Free Oathbreaker by Amy Sumida Page A

gaze back to his face, which was etched with intensity.
    “ Thanks for switching sides,” I tried to lighten his mood with a big grin. “I never looked forward to having to fight you.”
    “ You’d never betray me, would you?” His face didn’t lose an ounce of seriousness.
    “ Not unless you betrayed me first.”
    “ That’ll never happen,” he sounded almost cryptic and I found myself laughing to dispel the mood. He just frowned deeper.
    “ I’m sorry,” I patted his arm and he stared at my hand with such naked longing, I withdrew it quickly, confusion and a little longing of my own, making my stomach clench. “I didn’t mean to offend you. It’s just that you sounded almost sad that you wouldn’t betray me.”
    “ Not sad,” he lifted his gaze and the yearning was still there. I felt a shiver run down my spine, “just resigned. There’s something between us, Vervain. I couldn’t hurt you. It would be like hurting myself. I know you can feel it too.”
    “ There is something strange going on,” I sipped my mead to give myself some time to think. “The best way I can describe it is that you feel familiar to me, a sort of déjà vu except it’s with a person.”
    “ Yes,” he shook his head. “We don’t have to analyze it. I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable around me. I know you love VѐulfR and I wouldn’t try to come between you. I just want you to know that you can trust me. I thought that if you were able to acknowledge this connection we have, then you’d know you’re always safe with me.”
    “ This doesn’t make any sense,” I stared into my mead as if it might hold the answer but I’d never been a seer and I found nothing in its citrine depths.
    “ Things don’t always make sense,” he took my hand and kissed it quickly. “As students of the occult, we both know that, and we also know that sometimes it’s better to let them be a mystery.”
    “ Okay, here’s to a little mystery then,” I raised my mug and he clicked his against mine, the wood making a hollow sound which seemed to echo inside me with foreboding.
    “ To mystery,” he agreed.
     
    Chapter Seven
     
    We decided that the easiest way to begin to find out who was friend or foe, would be to announce at dinner that Odin was joining with me and the God Squad(my little band of gods who fought beside me).
    He’d invited his cronies over for an extended visit and they’d been arriving all day. The sounds of their socializing drifted up to me, making my shoulders tense. There wasn’t a single god down there, besides Odin, who was on my side of the war. I could be walking into a serious situation, one I hadn’t pondered fully before agreeing to this arrangement.
    What if it was all an elaborate trap? What if Odin was down there laughing with his friends over how gullible the Godhunter was and how much fun it was going to be to kill her slowly? A knot of anxiety filled my tummy for a second before I took a deep breath and calmed down. Somehow I knew what Odin had said to me was the truth. There wasn’t going to be a lynching, unless it was Odin who got strung up. It all depended on how his associates took the news.
    Since I didn’t know what to expect, I dressed carefully in some tailored black pants and a long sleeved, blue, silk blouse that hid most of my long, leather, fingerless gloves. The gloves were my weapon of choice, having claw-like blades that extended over each finger with a downward flick of my wrists but then would retract with the pull of a lever. They were easy enough to hide, really easy to unsheathe, never ran out of ammo, made each swipe and punch potentially lethal, and were practically impossible to lose. Oh, and they were imbued with god magic. I affectionately referred to them as my Wolverine gloves. I also had my bodice dagger but I decided to leave off the short sword. I didn’t want to antagonize anyone with my weapons, better to keep them hidden.
    While I was checking my make-up