The Legendborn Cycle, #3
Oathbound
by Tracy Deonn
Contents
Chapter 20
Overview
Bree confirms to herself that Erebus has fed on the kidnapped Rootcrafter girl, deepening Bree’s mistrust of his methods and motives. A confrontation exposes the twins’ precarious place under Erebus and reveals a possible path to the stolen crown through Daeza, a Shade with reason to keep Erebus powerless.
Defying Erebus’s order to stay within the wards, Bree allies herself more closely with Zoe and Elijah and decides to pursue Daeza anyway. Bree’s destruction of Erebus’s fear ward marks a major step in Bree’s self-directed Bloodcraft growth, but Zoe notices that Bree’s fearlessness sounds disturbingly like Erebus.
Summary
The morning after Erebus tortures Bree with constructs, Bree finds Erebus restored and suspects he has fed overnight. When Bree scents root magic on Erebus’s breath, Bree concludes that Erebus recently fed on the kidnapped Rootcrafter girl from the Rat. Bree hides the realization and claims her anger is only about their failed training session.
Bree provokes Erebus by calling out his long failure to reclaim his Court and crown. Elijah defends Erebus, but Erebus rebukes Elijah and Zoe as dependent children while describing Bree as irreplaceable. Seeing Elijah and Zoe humiliated awakens Bree’s protective instincts, and Bree orders Erebus to stop.
To justify defending the twins, Bree reveals that Elijah and Zoe have a lead: Regazel claimed that Daeza, one of Erebus’s Shades, knows where the crown is. Erebus rejects the idea of sending the twins to Daeza, saying Daeza would never risk the crown’s return because Erebus’s restoration would threaten Daeza’s earthly empire. Erebus forbids the mission, orders Bree to train alone within the wards, and leaves to address trouble involving the Order and Council, describing it as trouble that sees too much.
After Erebus departs, Zoe explains that Bree’s interference worsened Elijah’s situation, though Zoe appreciates the intent. Zoe reveals that Elijah wants to earn a place on Erebus’s Court and that the twins depend on Erebus because their human family does not know or understand the demon world. Zoe also admits that she wants to save the kidnapped Rootcrafter girl, or others like her, because any unprotected girl could disappear without anyone fighting to recover her.
Zoe hints that the crown is far more powerful than Excalibur, then Bree seeks out Elijah near the barn. Elijah explains that a Shade requires tribute: old human-made artifacts saturated with pain, which demons can consume. Elijah says Erebus keeps a hidden collection in the barn, but the barn is protected by an affective ward designed to drive intruders away through fear.
Determined to reach the collection and find tribute for Daeza, Bree attacks the ward. The ward bombards Bree with commands to flee and images of unknown people from Bree’s erased past being killed, but the images fail because Bree no longer remembers them. Bree shifts from verbal commands to visualized transformation, manifests purple root armor and claws, and shatters Erebus’s ward. When Elijah checks what emotion Bree felt, Elijah smells only power, and Bree leads the twins toward the barn to find a tribute for Daeza.
Who Appears
- BreeProtagonist; detects Erebus’s feeding, defends the twins, and shatters the ward with root power.
- ErebusShadow King; rebukes Elijah, dismisses the Daeza lead, and leaves to address outside trouble.
- ElijahBalanced cambion; resents Erebus’s favoritism toward Bree and reveals tribute customs for Shades.
- ZoeBalanced cambion; explains the twins’ dependence on Erebus and admits wanting to save Rootcrafter girls.
- DaezaAbsent Nightshade; rumored to know the crown’s location and considered dangerous to approach.
- Kidnapped Rootcrafter girlVictim from the Rat; Bree believes Erebus fed on her root magic overnight.
- RegazelElijah and Zoe’s contact; supplied the unverified claim that Daeza knows about the crown.