Chapter 14: I Have a Unique Constitution
"!!! !!!"
Lordi Payne's heart jolted with heavy shock, cold sweat bursting forth like a torrential flood in an instant.
Willow tilted her head slightly, her icy little hand brushing against his cheek in a gesture that seemed almost affectionate. Her fingers crept upward, bit by bit, as she cooed in a soft, honeyed voice, "Young sir Lordi Payne, didn't you say you'd tell me all and everything you know? So why haven't you said a word yet?"
As she spoke, her fingertip pressed against the center of his forehead. A chilling frost radiated outward, piercing straight to his marrow. With a saccharine smile, she added, "Or do I have to turn you into a lampshade like Sister Joanie said—rip out your soul and refine it into a lamplight—before you'll talk?"
"I—" Lordi Payne tried to explain, but he'd barely choked out a single syllable when an invisible force pinned him in place. Helpless, he could only watch as Willow's finger trailed slowly downward from his brow, tracing a deliberate path. Her nails were impossibly long, pitch-black, and shimmered with a faint, eerie blue glow. They were razor-sharp, and though they hadn't yet touched his skin, the sensation that they'd peel it clean off in the next moment felt all too real.
His heart thundered in his chest, yet he couldn't force a sound past his lips. Just then, Willow let out a tinkling giggle, her tone softening. "And—, do you know why the Mistress didn't just slap you dead in the lodge earlier?"
What?!
Lordi Payne's heartbeat skipped, and if he weren't bound by that invisible force, he'd have cried out in sheer panic.
This ghostress knew?!
She knew everything?!
Then why hadn't she stepped in to save her Mistress before? Or was it because the Bone Tomb vessel hadn't been summoned yet, leaving her unable to intervene?