To ruin an Omega

Chapter 340: Unravel 2

VALENTINE

Wilhelm’s eyes went wider. He started to say something but I removed my hand from the speaker.

“Hello?” Cian’s voice came through. Impatient now.

“Apologies,” I said. “The network was breaking. Let’s begin.”

I closed my eyes and drew in a breath. The words came from muscle memory. From years of practice. From a lifetime of making deals I shouldn’t have made.

“By blood and bone, by soul and stone,” I began. My voice dropped into the cadence of ritual. “I bind myself to you, Cian of House Donlon. I will not lie to you, not in word nor deed nor omission. I will not act as a double agent against you. I will not intend harm to you, neither directly nor through intermediary means, neither through action nor inaction, neither through spell nor through allowing another to act unchallenged in my presence.”

The last part was careful. Deliberate. “Allowing another to act unchallenged in my presence” gave me wiggle room. Especially for what Wilhelm was to do.

It was a loophole. A small one. But it was there.

“This bond I make freely,” I continued. “By my consent and my will. And it will hold until you have achieved your goal against Aldric Donlon. When he falls, so too does this pact.”

The magic took root. I felt it sink into my soul like hot iron. It was akim to something burning. It felt permanent and wrong too.

My chest tightened and my breath caught.

Across the phone line, I heard Cian take a deep breath, as if he felt it too.

“It is done,” I said.

“Good,” Cian said. “Your son Wilhelm next.”

Every muscle in my body went rigid.

“The boy isn’t here,” I said.

Pain exploded through me. Sudden and vicious. Like someone had shoved a knife between my ribs. I gasped and doubled over. The phone nearly slipped from my hand.

The pact. Of course. I’d lied. Even that small lie was enough to trigger it.

“I think that would be you caught in a lie,” Cian said. His voice was almost amused.

“Leave my boy out of this,” I managed. The pain was fading now but slowly.

“He’s a variable I can’t leave out,” Cian said. “Goddess knows how foolish that would be.”

He paused.

“Wilhelm,” he said. Louder now. Like he knew my son was close enough to hear. “Now.”

Wilhelm looked at me. I saw the question in his eyes. The fear. The uncertainty.

There was no choice. All I could do was nod.

He took the phone from my hand with shaking fingers and put it to his ear.

“I’ll do it,” he said.

His voice was steadier than I expected. He repeated the words I’d said. Every phrase. Every clause. I watched his face as the magic took hold. I saw the moment it sank into him. His eyes went wide and his jaw clenched.

When he was done, he handed the phone back to me.

I took it. My hand felt numb.

“Now what?” I asked.

“Now you come to Skollrend,” Cian said. “And play the most devoted parent you can right now. Madeline is about to find herself in society again and you and her are about to help me nail my uncle to the cross.”

The line went dead then.

I stared at the phone. At the blank screen. At my own reflection in the glass.

“Can we do this?” Wilhelm’s voice came out small and uncertain. “Get a trump card against the werewolves? Against Aldric, should Cian fail to trap his uncle.”

I looked at him. Really looked at him. He was still pale. Still bleeding a little from where the runes had struck him. But there was something else in his eyes now. Something harder.

“We barely know what’s in Aldric’s basement,” he continued. “And the runes that kicked me out last time when I went spying with my sight hurt like hell.”

He paused.

“With this pact, wouldn’t it be going against Cian?” he asked.

I almost laughed. Almost.

“A witch who can’t maneuver against contracts is useless,” I said.

Wilhelm blinked, processing that.

“Cian doesn’t completely have us enslaved,” I continued. “The pact says I can’t allow another to act unchallenged in my presence. But if I’m not present, there’s nothing to challenge.”

Understanding dawned on Wilhelm’s face.

“I’ll head to Skollrend,” I said. “You take strong warlocks and witches with you and raid Aldric’s estate. Cian might win this. But I want protection should it all fail.”

“We don’t know if what we’ll get is a trump card,” Wilhelm said. “That’s just faith talking.”

“Aldric doesn’t do faith,” I said. My voice came out harder than I meant it to. “And he wouldn’t spell a fucking basement if whatever was there wasn’t hot shit.”

I stepped closer to him. Close enough that he had to look up at me.

“Do not disappoint me, Wilhelm,” I said. “This is for this family. For your sister. Save us. This is what you wanted and I am giving you the opportunity now. An opportunity that cannot be taken back. An opportunity that doesn’t allow mistakes.”

Wilhelm swallowed and then nodded.

“I will,” he said.

I believed him. I had to believe him. Because if he failed, we all failed.

But that was a problem for later.

Right now, I had to play the devoted father. I had to go to Skollrend and pretend I cared about anything other than survival. I had to smile and bow and scrape before a boy who’d just enslaved me with my own magic.

I pocketed my phone, wiped the blood off my chest where Wilhelm had coughed it onto me.

“Get moving,” I said. “And Wilhelm?”

He looked at me.

“Be careful,” I said. “Those runes will seriously mess you up if you’re not.”

He nodded again. Then he was gone. Out the door.

I stood alone in the room. Surrounded by books and artifacts and the remnants of a life I’d built on compromises and deals with devils.

The pact burned in my chest. A constant reminder of what I’d just done.

But I was alive. Madeline was alive. And somewhere in Aldric’s basement was something powerful enough that he’d warded it with runes that could kill.

That was worth something.

It had to be.

I took a breath and steadied myself. Then I walked out the door and headed for Skollrend.

To play my part. To save my daughter. To survive another day in a world that wanted me down.