Page 49 of The Witch and His Crow

Arwyn knew the truth. That was why he warned me after seeing Salem. That was why he followed Salem after our fight.

Romy didn’t tell me I was wrong, but she didn’t confirm my suspicion either. Instead, her eyes fell back to Jordan’s corpse as the rain fell harder, attempting to wash the blood from his chest. What was left behind was the clear symbol a knife had sliced into his flesh.

‘We should get inside, out of the rain, and come up with another plan.’

I laughed to myself, not because she said anything funny, but because the anger was so wonderfully familiar. Like comfort. ‘I have a plan,’ I said, looking back towards the dense forest. ‘I’m going to kill him.’

‘If Salem is the Witch Hunter, he’ll be prepared. What if Arwyn did this? What if he discovered our plans to use Jordan and made sure he wasn’t a player in the game?’ Romy was breathless, as was I. ‘Just take a moment to think this through, Hector. What did Salem have to gain from killing Jordan?’

A headache brewed in the back of my skull, like a worm burrowing deep into my brain, latching on with rows of sharp teeth.

That was the thing. I had taken a moment. My decision was made. I’d find Arwyn, as he asked me to meet him at the castle’s boundary, and then I’d force the truth out of him. If he condemned Salem, then Salem would die.

That was what I was here for—to kill the Witch Hunter infiltrating the Trials.

‘You don’t know me properly yet, Romy, but please don’t stand in my way,’ I said calmly as I stood up from the corpse and looked beyond her. Was Arwyn watching us now?

How would it even be possible forhimto be the Witch Hunter? He couldn’t have known about our plans for Jordan, but in the same breath, I realised those answers didn’t matter.

What mattered was killing the Witch Hunter.

‘And you don’t know me well enough to know that whatever your mind is deciding, make it a plan for two. We’re a coven, remember that’

Her voice was swallowed by a noise at my feet. It was so sudden, I almost believed Jordan had come back to life. But when I looked down to discover what it was, I saw that fissures spread out from beneath him, like cracks in the shell of an egg, spreading and spreading. The ground fractured. The hungry cracks raced towards our feet with unnatural speed. Romy barely had a chance to notice before I thrust out my power and sent her flying to the side. I followed, throwing the force at my feet, knocking me away from the cracks.

And just in time, because the thin fissures opened up. Shadows spewed out, like the tongues of serpents reaching for a feast—the feast being Jordan’s dead body. The thrashing shadow limbs grabbed his corpse-like hands, rolled him on his side, and dragged him into the gaping hole. They sounded like screamsand hisses, and I longed to clap my hands over my ears to block out the demonic noises.

This was nothing kind or peaceful. If this was Hekate coming to claim herson, then by the fates, paradise didn’t exist.

It happened so quickly. As soon as Jordan’s body was dragged into the ground, the cracks in the earth reformed, sealing up and blocking out the noise of those shadows. I felt as though I had just witnessed something wrong. Not just wrong because it was clearly magic I didn’t understand, but the type ofwrongthat came with evil. The feeling of it crept over my skin, poisoning me from the outside in.

‘What the fuck was that?’ Romy wheezed as she stood. The weather had worsened, as though the serpents of darkness encouraged the storm. I could barely hear her over the rumbling of thunder.

I blinked, rubbing my eyes with closed fists, as though that would help make sense of what I’d just witnessed. ‘I’m not sure.’

‘This place isn’t right,’ Romy said, frantically reaching in the inner pocket of her jacket for the small grimoire. ‘I’m sure there’s something in here that mentioned darkness like that. Starving. Evil. I just need to find it’

For a second time, a noise interrupted Romy. But this time, it wasn’t the ground cracking apart, allowing for evil to reach up.

It was the toll of a bell. Loud and proud, as though it rang knowing it was breaking up a vital conversation.

But unlike what happened with Jordan’s body, we both knew what the toll of the bell meant.

The start of another trial.

We looked up in the direction of the clock tower as the toll rang out, silencing even the storm. Heavy grey clouds materialised beyond the castle. At first, I put it down to the storm. But no storm moved with such speed—in an instant a wall of cloud engulfed the clock tower, swallowing it from view. Itcontinued spreading closer, consuming the castle until nothing was left.

Romy screamed at me. It was one word that rang with the same urgency that filled my own chest.

‘Run!’

Strange—the command was clear and yet I couldn’t move. Not as the storm rolled over, devouring everything before me. I was confident I heard shouts from within the castle, until the cloud ate those too.

If it wasn’t for Romy running at me, grabbing my arm with a desperate hand and dragging me away, I don’t think I would’ve moved.

Our feet slammed against the sodden ground. With the castle at our back, the storm chasing at our heels, we moved for the forest. Neither of us could speak over the shared urgency to get away. There was no knowing what trial was about to begin, or if surviving this strange storm was the only task. Whatever was to come, we attempted to run from it.

The forest protected us from the rain. Lighting crashed ahead, casting us in stark white light. Thunder rolled, the wind screamed. It was as though the forest tried to stop us, roots catching on our boots and branches whipping at our bodies.

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