Page 47 of Locked
I was becoming quite the actress, keeping my face meek and timid while fire and anger swirled throughout my entire body.
Unfortunately, as it was wont to do in undisciplined witches, the anger found a way out.
And into every light bulb in the apartment.
Every single bulb blew in rapid succession, leaving both of us in the dark and the only sound being Mother's labored breathing as I tried to keep my cool.
"You want to be in the dark, do you?" she hissed.
I heard the door to my sunroom swing closed. The clanking of chains and locks as Mother fastened them across it.
"You'll be in the dark for the next moon, Rapunzel. I won't be coming back every fortnight like I usually do You'll bealone. All alone. Your cat willdiein your arms. And he'll rot in this apartment with you You can live with the smell and the darkness and then, maybe… justmaybe, you'll appreciate your Mother when she comes to visit and you won't HIDE THINGS FROM HER!"
She glowered at me, reaching over and yanking my hair, pulling out several strands before she stalked to the door. Dropping them into the fire, she went out the door with a flourish. Glaring at me evilly as the door slid closed behind her.
At any other time, the anger might have poured out of me, to the detriment of my dishes and other breakable things around me.
But I wasn't angry about anything other than her nastiness. She wasn't coming back for a whole month? Good. The less I'd have to look at her and the more time I could spend getting to know Rif, Kinden and Sorrel.
The more time we could spend working on my escape.
Hell, maybe if we really worked hard on a plan, I wouldn't ever have to see that old witch again.
I held out my hand, concentrating on the locks and chains and sighing in contentment as they fell away to the floor. The door to the sunroom opened once more, flooding the dark apartment with light.
The glass from all the light bulbs floated up to the ceiling once, reassembling itself as the light glowed through the bulbs once again.
Basil leapt up on the kitchen counter. "Shouldn't you wait to do that? She might come back."
I shook my head. "I'd have to let her in."
"And you wouldn't?"
I shook my head. "I'm an ungrateful brat, remember? I'm throwing a temper tantrum. I'm hiding things from Mother and doing all sorts of horrible stuff up here."
Basil chuckled lightly as my tablet floated across the room in front of him and into my hand.
I turned it on, finding the wifi had been disconnected. That figured. I would have been surprised if she'd done anything less.
Besides, it didn't matter.
Closing my eyes, I reached out for a signal. I hadn't ever done this kind of magic before. Not beyond finding a signal. I'd never connected to one that I'd found. I hoped against hope that it would work as I found one swirling in the clouds off in the distance. I grabbed hold of it, clutching tightly in my mind's eye as the slippery strands tried to dislodge from my fingers like slimy spaghetti. I pulled it towards me, wrapping it around my arm and pulling it down, down, down until I could plug it into my tablet.
I didn't know what signal it was, I just knew I could use it to contact my guys.
When the wifi connected, I refrained from cheering, I simply opened up my chat app and sent off a quick message to Kinden.
"See you tomorrow, K."
He replied soon after. "Everything okay?"
"I'll tell you when I see you," I replied. "Gotta go for now. See you soon!"
"Very soon," he reminded me.
I smiled, even though my nerves were shot and I was emotionally exhausted from dealing with Mother, Kinden could always make me smile.
