Page 9 of Home: Posy 5

Three more toes before he gave up.

"Well, Ezzy? Whatcha got to say?"

"Please," he panted.

"Please what?"

"Please stop," he gasped, tears and sweat mingling in lines down his dirty face. "Hurts. It hurts."

"Well, well, well. I can see how that extra dollop of power is doing you a world of good right now. So much more useful than a wolf with healing powers... Aw, dude! What am I talking about?"

I smacked my forehead with the hand not holding the torch.

"The king sucked all the moon power out of you, didn't he? But don't you worry, Ezzy. Chime Karma will gobble that shit right up, so some good will come out of poor Bruno's sacrifice."

I patted his shoulder, then set down the blow torch and reached into my bag one last time. Pulling out the lighter fluid, I dumped it all over him until the bottle was empty. Then I poured the rest of the nail polish remover on top of that. The entire time, he squirmed around like a wiggle worm and screamed about it burning his eyes.

"Allof you is going to burn in a second," I told him with a shrug.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry for everything!" he screeched.

"Wonderful!" I clapped enthusiastically. "You're on fire now! Well, not literally, but let's fix that."

"No!" he howled. "No more! Just kill me!JUSTKILL ME!"

"Okay, sure."

With a careless shrug, I grabbed the blow torch and held it to his frizzy curls until they caught on fire. In no time, the flames spread to engulf his flailing body and his screams spiraled into glass-breaking range.

Lark, are you awake?

Yes. Posy and me played a prank on Jayden!

You did? You'll have to show me that later.

It was so funny!Her angelic giggle squeezed my heart.

I'm glad you're having a good time.Listen, my little doll, Burnt Oil Man is gone now. I took care of it, okay? You don't have to be afraid of him anymore.

Thank you. He was a bad man.

He was,I agreed as I started to put all my supplies back in my bag.We'll be back soon, all right? Then you can show me how you pranked Jay.

Okay. We miss you.

Aw. I miss you, too, little doll.

Whistling my favorite OneRepublic song, I stood up, slung my bag on my shoulder, and left the cell, eager to get back to our mate.

#

Mason

King Julian led me to cell twenty-four, the last one at the end of the hallway, then looked at me with one raised eyebrow.

I gave him a nod to let him know I was ready.

While he was unlocking doors for my brothers, I'd been linking Angelo, and he'd told me the witch would die like any human so long as she wore the witch catcher.

---