Page 214 of The Broken Aztec Princesses

Bells pushed away from us, the ground trembling under my feet as she stood.

‘What’s happening?’Chris asked, pulling me against him as if to protect me from whatever was threatening us. But I wasn’t in any danger. Martha was.

‘She pissed off my sister,’I answered Chris, letting him pull me to the side to give Bells some space to play.

“You did this,” Bells seethed. “You and Brandon have taken everything I loved from me. You isolated me from my family. Your son caused my miscarriage. You almost killed my son andbecause of you, I had to see him taken away from me. Because of you, I pushed away the only man I actually loved.”

“It was so easy to do it, too,” Martha sneered, making me growl.

Earth rose around Bells and solidified into a spear, flying at Martha and spearing itself through her shoulder. Martha screamed, and for the first time in my life, I was happy to hear someone in pain.

Chris took another step back with me, his hand over my stomach protectively as we watched more earth rising from the ground around Bells.

‘We’re okay. She would never hurt us,’I cooed.

Another spear went through Martha’s good shoulder, forcing another agonizing scream from her

“You think that’s something I’ve never felt? You forget where I come from, girl,” Martha laughed.

“I can get very creative,” Bells answered.

A wall of earth grew slowly behind Martha, who laughed.

“Really? That’s what you’re going to do? Raise a wall. What are you, Trump? You couldn’t even do that fast enough to help Adam. Just imagine, if you were faster or more talented, you could have saved him.”

I growled and ripped myself from Chris’ arms. I ran at Martha, punching her in the face as hard as I could. The pain in my hand was high, and I could already feel it throbbing, but I had no regrets when I saw her nose bleeding. Chris grabbed me and dragged me back, his heart beating out of his chest.

“You vile fucking monster!” I growled.

‘What the hell, Violet?’Chris scolded me via mind link.

‘She deserved it!’

‘What if you’d gotten hurt?’

‘I didn’t. She can’t say that to Bells.’

“You fil—” We’ll never know what Martha was going to say, because as Bells continued to raise three more walls in a forty-five-degree angle, she stomped forward and punched her, too, dislocating her jaw.

“No more vile words out of your mouth, bitch. I spent eight years letting your words affect me. You’re going to stand there like the little bitch you are, and feel me tear you apart,” Bells snarled.

I couldn’t hear what Martha was trying to murmur under her breath, blood dribbling from her mouth and nose in a steady stream, since her wolf was suppressed by Vesta’s silver twine. Chris pulled me behind him, afraid it was another spell, but by this point, the walls Bells was raising had reached their destination and Martha started gasping and gurgling as they closed around her neck, panic appearing in her eyes.

After half a minute, the walls retreated slightly.

“I’m sorry, what were you saying?” Bells asked, cupping a hand to her ear.

“You—” Before Martha could say anything, Bells began closing the walls around her again, making her choke.

There was more rumbling around us and the four walls began to rise as one. Martha’s eyes bugged out as she was stretched, the bottom half of her body still surrounded by the hard earth, while the top was being lifted by the walls. Her strangled cry began to elevate, and Bells continued raising it until Martha coughed up blood. Only then did she loosened the opening around Martha so she could take a breath but left her stretched out. When Martha’s breathing was a little calmer, Bells began to close the walls around Martha once again.

“No, wait. Stop! Please,” she begged while drool and blood flew out of her mouth.

“Please? Stop? What was it that you said the first time I asked you to help me stop Brandon from sleeping around, or hittingme and forcing himself on me when he got drunk? ‘If you could just be good enough, you wouldn’t have to ask these things of me. Be better.’ Well, Martha, if you were powerful enough, you wouldn’t need to ask me these things. Be better,” she growled and continued to cut off Martha’s oxygen.

My heart shattered for my sister. I knew things were bad with Brandon, but I never realized they were that bad. She’d refused to speak to me about them over the last few months, saying she didn’t want to relive them.

Chris and I had also heard most of their talk while we tried to figure out how to help her without causing Adam any harm. Hugh put it all at risk when he rushed in without a plan. Then, we had to act fast, throwing rocks and breaking twigs around the perimeter to make it seem as if there were more than two people coming to her help.

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