Page 22 of Speak No Evil

I pitch forward with a cackling laugh that borders hysteria. More blood gushes from my nose, joining the spreading, pulsing puddle, and I can’t be sure, but I think I’m crying tears of blood.

Lovely.

“This can end right now if you just hand your power over to me. Willingly. Of course, if you give it to me, I won’t be giving it back. But it’s far less painful than the binding process.” Her black eyes widen, fingers stretching outward in excitement. The mere thought of possessing my power has her licking her lips like a dog eyeing a steak.

I cast a glance to the witches behind Kayla, all of them temporarily feeding her their power to make this awful working.

I almost feel sorry for her. However much power she steals, it will never be enough. A wheezing laugh overtakes me as I meet Kayla’s eyes once more.

“You know you’re pathetic, right?” Every word is a sandpaper file to my vocal cords, but I don’t care anymore. “If you think I’d give you even one molecule of my magic, you really don’t know who you’re dealing with.”

Kayla presses her lips together, and more fiery pain descends on me.

I had a feeling that would be her reaction, but I ignore it. Righteous indignation is the best painkiller. I sit up straight, chin high, as I dole out my next words.

“You’d better bind it all, witch. Every last scrap. Because if you leave even the smallest speck of magic, the barest shred of power, I will use it to rip the teeth from your skull and wear them as a necklace before I steal the coven leader’s throne and have you permanently shunned.”

Bloody tears streak down my cheeks as I stare at the witch in front of me. “You don’t actually care that I refuse to take a mate. You just want my magic. And if you can’t have it, then no one can, right?”

I don’t give her a chance to respond. Instead, I turn my attention to the witches behind her, ignoring the fire in my ruined throat.

“You know, it’s only a matter of time before she comes after your power, right?”

Most of the coven is unmoved, but a few...

I focus my efforts on them. “Now that your coven leader has had a taste of channeling your combined magic, do you think she’s going to forget it? Do you think she’ll ever be satisfied being a regular witch with regular power?”

A tall witch with graphic eyeliner chews on her lip as she looks at her friend next to her.

“Silence!” Kayla amps up the pain in my body but I’m numb to it, not fully in my body. The witches shift behind their leader, but my gaze drops to the floor.

To the blood expanding andpulsingon the floor.

My blood.

Why is it pulsing?

I try to think back to my lessons, but I remember nothing about witch blood being especially, um… pulse-y.

I’d seen demon blood too, on Ryker’s face and Thorne’s after our sparring match. It wasn’t a puddle like this, but it definitely wasn’t pulsing.

What the fuck is happening?

“Did you hear me, witch?”

I relax my shoulders and pretend to feel faint, straining forward against the ties around my wrists.

Ties that are more pliant than before.

Kayla comes closer. “I said, you can’t turn the coven you abandoned against me. But it’s cute that you’d try.”

I sway in my seat, focus entirely on the blood at my feet. It’s nearly touching my toes.

I really should put more clothes on before stepping through portals. The thought of blood, even if it’s mine, getting between my naked toes—

Blech.

Hardly worse than what made the bloody pool in the first place...