Page 24 of Speak No Evil

I don’t know where it’s coming from, and I don’t care.

I coat myself, front to back, as Kayla laughs over me, thinking her fiery spell is driving me mad.

So when I stop screaming, stop convulsing, Kayla comes close.

“Oh no. I think I killed her,” she says with that sweet, awful voice.

She nudges me with a booted toe, and I roll over, playing dead.

Waiting.

“What a shame. I thought she could handle more.”

Her footsteps recede as she gives her next order. “Agatha and Finley, dispose of the body. Daria and Alexa, clean up the blood.”

Kayla doesn’t wait for the order to be followed. She assumes it will be and makes her exit.

And I count her footsteps.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

I rise, covered in blood, smiling that crazed smile at her back, and throw a ball of my signature concussive force at her back.

Because witches like her deserve to be stabbed—or in this case, concussed—in the back.

I’ll never forget the sound of shattering bone. Like logs popping on a fire.

She shrieks as she’s launched forward, and the ring of witches part to let her pass through.

But not a single one goes to help her as she lands twisted and broken on the floor.

No one even flinches as her screams rival mine.

In fact, every single witch in the temple turns their back on Kayla as she twists and howls in agony.

My newly named witch-killer-ball shattered every bone in the former coven leader’s body. She’ll die slowly, painfully, as shards of bone infiltrate her vital organs.

She’ll either bleed to death, suffocate, or her heart will stop, depending on which bone shard moved the fastest.

I walk to her slowly, so I don’t slip and bust my ass. “You did this to yourself, Kayla. You tried to bind my power without justification, and this is your punishment.”

She screams at me, a truly terrible sound, and I fight not to back away.

“Oh, don’t be such a sore loser. It’s not cute,” I say and promptly fall to the floor, unconscious.

Chapter 7

VRAHS

Vrahs, you must stop.