Page 100 of Blood Oath
“I won’t. Don’t cross my path again.”
He takes my dismissal without argument, offering a mocking little bow before vanishing once again using his dark magic. It leaves a pungent scent in the air, and I glare down at the bottle of powder in my hand. This ingredient will make fulfilling my mission a breeze. Then, I just have to disappear…and move on to the next one.
And never see them again.
Make us your weapons, darling, and no one will stand a chance against our quintet. Let us be yours.
Damn them for using such pretty words to ruin me like this.
I need to move on quickly.
30
MAVEN
I slice the blade across my palm and watch the dark blood droplets drip.
This kind of forbidden magic is therapeutic.
Once enough of my blood is in the bowl full of rare ingredients, I sprinkle in the tiniest bit of nightshade root powder. It singes against my skin and scalds my nose, but I cover my mouth with one of my long sleeves and wait until the concoction finishes sizzling.
And then I dip my adamantine dagger into the bowl and wait. Everbound Forest is dark and forbidding around me, with the distant sounds of strange creatures and haunting whispers sending delicious chills skittering down my spine. Dawn is half an hour away, and I haven’t slept.
I don’t have time for sleep. I could be done with my mission and hundreds of miles away before any of them return to the school.
Let go. Lose yourself in us. Let us be yours.
I shake my head. I need to purge any trace of them from me and do what I came here for.
My pocket vibrates as I wait for the blade to absorb the deadly spell. I groan. I haven’t figured out how to turn it off, and it’s been exploding for the last couple of hours with threats from Silas about tracking it. Which is impossible, since I asked for Kenzie’s help in disabling that feature immediately after he gave me the damn thing. I’ve also gotten dozens of texts and calls from the rest of them, even from Crypt.
I’m sure he’s finding it impossible to track me down in Limbo, thanks to the potent concealment spell I placed on myself. It took a lot of magic, but it was worth it. Once I’m done here, they’ll never see me again.
I can’t comprehend why they would try to talk to me at all. They got what they wanted from me already. They should go argue about their bet and let me slip away forever.
When it buzzes again, I grit my teeth and yank it from my pocket before squinting at the unknown number. I try to hang it up, but my technologically impaired fingers somehow end up answering it.
“Shit,” I mutter, annoyed.
“Hello? Minerva? Are you there?” Luka’s voice demands through the phone. His voice is urgent.
Ugh. This is probably about lifting his hex. He’ll have to find someone else to lift it. Preferably someone whose name he actually knows.
“Where the hell is K—” he starts to ask, but I finally manage to hang up. Then I smash the phone to pieces under my foot and bury it under a clump of dirty forest floor snow with the toe of my boot.
There. Now I won’t be bothered.
Thirty minutes later, I finish scaling the side of Everbound Castle to the headmaster’s office. The sun is just beginning to rise far in the misty, wintry sky, and the school is going to start coming alive for a new Monday morning. Which means Headmaster Hearst will be in his office soon.
I’ll assassinate him quickly and silently. Then I’ll disappear.
I stand on a thin lip of stone to the left of the headmaster’s office balcony, my back pressed against the cold side of the castle and my hair moving softly around my face with the light breeze. It’s frigid out here. I’m dressed almost head to toe in black, my mouth and nose covered so my warm breath plumes against my face.
Waiting gives me time to plot.
I know the room’s general layout thanks to my study of the interim headmaster’s office. He’ll enter, and I’ll wait for him to sit. I’m sure he’ll be keyed into dozens of protective magic wards on the room, but that’s where the rest of my magical store will go—to disabling them.
Once I can slip in unnoticed, he will sense me and try to attack. As a mage and a member of the Immortal Quintet, Hearst is a highly formidable target. In fact, he’s known as unkillable, thanks to a rare amulet he bonded his soul to which he always has on him. He can wield ridiculous amounts of magic, but he’s no match for me in physical combat, especially when I have the element of surprise.
