Page 25 of My Demon Teacher

I sigh in relief. I don’t even care to hide it from them. Brim didn’t betray us. It’s just this guy. An animal whisperer witch if I’m correct.

“Is that so?” I smirk.

Something in it unsettles the guy. I lay Yu-jin down on the bed and take a step closer to the whisperer.

“You can’t hurt me. You can’t touch me.” Even though that’s true, it doesn’t stop him from backtracking until his back is glued against the dorm door.

“Really? Says who?”

“Step back, asshole!” Ryan steps in front of his friend and gets right in my face.

It doesn’t take much more than that for my neck to constrict. An uncomfortable heat rises in my chest, and I step back. The compulsion of my magical contract gets between us like two magnets of the same pole repelling one another.

Ryan Byron purses his lips, way too pleased with himself.

“You think this is going to stop me?”

He dips his head closer to my face, and I can’t help but pull back some more as he whispers, “What do you think?”

“I think…” I roar and raise my hand. With a breath, I conjure my fire, and it wraps around my fingers. It’s as warm as a touch by my darling boy and as electric as his kiss, but it’s also void, hollow. Like a shield that protects me from its own poison. “It’s time I resigned.”

A fancy parchment way too old-fashioned for this century appears in my hand.

Contract of Employment reads the top. I crumple it in my hand and let the fire set it ablaze. Parchment turned to ash. Magic turned to dust. I feel it dissolving around me like a tidal wave.

And when it passes…I’m free.

“You were saying?” I snatch Byron by the neck and stretch my wings.

The higher I rise, the more he struggles for air, kicking his legs in a desperate attempt to escape me.

“Don’t…forget…your…witch,” he croaks.

If he thinks his little reminder will make me go easier on him, he’s mistaken. Because as soon as he mentions my witch, I want nothing more than to snap his neck in two and throw him in the trash where he belongs.

But I can’t do that. Not yet.

So I let him fall on the floor and dive for the other one. The whisperer. I pin him against the door and squeeze his flimsy little neck as if it’s an orange. As if it’s nothing but a plastic toy. As if he’s just as useless as the material polluting the earth.

His scream turns into a groan that dies when his neck snaps and he drops lifelessly on the floor.

“Alan!” Byron shouts, but there’s no point. Alan is no longer with us.

Brimfang unfurls and stretches like the kitty she is, and her yawn turns into a roar.

“Welcome back, Brim.”

She slow-blinks at me and turns around to look at Byron, who’s now lying in the middle of the room, white as a sheet.

“Now, release Yu-jin, or I’ll let my kitty cat tear you to pieces.”

He glances at me and tries to sit up but fails because Brim is already at his feet.

“You can’t. If you kill?—”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. If I kill you, Yu-jin is lost forever in his dreams. I didn’t say she’s going to kill you. I just said she’s going to tear you apart. You can still cast your magic without your legs and arms, can’t you?”

He swallows and stares at Brim, probably realizing how deeply fucked he is.

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