Oathbound

Bree, Nick, Mariah, and Zoe have spent hours imprisoned in the dungeon when they begin to hear a rumbling from the walls. They all prepare to fight whoever is burrowing into the prison when Mariah recognizes the newcomer as Valec, who heard what happened the previous night at Penumbra and enlisted Emil’s help to rescue them. As they are about to leave, Erebus calls Bree’s bloodmark, and Nick simultaneously feels the shard in his chest grow colder, which makes him feel the crown is still here. They push through the bars of the prison and find the crown unguarded, as Erebus did not know Nick could sense where it was, and no other person or demon could locate it. Bree tells Nick not to touch the crown, not knowing what it could do to him with a shard of it in his chest. Bree is still piecing together her memories of Valec from what others have told her, and she remembers that he knows William. She has Valec call William and tell him to go to the Institute, because that is where she thinks Gabriel will take the Rootcrafter girls.

Valec takes him to his bar, the Crossroads Lounge, which is strongly warded. Though Bree does not recognize the Lounge or the people in it—like Aunt Lu, who immediately comes to greet her. This place, however, brings back strong feelings for Bree of who she was before she lost her memories. Hazel arrives as well, and Bree tearfully explains how the Hunter stole her memories. Valec believes he can help get her memories back, as he was the one who discovered Bree’s bloodmark. As Valec is about to help, they all hear a knock at the door. William and Larkin have saved the Rootcrafter girls from the Institute, and all help them inside. Bree is shocked by how young and frail the four girls look, but is happy to recognize the fourth as the girl she met at the Rat. The girl, Nora, had hoped Bree had something to do with her rescue, and is extremely grateful. Nora tells Bree how the four girls were taken at different times and held captive, though not treated too poorly, until they were all brought to the Institute. Bree remembers how Erebus told her the Regents never had any prior interest in Rootcrafters, and understands that they are now interested because it will help them understand her own power.

Bree meets William and Larkin again, after Nick had already told them about her memory loss, and they explain how they used Gabriel’s name, as Bree suggested, to easily get into the Institute. They looked around the Institute to see what the Regents were trying to discover about the Morgaines, who were experimenting on Bree’s blood alongside that of active Rootcrafters to replicate her powers and regain the upper hand. Bree feels guilty that, if she hadn’t left, the Regents would have continued to study her rather than the other Rootcrafter girls. Though angry, Bree knows she needs to get her lost knowledge back before she does anything else. Valec uses his powers to look inside Bree’s metaphysical being and questions her as to why she gave part of her soul away. Bree doesn’t know what he is talking about until Mariah mentions that she burned her ancestral plane, fracturing part of herself, which Erebus could then easily take. Valec is mad at Bree for doing this, but everyone comes to her defense, particularly Mariah. Valec leaves to cool down, telling Bree that he can’t fix this because a demon that’s powerful enough to take a piece of her soul is powerful enough to destroy it.

Hazel gets everyone else to rest as Bree comes to terms with this revelation about her soul. Zoe called Elijah but hasn’t yet heard from him. The families of the Rootcrafter girls begin to arrive, and Bree helps see them off. Not ready to face the others, she then goes up to the roof and falls asleep. She wakes up with Nick beside her and a mug of warm tea from William. Bree asks him if he knew part of her soul was missing, and he admits he knew something was missing. Nick knows Bree didn’t make a mistake, as her choice saved lives, and he would love her regardless of what she wanted to do next. They dream about running away from the Order together, and they kiss again, as Nick recognizes that Bree was never faking her feelings for him at Penumbra. Afterward, Nick promises to help Bree if she wants to burn the Order to the ground.

Bree finds Valec, and she learns why his efforts to find her were so personal: His father was a Nightshade, and he worked hard to separate himself from the world of demons in which she was trapped. He apologizes for judging her for burning her ancestral plane, as he hasn’t had to deal with Bree’s life and doesn’t know her feelings. She asks Valec to take another look at her Metaphysical being to discover what exactly Erebus did to her memories, and he agrees. They all go to Hazel’s house, where Bree is nervous to see Alice, who is still unconscious. Mariah believes she failed Bree, but Bree blames herself for failing Alice. After everyone sits down to eat, the cambions hear someone coming in the distance, but whoever it is, Bree does not want to run. Outside, Bree recognizes the woman she ran into at Daeza’s club, who Nick says is Selwyn’s mother, along with Bree’s father.

Bree doesn’t recognize her father but sobs when she sees him. Natasia has filled Edwin in on everything that has been happening to Bree, and the ring she returned to him contained a message from Faye explaining things as well. Edwin comforts Bree and assures her that she can do anything. At breakfast, he urges Bree to sit next to Natasia, and while Bree wants to ask about her mother, she instead asks Natasia about Sel’s whereabouts. Everyone is confused when Natasia admits she does not know, and she tries to explain that demonia is not what the Order has taught everyone to believe, having come out of it herself. Lark believes that Sel must be currently hunting Bree, but Natasia believes this place is safe because Sel wouldn’t know where it is. Half of the people at the table panic, knowing that Sel does know this place because he was here with Bree a few months ago.

Natasia asks Bree to form a construct, and she creates a flower, which Hazel recognizes as one that her mother used to grow. Natasia plucks parts of the construct for the others to take, setting up decoys to hopefully draw Selwyn away from Bree. Natasia, Lark, and William leave with the bait as Valec takes another look at Bree and sees that the cuts to her soul are clean. Valec assumes that Erebus left Bree’s soul in a way that he could later piece her back together, though he lied and told Bree he couldn’t reverse it. Bree forms a plan and calls Erebus, setting up a meeting time so they can exchange the crown for the missing part of her soul. When Erebus reminds her that she still owes him a debt and he can simply command her to give him the crown, Bree tells him that this is the only time she will offer him mercy.

Bree goes back to Penumbra to meet with Erebus along with Zoe, Mariah, and Nick. Close to Penumbra, they see a boulder in the middle of the road and know they have to move it, but Bree senses someone is near. When they turn back to the car, they see Elijah holding Mariah hostage, telling the others to let Zoe go or he will harm Mariah. Elijah was scared by Zoe’s frantic voicemails, but calmed down a bit when Zoe told him that the others weren’t hurting her. Elijah lets Mariah go but has a hard time accepting when Zoe tells him that Erebus lied to them and they are now on their own. The cambion twins hear something in the distance, and Bree knows it must be Selwyn’s voice. Though the twins don’t tell the others what he is saying, Bree knows it is a threat to his fellow cambions, and she tells them to leave before Selwyn arrives. Shortly after the twins leave in Elijah’s car, Selwyn appears, and Nick begs him to let Bree go so she can meet with Erebus. Sel watches Bree but is angry when Nick tells him that she has lost a part of herself and doesn’t remember him. Sel reveals that he tracked Bree to Asheville, where she used great amounts of her root, and from there he followed Elijah to get to her. Sel tries to goad Bree and Nick into showing their darker emotions so he can consume them, but they stay firm, trying to remind him that he has never been a problem to be fixed, unlike the Order. When Sel gets a whiff of Bree’s root, he truly understands that something has happened to her, and when Nick explains that this is what they are trying to fix at Penumbra, Sel lets them go for now.

Bree, Nick, and Mariah make it to Penumbra, where Mariah agrees to run if there is a fight she can’t handle. They find Erebus alone, and Bree simply states her bargain, telling him that Nick can remove the enchantment from the crown so Erebus can take it back. Erebus demands the crown but refuses to give back her soul fragment, as he wants to see how powerful she can become without it. To the others’ surprise, Bree accepts, not wanting Erebus to have anything to hold over her anymore. Nick is able to use the powers of his shard to disenchant the crown, but just before he can finish, Bree forms a construct that traps her, Erebus, and the crown together in a bubble. Mariah uses her powers to help maintain the construct and to show Erebus the ghosts of everyone he has killed over the years. Bree thinks back to what she has learned from her ancestors as she begins to weaken. She recognizes that she can call Erebus by her bloodmark, just as he calls her.

Erebus tries to bargain with her, reminding her that before he was the Shadow King, he was Arawn of Annwfyn, a ferrier of souls to the underworld. He says that if he gives Bree back the piece of her soul, he will ensure that Alice never wakes from the purgatory she is in. Hoping that Erebus is lying again, Bree takes back the fragment of her soul, regaining all of her memories. Mariah reassures Bree that they will get Alice back, as Bree finally recognizes just how much Nick has been missing her. Erebus tells Bree that she has learned her final lesson: to become ruthless.

Erebus crawls for his crown, even though it is still somewhat enchanted. Before he can reach it, a bolt of aether severs his hand, and they all turn to see it has come from Selwyn. Sel quickly puts together how Erebus has been behind most of the chaos at the Order since Bree’s arrival. Sel gives Erebus the choice to run or to die, not letting him go after his crown. As he leaves, broken and bloodied, Erebus warns Bree that she hasn’t seen the last of him, as she still bears his bloodmark and is without her sword. Sel can sense that Bree is whole again, and she and Nick explain all they have learned about the crown. They warn Sel that touching it could kill a demon, but still, Selwyn tries to hold it. Nick snatches the crown and runs away, quickly feeling the dizzying effects of touching it himself. Just as Sel is about to fight them, Bree feels her bloodmark being called again, yet she realizes that it is not coming from Erebus, but from Selwyn. Sel mentions that he felt an endless well of power once he succumbed to demonia, and he now realizes it came from Bree. They are all frightened of the implications when Bree mentions that bloodmarks can be inherited. Testing a theory, Selwyn traps Bree and Nick so they can’t escape while he picks up the crown. The crown suddenly erupts with all the power it had in the time of Arthur, killing him before Bree and Nick can escape.

Before Bree or Nick can scream, a gurgle comes from Selwyn’s body, and he rises again, even more demon than before. Bree mentions that “the weapon forged by death incarnate did not deliver death as promised. The King’s living crown may destroy all false bearers, but it did not destroy Selwyn Kane…it transformed him” (652). The truth finally sinks in for all three: Selwyn is the heir to the crown because the Shadow King is his father. Though no one can explain how this is possible, Selwyn puts the crown on top of his head, leaving “[a] king, a knight…and a prince” facing off against one another (653).