Chapter 76: Oathbreaker
WILLA
I made the mistake of turning. Something rammed into my side with brutal force. I doubled over, clutching my stomach as pain exploded through my ribs.
It wasn’t enough.
Another set of hands wrapped tightly around my leg — the boy I had thought was passed out cold. Then two more clasped my wrists, yanking them roughly behind my back. Cold silver cuffs snapped shut with a metallic click before I could twist free.
They kicked the back of my knees. I crashed down hard onto the rocky ground, scraping my skin raw against the sharp stones and roots.
"What were you saying about us shitty wolves?" Lance said, pushing away from the tree. His dagger glinted dangerously in the dim, filtered light as he pointed it straight at me, breathing hard.
"Weak," I replied without missing a beat. My lips drew back in a sinister smile that didn’t feel like mine.
"Well, this weakling is going to kick that evil out of you this instant!" the boy at my right snarled.
"A girl or not, you’d better be ready," another added.
I didn’t care about their words. My focus stayed locked on Lance alone. I knew I shouldn’t be doing this, trying to hurt him especially.
But my control had completely snapped.
I could only think about my actions. My body was doing something else entirely.
"Get out of her body," Lance stated as he got closer, voice low and dangerous. "While I’m still being nice to you."
"Else what?" I taunted, tilting my head. "Make a skewer kebab out of me?"
Lance didn’t look amused. He brandished the dagger at me. "This is an Oathbreaker, Elyse."
"The Oathbreaker?!" the voice in my head growled, then a wave of raw fear rushed through me in an instant.
My eyes stayed fixed on the blade. It looked ordinary enough. A simple, long, narrow dagger with a golden handle and a silver-grey body that seemed to drink in the light rather than reflect it.
There was nothing particularly remarkable about it at first glance.
But the fear building inside me, the raw, ancient terror coming from the entity currently controlling me said enough.
It wasn’t just an ordinary blade.
"The last time I saw that was over four hundred years ago," the voice whispered, filled with a mix of awe and dread.
What was it? I was curious to know, but that curiosity vanished the moment Lance came to stand directly in front of me.
"I know you are under an oath, Elyse," he said.
My eyes widened in surprise as I stared at him. No one was supposed to know that. Everyone else had been caught up in their own heads, trapped in illusions created by the monster. But Lance...
His cold, deadly gaze didn’t waver from mine. He might act like a pervert and an annoying idiot sometimes, but he wasn’t entirely stupid.
"Hence the reason I brought this along with me," he continued, leaning in until our eyes were level. "If that bastard doesn’t cooperate and let you go, then I’ll have no choice but to return it to the sender."
"Foolish little brat, trying to threaten me!" the voice roared.
I winced, breaking eye contact with Lance as pain spiked through my skull.
"I should have known this little shit had access to this," the voice continued, seething. "I smelt it on him earlier..."
I tuned the voice out as best as I could.
"How do you know?" I asked Lance in a small, shaky voice.
"I’m not stupid," he said simply. "We’re called House Alphas for a reason. Even the weakest among us can’t be taken down by some mere wooden ancient relic!"
His boast enraged the voice in my head.
"A mere wooden ancient relic?" it raged. "He just fucking called me that?!"
I groaned again as my head began to pound mercilessly.
"I should have killed him first," the voice hissed. "I should have taken him if I knew he was that smart and—"
"Take him, you say?" My head snapped up.
Lance was staring at me with a confused, wary look on his face.
"You killed two people already!" I screamed.
Two.
Only the Goddess knew if Eric was still alive. Even Elliott, since he wasn’t here.
The voice had already taken two people from my life and was thinking about taking more. No. I wouldn’t let it.
I wouldn’t be able to live with that.
"Now!" a voice roared behind me. "We are taking her out!"
Before I could understand what was happening, I was yanked upright. Lance had his dagger pressed against my throat. The cold metal burned my skin, sending sharp, stinging pain through me.
"Get away from the knife, Willa!" the voice shouted frantically.
"Stay still, Elyse," Lance rasped, his voice surprisingly steady and reassuring despite the situation.
But he was about to slit my throat open. He was about to kill me with this dagger, yet my stupid, exhausted body obeyed. He moved behind me. I relaxed into his arms, pressing my back against his chest.
"Don’t listen to him!" the voice thundered. "If I die... you’ll die too!"
It would be the best solution for all of us, to be honest. No more voices in my head. No more oath binding me. Certainly no more suicidal thoughts of killing the people who were supposed to be my friends.
I shut my eyes, feeling the cold metal slowly slide along my throat. The pain came fast and intense, then faded just as quickly. The pungent, metallic smell of my blood saturated the air.
My eyes opened, and I stared up at the darkened sky. For the first time in my life, I thought of a better one. One where there was love. Peace. No tears. No sadness. One in which...
"I have waited four hundred years for this," the voice said with ancient rage. "Four hundred years imprisoned in this damned place. Four hundred years of my life wasted by those seven bastards!"
"I am not going to watch that happen any longer!"
The full horror of what it intended flashed through my mind, just at the tip of my tongue when I felt my control snap once more.
A violent shudder ripped through my body.
My muscles locked, then loosened, no longer entirely my own. The sigil on my hand flared brighter, burning like liquid fire under my skin.
My vision honed unnaturally, the edges tinged with red as the voice’s will flooded me like poison in my veins.
I wasn’t me anymore.
And this time, it felt like I might never come back.
