Page 29 of Dottie's Forbidden Wizard
Jareth Merlin pulls out his wand and points it at my father."Detineo cohiberto!"
Long black coils snake out and wrap around my father like a thick boa constrictor. He gasps for air, but continues to babble his secrets to the world.
"Wait!" Gigi calls out.
Everyone on the stage turns to look at her. Her chest heaves as she crosses to my father. The head of security looks ready to protest, but Jareth Merlin shakes his head. The look on Gigi’s face is anything but sympathetic toward the man in front of her.
"What did you do to my daughter?" she grits out, her eyes burning with the fire of years of planned vengeance finally coming to fruition. Her expression reveals her full contempt for my father. "Why did she agree to marry you? What did you give her to make her so compliant to you all these years?"
The hatred my father levels at my grandmother would be enough to fuel a journey to the moon and back. But he has no power and a spell that only makes him speak the truth.
"Coercion spell," he spits out. "Renewed every year since the day I met her."
I rear back, grabbing my mother and pulling her behind me. That monster has had her trapped in a spell for my entire life? Mother blinks, looking around at the stage like she's not sure how she got here, before her gaze lands on my father. "Do you need a healing spell again, dear?"
"Which one?" Gigi asks calmly. She has no need to be angry now that she's won.
Using coercion spells requires a sacrifice—part of your life for their free will. After using the spell for so many years, he'll be lucky if he has much time left. Still, his remaining years will now be spent in a prison cell.
Father fights it as long as possible, desperately trying to resist, but he finally spits out, "Alibaster's."
Gigi turns abruptly, pulling her phone from her purse and barking orders to gather ingredients to reverse the spell. She reaches for my mother, who looks at Gigi dreamily.
"You look so lovely today, Mother."
Tears stream down Gigi's face. "You’re getting your life back, Mira."
"I think I'd like to take a nap."
My father screams profanities and curses our way as the guards lead him out of the event space, but I refuse to glance in his direction. That man is nothing to me.
I’m about to have the life he’s always wanted but wasn't worthy of.
"Come on, Mother. We're going to Gigi's. Let's get you home."
Chapter fourteen
Dottie
"Wake up!"
I vaguely register the strike, and then my cheek is on fire. My eyelids, scratchy and heavy with sleep, beg to remain closed, but I force them open as another burning sting lands on my face.
My head is thrown to the side, and I blink repeatedly, trying to shake off my groggy stupor. I'm tied to a chair. I slowly lift my head to see Vera Eastwood smirking down at me.
"Rise and shine, princess." Her mocking voice grates against the pain in my head.
I take a shallow breath. "What... Where..." I can't get my thoughts together.
"What happened? Where am I?"Vera mimics cruelly, her high-pitched tone making bile rise in my throat.
"How much did you give her, you fucking idiot? Did you plan for her to sleep through the New Year?" Griselda's voice is unmistakable as she walks forward, shoving Vera out of the way. "Unfortunately for you, today has been one of the worst of my entire life, and I need someone to take it out on."
Vera snorts. "Better get ready, Dottie. Griselda's life is over after tonight. She has nothing to lose."
"Fuck off, Vera," Griselda snaps.
Vera's eyes glow with psychotic pleasure at having gotten under her friend's skin.
