Four
Celestine only removed the magic binding my mouth when we’d reached my bedroom. She sliced her hand through the air, and the pressure against my lips disappeared. Her heel rapped against the floorboards as if preparing for another casting.
“You lied to me,” she said, her face blanched with rage. “You lied to your father. For how long? How long have you been dallying with those unsparked boys?”
My hands fisted at my sides. “I never lied to Dad. He never minded what I did. He never asked. And it shouldn’t be any of your business. Just because you married him doesn’t make you my mother.”
Saying that last bit probably wasn’t the wisest move I’d ever made, but my own anger had been bubbling up through the whole silent walk back to the house and up to my room. Underneath my fury, I was
