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“This bitch just hauled off and hit Creeden for no reason.”
“No reason? You were sexually harassing my friend!”
“Your friend.” His eyes landed on me, and I cringed once he clearly recognized me. “Hey, you’re the witch I heard about, aren’t you?”
Fuck, he’d heard of me? Surely this couldn’t be from the rumors Darla heard on our way to the yard.
“Our prince is a lucky cad.” Creeden spoke up, his nose having healed itself. I was sure Darla wanted to punch him again, but from the way she wouldn’t move her southpaw, she was in enough pain already. “Heard he’ll bed just about anything, so are any of us surprised about him having a witch in his party?”
“You’re pushing it,” Mad Dog spat.
I felt enraged at how they were talking about Kai. They needed to put some respect on his name before I shoved my fist down their throats and saw how big a fireball I could summon into my palm.
“What, you up in her drawers, too? I’ve heard a lot about—”
I was already so sick of their talking, sick of how they gloated and looked at me like a piece of meat. How they talked about witches and their prince. So, I stared at them head-on and summoned my magic.
“Be. Quiet,” I said resolutely, pushing my energy out of me, willing it to wind around their throats and coat their tongues.
Such a spell was typically invisible, a simple way of stealing people’s words and sealing them away. But it wasn’t enough to shut them up. I wanted them to feelpowerless, to feelweak,for their bodies not to be their own.
I let my magic crackle out in a big blue aura, like some many-tentacled monster behind me. It hovered there, and I took pleasure in how the group looked at it with horror.
“What—”
That was the only word they got out before I snapped my fingers. All those tentacles then shot out, wrapping around the men’s throats, squeezing slightly, letting out crackling sounds as they did.
It wouldn’t kill them, wouldn’t even cut off their air, but it did steal away their voices in the form of little balls of white, glowing mist rushing out of their mouths, only to coalescence in my waiting palm.
“You lot should be more focused on training to protect the royal family and citizens of this city instead of disrespecting your prince,” I said icily. “If anyone else wants to chime in, I’ll take their words, too. Goodness knows, I’ll make a much better use of them than you.”
One of them stumbled forward, collapsing to his knees as his mouth moved with no sound. I just stared at him, channeling my coldest possible self.
“I’ll return these when I decide you’ve deserved them. Press me further, and I’ll scatter them to the four winds. Understood?”
There were nods all around, and I waved my hand, dismissing all the visual parts of my spell.
“And if any of you think about whining to your higher ups, I’ll just have to relay to Prince Nikolai directly how you treat the healer for his personal entourage.”
At this, they paled.
“Come on,” I said, mood thoroughly soured as I threw off the gloves I was wearing. “Let’s get out of here.”
“I’m gonna stick around for a bit,” Mad Dog said, picking up the gloves. “Just to do a bit of clean up.”
I nodded before Darla took my hand and led me back toward our quarters. I had no idea what we looked like now, but I didn’t really care. I just wanted to be in Kai’s arms again, where things were so much simpler.
It was while we were on the annoyingly winding stairwell leading up to Kai’s wing that we were stopped by a familiar voice.
“Healer Everton, Officer Khan.”
We both turned to see none other than Aodin, the fae looking quite pleased with himself. I was instantly wary, not wanting to deal with more drama.
“Yeah?” I said.
“Pardon my interruption, but I just happened to see the scene play out from my office balcony. You put on quite a show, didn’t you?”
He saw? Shit. That meant plenty of other people who weren’t involved likely did as well, which wasn’t exactly going to discourage the rumor mill about me.
