Chapter 147 GOOD GIRLS MISBEHAVE

Chapter 147 GOOD GIRLS MISBEHAVE
NARRATOR
Agata’s old hand slid through flesh and bone like she was nothing but a phantom, rummaging through what was left of the heart that had already stopped beating.
Still, something warm fluttered between her fingers, restless... like a fidgety child.
Agata’s gaze went cold, the look she saved for enemies.
She drew her spectral hand back, and a dull little black orb of energy glimmered in her palm.
“So you thought it’d be as simple as reincarnating into another life and going right back to hurting innocent people,” she muttered, tightening her fingers as the energy tried to squirm away.
“Forget about a sweet reincarnation, you little liar. You’ve got a debt to me, and you’ll pay it for all eternity.”
Agata turned... and the room behind her wasn’t the Queen’s chamber anymore.
It was her cabin.
Not the warm, cozy one Kaden and Isabella knew. This was something else. A world of horror they’d only barely glimpsed once, during Isabella’s ceremony.
Agata walked from light into shadow, toward a massive fireplace that looked like a gaping mouth now, hungry. Shadows crawled inside it, wailing in desperate, awful laments.
Tar-black hands fought to reach out, but magical chains held them back.
“Elbraham... here’s the delicious soul I promised you,” Agata said to the empty air.
A deep, hungry growl answered from that open mouth, the kind that made every hair on your body stand up.
Agata tossed Alondra’s soul into the darkness.
A huge black tongue snapped out like a whip, wrapped around it, and swallowed it whole.
Screams and giggles rang out inside the walls, growing sharper, and the boards trembled like shrieking applause.
A new energy had arrived.
A new victim to break apart piece by piece, rebuild, and drag back to the beginning... again and again.
Agata felt the thrill of this ancient magic she’d inherited from her mother, the same magic she kept locked down inside this old house.
Her mother had been one of the most powerful witches who’d ever lived, but her power was so sinister even the old Fae King had feared her.
He’d fallen in love with her like a madman, even breaking his people’s laws for her.
But when he discovered just how far that magic could go... he feared for his throne.
And the throne mattered more than love.
So the woman who could see evil in others never saw the knife coming from the man she trusted most.
There were no more soul-blinders for the wicked.
And Agata had never wanted to use this gift that came to her the day her magic awakened.
She didn’t want to be like her mother. That kind of power wakes up fear and greed in people.
She also knew she’d always been under Fae watch. She’d escaped as a baby thanks to a witch’s mercy, then hidden in the Arcane Court.
They no longer saw her as a threat, because they believed she hadn’t inherited that power.
Still... maybe if she’d used it, she would’ve seen Alondra’s malice from the beginning.
“I’m too old for this much chaos,” Agata snorted, flicking her hand and cleaning the King’s room like none of it had happened.
The portal closed behind her as she returned to her cabin in the woods, whistling as she stepped through, her herbs clutched in hand.
The walls and the fireplace slipped back into their normal state, hiding the world of darkness that lived behind them.
Because if old Elbraham liked you, you were the apple of his eye, like Isabella, and he’d let you do whatever you pleased.
But if he could smell evil in your soul... you might end up trapped inside those walls, and you’d never leave.
Alondra’s soul would die again and again... for all eternity.

A FEW DAYS LATER
ISABELLA
“Come on, Bella, you’ve got this, you’ve got this!” William’s yelling pounded inside my dizzy head as I ran across the narrow platform.
I could barely see the wooden strip wobbling under my feet.
And the worst part was this damn mini skirt. I had to yank it down every second.
Yep, the same one Kaden told me not to wear in public, but he’s not here to police me.
So what was the first thing I did? Yeah... I behaved very, very badly.
“C’mon, babe, show me those forbidden moves!”
In the middle of the motorcycle club’s riot, I finally hit the last game of the bet.
The light tiles flash under my feet, and the girl at the machine is hyping me up, telling me to hit the steps in whatever order she wants, while I’m way more drunk than sober.
Damn it... and I’d said I wasn’t gonna let William drag me into another streak.
“Ta-ta-ta-ram, ta-ram-ta-ta... keep it up! You’re on a streak!” The robotic voice and that dumb little jingle keep drilling into my ears.
My eyes fight to catch the bursts of color on the floor, faster and faster.
Thera’s on high alert, ready to win that money like her dinner depends on it.
“Yeah, yeah... you’ve got it, baby!”
“Shut up, William, for Goddess’s sake!”