Page 69 of Speak No Evil

That thing I’ve never had before. Feeling my magic surging through me. Through each vein and artery, filling me with radiating electric tingles.

Is this what I should have felt all this time?

I almost feel bad for my former self. Then again, she never knew what she was missing, and that almost makes it more tragic.

I stretch my limbs, roll my shoulders, and focus all that warm electricity straight out of my back.

Two wings beat the air next to me, pushing me upward. I chance a look at the ground. I only had about eight feet left before I hit pavement. Seconds, really.

A loud whooping reaches me from above. Vrahs, cheering me on.

Asshole. You pushed me off the building!

Yes, and you found your wings. That’s what matters.

He may be right, but my wings aren’t strong. I’m hardly adept at flying. Even with magic strengthening my muscles and increasing my stamina, using them is strenuous to every muscle in my torso, front, and back.

Keeping level and not dropping several feel downward between each wingbeat isn’t exactly intuitive.

Someone’s gonna have to offer up flying lessons if I’m ever going to get good at this.

With enormous effort, I eventually gain altitude and fly high enough to catch the pinks and blues of Blackwood’s neon signs smeared across the horizon.

And that’s…

That’s something else.

I’d come here as a haven from my coven, and now…

Now I truly love this city. The people and neon and art and food and…

The lords.

“Fuck, I wish you could see me, Em,” I say to the clouds.

I stay there as long as I dare, muscles aching, twitching with burn-out as I lose myself in the view.

If things had gotten out of control, and Blackwood fell…

I can’t even imagine what I would do. So I don’t. Instead, I bank hard toward my flatiron building and prepare to give Vrahs a piece of my mind.

I land even harder, but stay on my feet, so that counts as a win. “That was a real shitty thing to do. I could have died.”

He shakes his head, blue eyes shining with…

Something I don’t want to talk about. “No, you couldn’t.”

“Well, I could have hurt myself.”

Another gorgeous smile. “Not seriously.”

I frown at him and cross my arms, even though doing so hurts every muscle in my back. “Well, even so, it was still a really shitty thing to do.”

Vrahs bows his carmine head, white-blond hair falling in his eyes. “It was. But it is our way.”

I’m about to make my case for his punishment when he conjures up a gleaming pool of perfectly still water. “But look, Jade. Look at the masterpiece you’ve made of yourself.”

I haven’t really looked at myself since the first time, so when I peer into the placid water, I’m again struck by how amazing my demon form is. Made exponentially better by an outstretched pair of ink-black wings. Something glints along the edges of each feather and I turn to see them better.

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