamed with it.

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