Twenty-nine – 06

[This post is from Matt’s point of view.]

“You would kill me over him? Your ally, dead, all over a man—a man with no power?”

There was something soft and dangerous in the woman’s voice and it made Matt’s stomach turn.

“If you laid a single finger on him without his permission, it would be my pleasure to dismember you slowly.” There was definitely a tremor in Hecate’s voice, barely audible but undoubtedly there—but Matt wondered if he was the only one who heard it.

He met her gaze and saw fear there. He swallowed hard.

The strange woman—she was familiar somehow, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on why—began to laugh.

A shudder shot through him.

Menhit.

Hecate pressed the blade’s edge a little tighter against Menhit’s throat. “I fail to see what’s so amusing,” she hissed. “Are you going to let me in on the joke?”

“Oh, this is delightful,” Menhit said, her laughter fading even as her smile turned wicked. “He’s one of them.” She looked away from Matt and focused on Hecate, smirking. “Stay your blade, goddess. Your point is made.”

“Really. I’m not quite certain of that, to be frank.” Hecate’s glare hardened for a moment and she hesitated before slowly removing the knife’s edge from Menhit’s throat. She beckoned to Matt with her free hand as she stepped away from Menhit slowly and tucked her weapon away and out of sight.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt. I can—” Matt began, then stopped, the words that he’d intended to follow the statement with dying on his tongue as Hecate looked at him.

The fear was still there in her eyes.

Stay.

His lips thinned and he slowly moved past Menhit to Hecate’s side. The slender woman drew herself up a little straighter as he joined her, like somehow his presence was—

Was what, exactly?

“I shouldn’t have kept going after your friends.”

“It happens a lot more than it doesn’t.”

His hand found hers somehow and squeezed.

“Speak,” Hecate ordered, her glare focused on Menhit. “You clearly garnered some inappropriate level of amusement from his presence here. I would have you explain yourself, and quickly.”

One corner of Menhit’s mouth curved upward in a grin. “I ws just marveling, really. The witch with no weaknesses suddenly finds one amongst her enemies.”

Hecate’s eyes narrowed. “Watch your tongue, little cat, unless you’ve a desire to lose it.”

“And I suppose you’ll be doing me the grand favor of removing it?” Menhit smirked. “You know that they won’t let you keep him—not unless they’re dead already.”

Hecate stiffened. Matt’s stomach dropped.

Do something.

“And if they’re not dead, I should be doing something about making sure you get to keep what you’ve claimed,” Menhit continued, as if she hadn’t noticed the effect she’d had on both of them—though Matt suspected she knew exactly the impact she’d just made.

You have to do something or else they’re all as good as dead.

“I don’t have a quarrel with them any longer,” Hecate said softly. “But do what you will, Menhit. You were going to whether I offered you payment or not.”

“Good on you to realize that.” Beads and shells clacked as Menhit flipped her braids back over her shoulder. “Though I did hope that my actions would be, shall we say, mutually beneficent. They have spent so long being a thorn in your side, those northron princes and the Taliesin. And then of course there’s the Wild Hunt and all.”

Hecate’s teeth ground. She dropped Matt’s hand. “What are you proposing?”

“Simply that I make sure that none of them will be a problem for you ever again,” Menhit said, her tone light but somehow frigid at the same time. “Would that suit you, my lady?”

Shit. Shit, do something. Stop standing like a statute and do something.

“I’ll consider it,” Hecate said. “Now go.”

“And if I don’t? If I want my answer now?”

“Then you’ll have to live with disappointment,” Hecate said, stepping away from Matt and advancing on the other woman. “Now go before I change my mind about having mercy on you.”

Menhit smirked and dropped into an exaggerated curtsey. “As you wish, my lady.”

She turned and walked to a door half-hidden behind a curtain, stepping out and vanishing from sight.

Matt sucked in a breath, not realizing he’d been holding his up until that very moment. Hecate turned toward him, her expression bleak.

“She’s right, isn’t she? They’re not going to let you stay with me.”

“They will as long as I tell them it’s my choice,” Matt said quietly.

Is there really a choice?

She looked down, her eyes sliding shut. A tear welled up, catching on her lashes for a bare moment before sliding down her cheek.

Matt’s throat tightened.

No. No, there’s no choice.

He reached out and brushed away the tear.

“Tell me everything,” he said softly.

Hecate looked up at him, fear and pain warring in her eyes.

“Are you sure you want to know?”

“How else am I going to make them understand?”

She smiled a tremulous smile and nodded, another tear chasing the first down her cheek.

Matt put his arms around her and let her cry.

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