Now or Never: Wizards of Nevermore Read Free Page A

such a sad gaze. “You really aren’t very nice,” she said. She looked around the room. “They’re all here. And they’re mad.”
    Millicent swallowed the sudden, tight knot in her throat. She brought the book up to her chest, almost as though it might serve as a shield. “Who’s here, Lenore?”
    “The children you murdered. They told me about the tea. They told me what you did.”
    “I would never, ever hurt my angels,” she said sharply.
    Pity entered Lenore’s gaze. She had such an adult look about her. And she was so eerily calm.
    “Good-bye, Miss Millicent.”
    She turned to go. She was even so bold as to take steps toward the door. Millicent was stunned by thechit’s gall. Lenore actually believed she could walk out of here? Leave the only person who would ever,
ever
love her?
    Rage thrummed through Millicent. She uttered a cry, dropping the book, and raised the syringe. She’d been wrong about Lenore. She wasn’t special. She wasn’t amazing. She was a horrid, horrid child. She didn’t deserve to be an angel. Not ever.
    “Evil girl,” she hissed as her arm came down. “You will burn in hell.”
    Lenore stopped, then turned. “Not me,” she said, her voice filled with sorrow. “You.”
    The syringe never made contact.
    Lenore’s odd blue gaze blazed as hard and cold as crystal, as ice…as death.
    Violent wind came out of nowhere. It shattered the china, knocked books off the shelves, ripped the lace curtains. Lenore stood in the middle of the chaos, watching with distant eyes as Millicent was flung backward, the syringe falling uselessly to the pink shag carpet.
    She landed on the chaise, her eyes wide, her mouth open in a silent scream. Pressure from little hands crushed her chest, and tiny fingers scratched at her windpipe.
    Her lungs flattened.
    Her heart slowed.
    Her vision grayed.
    She saw her angels then, all around her, pushing and shoving and clawing.
    And as she struggled for her life, to escape from the vengeance of those she had loved, she saw Lenore give her one last pitying look and walk out of the room.
    The quiet snick of the door’s closing was the last sound Millicent ever heard.

Chapter 1
    Present day…
    “She’s filthy.”
    Norie Whyte stared dully at the man in the black robe, his tall, bulky form hidden by the layers of shining cloth. The hood covered his face, but even through the mush that was currently her mind, she recognized the man’s voice. He was the one who kept showing up and bossing everyone else around. The two guys holding her up were leaning away as much as possible. She’d gotten used to the stench, just as she’d gotten used to sleeping on the floor and defecating in a bucket and being naked—and being stoned out of her mind.
    “You said to make sure she couldn’t escape again. You didn’t say nothing about keeping her clean.” This protest rang out from the bald guy on the left, the one who liked to stare at her breasts and touch himself. He knew better than to try to get his jollies with her. She used to havethree guards, but one had made the mistake of trying to rape her.
    The man in the black robe had punched a hole in his chest with his fist and magic, and then he had coldly watched the horny bastard bleed out on the floor. Then he’d used his magic to turn the body into ash. Just…
poof
. No more rapist. Then he’d looked at the other two, who’d both pissed themselves, and said calmly, “Do you also require an explanation of what ‘virgin sacrifice’ means?”
    They didn’t.
    She didn’t know Black Robe’s name, his title, his House, or his face. But she knew one thing quite well: He was an asshole.
    “I won’t do it.” She wasn’t sure if the words actually made it past her throat. Then Black Robe swung toward her, and she knew he’d heard the hoarse protest.
    “It’s your destiny, Norie.”
    “Bullshit.” Her voice was stronger this time, but it still sounded like a rusted hinge.
    He slapped her hard across the face.