Page 137 of Oath of Revenge

He threw his head back and let out a maniacal laugh that sent chills down her spine, reminding her of Gastone’s mad cackling on that fateful day. A wave of coldness spread through her body from her chest like tendrils of ice.

“Are you worried about me, little girl?” he sneered. The condescending nickname only fueled her rage. “Don’t worry, I’ll be just fine. Especially once phase two of my plan for world domination is set into motion.”

His condescending words made her mad. Only Da had ever called her that. This wizard had no right to just dismiss her so easily. The windows rattled violently as her fists clenched at her sides.

“Too weak for world domination, eh?” She taunted him, channeling all her pent-up fury into the words. “Trapped in a mirror for hundreds of years because you couldn’t escape?”

His shoulders tensed and he glared up at her with a venomous look. “Don’t push me, woman. You’ll still be bound to the rose and suffer for just a few more months. When it dies, you can happily go to hells and say hello to my master for me. Once he joins me in Busparia, we’ll go from ruling the continent to the world to the heavens themselves.”

A smug smirk spread across his face as he resumed his preparations, completely unfazed by her taunts. But she refused to back down, determined to break free from this twisted fate.

Her body vibrated in fear and anger. How dare he plan to spread his misery to the rest of the world. The windows shook, the knights rattling. If he trapped her, she’d never be able to fix the curse she’d caused. If he succeeded, he’d destroy the world, perhaps even the gods themselves. If Asmo truly was working with him, that is.

The knights shook as she animated them. It was clunky and awkward, so she pushed her spirit into one of the empty metal suits of armor and broke into a run. Still the wizard didn’t look up from muttering and tinkering with the runes as part of the mirror’s edges began to glow.

She screamed and dove at him, the tackle a maneuver Da had taught her years ago. She aimed low, and the knight knocked him to the ground. The knight broke into pieces, and she came to her knees, her dress twisting. She threw the knight’s helmet at him, but he batted it away like a fly.

He stood and laughed, brushing off dust on his sleeve. “Did you really think it’d be that easy? Oh, you precious little girl.”

Bella screamed again and threw more pieces of armor. When she ran out of parts, she pulled the curtains down from the windows with a wave of her hand. She flung them to the wizard, but he waved a finger and they turned to ash before they reached him.

The walls shook with her rage. The chandeliers swung wide. The gilded life-sized portrait of Gastone fell to the marble floor with a crash. The rest of the knights marched upon the wizard, who now crouched beside the mirror once more.

The lights on the edge of the mirror swirled, and he looked up as the knights neared. His brows rose in surprise—her brows, in the body that he stole. One knight lifted his foot to step on the mirror, but the wizard pushed his hands outward. A gust of wind shot from him, throwing them back where they skidded on the floor, toppling one over the other.

“Bella!” A deep voice cried from upstairs, and her stomach dropped. No, they couldn’t come down here. They’d only get hurt.

A vibration on her thigh gave her pause. She reached into her pocket and pulled out Jaq and Gus. She threw them as hard as she could, then pushed magic into the action.

Gus flipped end over end, the arched handle of the spoon hitting the soft spot where the wizard’s thigh and hip met before falling to the ground. Jaq’s fork tongues embedded into his thigh, and the wizard howled in pain. He grabbed the fork, yanked it out, and threw it across the room toward the knights.

Eyes blazing with fury, the wizard stepped on Gus and bent awkwardly to push one last pulsing rune on the edge of the mirror. Magic swirled, and the wizard stepped back, flipped the bracelet, and stepped through the portal with one boot.

He looked at her, ears and nose smoking, and said, “Tell Asmo I’m waiting.”

Then he stepped the rest of the way in and closed the portal in a flash of purple, the bracelet disappearing with him.

Bella closed her eyes against the flash, but her feet slid on the floor. Her heart still racing in anger, a swirl of smoke circled above the mirror. Pulled inexplicably toward it, she windmilled her arms then leaned her body against an invisible wind storm.

A flash of movement to her right drew her gaze, and she yelled, “No, don’t come inside! It—it’s sucking me in!”

Wulfric and Scarlet skidded to a halt on the floor just inside the door. Scarlet almost fell over the pile of knights, but Wulfric pulled her back with an arm around the waist.

Bella looked back at the mirror, her eyes widening as the tornado had grown as wide as the mirror. It whipped around, and she tried to grab onto anything. She threw magic at the sconces, the chandeliers even. While they vibrated, they didn’t move.

She screamed, tears rolling down her cheeks as the tornado sent her airborne, flinging her around the room.

Chapter 45

Scarlet could barely hear past the rush of wind as she finally untangled herself from the knights on the floor. After a quick glance to assess the situation, she formed a plan.

It wasn’t perfect, and part of her wondered if it wouldn’t be better to fail. If they failed, Bella would be sucked into the mirror. Then Scarlet couldn’t kill her like she’d sworn to do, and Wulfric couldn’t stop her like she knew he would.

Her heart wasn’t in killing her anymore though. There was so much more involved now than just her desire for revenge. She’d said Bella being his daughter didn’t matter, but it did. She wasn’t so heartless as to wish him more pain. She’d seen how much he struggled with memories of losing his wife.

As the wind howled around them, she desperately pointed to the ornate chandelier above. “We have to break that chandelier and shatter it against the mirror! It’s our only chance to break this spell.”

She crouched, ready to leap over the knights, but Wulfric grabbed her arm with a trembling hand. “Wait! If we believe what she said earlier, that mirror will suck us in too. I won’t let us be trapped in there while our friends fight on. We have to stay together and fight side-by-side.”

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