Distressing Dominance | Owl House x Reader

Chapter 33

I took a deep breath and recounted our tale, from the treacherous journey to the heart of the Titan's lair to our desperate battle and the creature's eventual retreat. She listened in silence, her expression unreadable. When I finished, she set down her cauldron and leaned against the counter, rubbing her temples. "So, let me get this straight," she said slowly. "You two managed to give the Titan the relics, which released its full strength, and then it managed to somehow escape you and attack the Emperor's castle and most likely die in the process?"

I nodded, feeling the weight of our failure settling on my shoulders. "We couldn't hold it," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "It was too powerful. We had to let it go."

Eda's eyes narrowed, and she snapped. "You had one job, Y/N," she said, her voice low and dangerous. "One simple job, and you couldn't even do that."

I swallowed hard, feeling the sting of her words. "We didn't mean for this to happen," Amity interjected, her voice quivering with fear. "We did our best."

But Eda wasn't in the mood for excuses. "Your best wasn't good enough," she spat, raising her wand. "You've brought the wrath of the Emperor's Coven down upon us, and you lost the Titan which was our only hope in the fight against Belos!"

Without a moment's hesitation, she shot a spell at Amity, the incantation sharp and final. The room was filled with a flash of light, and I watched in horror as the spell slammed into her, slitting her throat as if it was made of paper. Amity's eyes widened in shock, her hands flying to her neck, trying to stem the flow of blood that spurted forth like a crimson fountain. I screamed, my heart feeling like it had been ripped from my chest.

I grabbed Amity as she fell, bringing her to the ground slowly. My hands gently laid on her throat to stop the bleeding while begging Eda to help her. "Eda, please, you have to save her!" I shouted, desperation lacing my voice. But Eda's expression was cold, her eyes calculating.

"There's nothing to be done," she said, her voice devoid of emotion. "The price of failure is high in this world, and you both paid it. Now, tell me everything you know about the Titan's escape and the relics."

Tears streamed down my face as I held Amity in my arms, her life slipping away with each painful gasp. "Why?" I choked out, anger searing through the grief. "Why would you do this?"

Eda's gaze remained hard, but there was a flicker of something else in her eyes, pain, perhaps. "Survival," she replied, her voice still harsh. "The Emperor's Coven will be looking for us, and if they find you, they'll use you as a weapon against us all. Amity is your weakness, they will exploit it and I can't let that happen."

I stared at her, disbelief warring with the grief that was consuming me. "But she's one of us, you crazy bitch!" I yelled, my voice cracking.

Eda's eyes flashed with anger. "She was a liability!" she shot back. "Her family, her very existence here, it was a threat to everything we stand for!"

The room was spinning, my thoughts a tumultuous storm. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "We could have found another way," I whispered, my voice trembling. "We could have protected her, helped her."

But Eda was unmoved. "This is the way of the Boiling Isles," she said, her voice hardening. "You can't change the rules here, not with your human sentimentality."

Her words cut through me like a knife, but I couldn't ignore the truth in them. I had seen the darkness in this world, the lengths people would go to in the pursuit of power. And now, I had lost the one person who had truly understood what I had sacrificed to be here, who had seen the good in me when I doubted myself.

As Amity's light faded, I realized that the only thing left to do was to honor her memory. I had to find a way to stop the Titan, to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. I had to protect the Boiling Isles from the threat it posed...but why the fuck would I do that now? Everyone who was important to me died, the only one remaining was Eda, and I hate her with every cell of my body.

But as I held Amity's lifeless body, something stirred within me, something that wasn't anger or grief, but a cold, hard determination. "You're right," I whispered to Eda through gritted teeth. "We can't change the rules of this place. But maybe, just maybe, we can change the players. I will fucking kill you for taking her away from me."

Eda's eyes narrowed, but she didn't attack. She knew she had gone too far, that she had crossed a line she could never uncross but she played it off like always. "Oh, come on," she sneered. "You're so mad that you got no whore to suck your pathetic dick anymore? Well, then I guess it's time to use your damn hands again, Y/N. Life's hard."

My rage grew, but I knew I had to be smart. I couldn't let her enrage me, I needed to stay calm. With one last, lingering look at Amity, I stood, my body shaking with a mix of grief and fury. "You piece of shit," I spat. "Call her a whore one more fucking time and I swear I'll take your fucking head off."

Eda held up her hands in a mocking surrender. "Alright, alright. No need for such language," she said with a sneer. "But you've got to understand, Y/N. This isn't a fairy tale world. It's survival of the fittest, and sometimes, that means making tough decisions. And you better get on your damn knees and beg for forgiveness before I show you what a real witch can do."

But my anger was a living, breathing thing now, and it consumed me. "Fuck your forgiveness," I spat, my voice filled with a cold rage I didn't know I possessed. "It's you and me. To the death."

Eda's sneer morphed into a vicious smile. "Oh, so it's come to this, has it?" she said, raising her wand. "Fine. But remember, this is your doing."

The room was a blur of motion as she sent a volley of spells my way. I dodged and weaved, my instincts honed from our previous training sessions. The anger boiled in my chest, fueling every move. This was the woman who had taken in a lost human and taught him the ways of witchcraft, and now she had killed the one person who had come to mean so much to me. I couldn't, wouldn't let her win.