Westerham Witches and a Venetian Vendetta by Dionne Lister (top rated books of all time TXT) 📕

liked to think of it as a healthy respect. We had so many poisonous snakes in Australia that it was sensible to want to stay away from them, but pythons were harmless… unless you were a small dog, rat, or possum. I was none of those, so I should be okay.

I took a slow, calming breath—I could hardly take any other kind of breath, and at this point, I was happy any breath was going in.

Focus. I opened myself up to the river of power and absorbed more magic. The snake, which had the top part of its body draped over my hand, slid down my arm and to my other shoulder as Isabella stared, apparently mesmerized. I did my best to ignore the sensation of the snake roaming my body. Even at the slow rate I was gathering power, I would soon have enough to do something decent. I needed maybe another twenty minutes or so. Then I could kill her. Hmm, should I kill her though? Was there something I could do to disable her until I could get help, or would I just be dooming myself to a slow death? Surely, even with my sluggish movement, I could escape?

I took in more power.

My arm, which was naturally not going to stay in the air forever, ached. The freeze spell usually defied gravity, but this was only half a freeze spell. I did my best to relax my arm, and it inched down. The snake had also moved towards the floor. It had wrapped once around my body, and its head was at my shin. Maybe wrangling the snake would keep Isabella somewhat occupied. She put her hands on her hips as she observed both of us.

Deeper divots formed within her already-wrinkled forehead. Her magic prickled my scalp, and the snake stopped moving. She crouched awkwardly and gathered as much of it as she could from just below the head, then wrapped it around my neck. The snake dangled there. Had she killed it?

She forced my arm back into its original position and draped the front of the snake over my hand again. “I have stunned it so we have no more problems. I cannot force him to stay there otherwise, so I will sculpt him first. It won’t hurt you too much—just where the snake touches your skin.”

I blinked in slow motion. What was she talking about? The snake wasn’t just touching my hand, but it was wrapped around my arm, the back of my neck, and trailed down one side of my body, to the inside of one leg, and around the back of the other ankle. It was touching a lot of places. And what kind of pain were we talking about? I shut my eyes. Molten glass would give me third-degree burns. I was pretty sure nothing was more painful than that. And that poor snake. Tears moistened my eyes, but I bit my tongue, refusing to let her see how angry and frustrated I was. She had to be one of the evilest people I’d come across. She was giving Piranha a run for her money.

I refocussed. If I didn’t act now, I probably wouldn’t get the chance. I doubted I’d be able to concentrate enough on magic if I were burning half to death. But what was I going to do? Did I have enough power for anything permanent? If I only half hurt her, there was no way I could gather enough power in time for a second try, and that was if she didn’t kill me on the spot.

I breathed deeply in through my nose and did my best to not panic, to contain the rising dread within me. I couldn’t shut down now, or that would be the end of it… the end of me.

Isabella made one last adjustment to the snake and turned my head to look up at the animal draped over my palm. Great, so she was making me watch. I welcomed the anger that built in my belly. How had I ever thought she was grandmotherly and nice? I was such a bad judge of character. And who did she think she was, ruining what was the most well-deserved holiday in the history of holidays. My mother had only just been rescued. This might break her… the last nail in the coffin, so to speak. We’d only just been reunited, something she’d been waiting for, for the last ten years. Seeing James and me again had been what had kept her going. Damn you, Isabella. You are not destroying my family.

I syphoned another dribble of magical river, and another. It was like being made to slowly sip through a broken straw when you desperately wanted to gulp down the whole drink.

When Isabella drew more power and started chanting, I knew this was it. It was now or never. But I still wasn’t sure what to do. I moved my eyeballs as fast as they would go, searching for a projectile I could possibly send flying across the room to stab her with. I could’ve set her hair on fire, but that would require immense amounts of magic to build up sufficient heat, and I didn’t have enough.

Then I spied the glass ornaments. She was turned side-on to them and wasn’t paying attention. There was no way she’d realise what was happening till it was too late. Did I have enough magic to send that cat flying into her skull? I’d like to think the cat would be happy to know it helped get revenge on the person who killed it. Right, cat. It’s you and me. Please don’t fall to the floor halfway to my target.

I sucked in one last blip of power and was about to tell my magic what to do when a door shut towards the front of the house, and a male voice called out, “Nonna! Dove sei?” No, no, no, no, no! Francesco was here. Why, out of all the