Page 82 of Braving the Valley

"What are you doing in here?" she shrieks. "Guards!"

She moves to press something under her desk, and when I shift closer, I see that it's a tiny red button, a panic button.

I catch her hand and squeeze.

"Press that button," I tell her, "and I will make sure it's the last thing you touch."

She puts her hand carefully in her lap.

"How can I help you, Mr. Soros?" she asks, and she's definitely thinking about all the ways she's going to fuck up my life before the day is over.

She gives me a tight-lipped smile, which I return. I spot the liquid spilled across her chair and the floor in front of her desk and still splattered across her leather shoes. It makes me itch to set her on fire.

She cuts her eyes to Avery. "Would you like to join Ms. Bardot on a trip to the hole?"

"You aren't going to let Butcher anywhere near her," I say.

She laughs like I must be joking. I'm not.

I grab her by the throat and snatch a wad of papers from the top of her desk before cramming them into her mouth and gagging her. She screams, but it's muffled.

I pull out my lighter, flipping it across my knuckles, and her eyes go wide. I flip the lid and ignite the flame, and they go even wider.

She tries to wriggle away from me, but I'm holding her to the chair, and she isn't going anywhere, not without tearing a few layers of flesh off first.

I bring the flame to her flesh, and she cries into the gag. I lean in close to her ear.

"How does it feel?" I ask her. "Being in the other seat, your cries ignored just like you ignored Avery's?"

I cock my head at her.

"You filled her mouth until she couldn't breathe. Now I'm going to light yours up."

She yells into the gag as I bring the flame to the paper crammed between her teeth.

I let her think I care for a moment before I ignite the flame and watch it pop and take over, spreading across the paper. She's hyperventilating now, and I bet it burns on the way down as the fire spread, licking against her lips and dipping farther into her mouth.

It's mesmerizing, the flames laving away at her mouth, cleaning away the nasty shit she wants to say.

"Grab some books," I tell Avery behind me. "Bring them to me."

"What?" she asks.

"Grab some books." With some effort, I look behind me at her. "I'm going to burn this bitch back to hell."

"No." Avery shakes her head. "No, please don't do that, Gabe."

"No?" I scoff.

"No," she repeats. "I don't want that. Don't ask me to do that."

"Why?"

What the fuck is she going on about?

"She hurt you, Firefly," I add.

Headmistress convulses in the chair, screaming, and with some effort, I let her go, watching as she spits the pieces of burnt paper onto the floor. Her mouth is charred, and her teeth black as she coughs onto the desk.

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