Read Online The Oath by Apryl Baker - Free Book Online Page A

this a year ago.”
    “People change, Jeff.” I shrugged. “That was a phase I was going through to piss off my dad.”
    “Uh huh.” He gave me a knowing look. “You are not Miss America.”
    “Miss America?” I laughed, not expecting that analogy.
    “You know, the perfect teenage boy’s dream. Blonde, beautiful, and very not you. She will always say and do all the right things, never disagree with you, and be all the things you think she should be.”
    “Oh, so you’re saying I’m not beautiful?” I didn’t know if I should be insulted or not.
    “No, that’s not what I’m saying. You know you’re beautiful. You’re just not the type of person to be a clone.”
    “A clone?”
    “Look around, Melinda.” He waved at the crowd of kids in the ice cream shop. They were all very different, but had a sameness to them. All the girls acted alike. While they were dressed differently and stylishly, their clothes screamed one word: sameness. The guys behaved similarly as well. They all had that high school good ol’ boy thing going most towns did. There wasn’t a unique one in the bunch. I could definitely see what Jeff was getting at.
    “I look pretty much like them too,” I pointed out.
    “No, not really.” He shook his head and gave me a shrewd look. “I think you are trying your hardest to be that girl, but that’s not you. You can wear the same kind of clothes, go blonde, and even try to behave like that lot, but you can’t quite manage it. There’s something about you that’s just too original to ever be snuffed out. You’re not a clone, Mel, and you never will be.”
    If he could see through me so easily, I wondered if the rest of them could too. I’d been trying so hard to blend in, to be part of the crowd. Now Jeff was telling me it didn’t wash. Well, hell.
    “I just don’t understand,” he sighed. “Why would you want to be like them? They’re boring, and you’re anything but.”
    “I have to be like them,” I murmured more to myself than anything, but it caused Jeff to look more closely.
    “What’s going on, Mel? What aren’t you telling me?”
    “Nothing’s going on,” I denied. The boy, while sweet, could be a major problem. I had to get him off this line of questioning. “So tell me what’s up with you and Red.”
    He blinked, not expecting that. I watched his face go from easygoing to depressed in five seconds flat. I kicked myself. He’d been having a great time, and I had to go and ruin it. Granted, I couldn’t afford to have him ask too many questions about my plans, but I should have found something else to distract him with.
    “Nothing’s up with us,” he said darkly. “Have you ever hated someone so much you wished them dead?”
    “Yes.” My tone was just as dark as his in that moment. I saw all their faces flash in front of my eyes, and my blood burned with the need for vengeance, for death.
    “Damn, Mel,” Jeff whispered. “Your eyes went all black there for a minute.”
    “What?” My eyes went black? That was a sign of a dark witch, someone infected with the darkness that eats away a soul. No way could my eyes do that.
    He nodded. “I’ve seen that before. Our old Coven Master’s eyes did that the night he tried to sacrifice CJ and Kay to fulfill a curse. He was the darkest witch I’ve ever met. What’s going on, Mel? Your eyes tell me one thing, but you don’t act like a dark witch.”
    “I’m not,” I denied hotly. I wasn’t. No matter what I planned on doing, I wasn’t a dark witch. No way.
    Jeff just stared at me, and then his eyes became focused, hard somehow, and before I could ask what was wrong, he started to speak.
     
    “Tree of wisdom, tree of knowledge,
    leaves of truth, leaves of change,
    I call upon thee to bend your branches unto me and listen as I speak.
    Show me now the truth of which I seek.”
     
    His spell flowed over and through me. I felt the power of it bathe me, and I shuddered. This was not an ordinary