Free Silenced by K.N. Lee

Chapter 1
    E VERY FIBER IN Willa’s body ignited as she stood in the center of the spirit room. Lights danced along the concrete floor, illuminating her shadow as she set a flame above her open palms. What was once blue was now white as her irises transformed with the surge of power that emitted from her small body.
    “What brings you back, Willa Avery, Grand Elite Caster?”
    The voice seemed to come from the dark crevices of her mind, the ones that she feared above all. But this was important. She had no choice.
    “Grant me the permission to make a kill,” she said, her heart pounding in her chest. She put on a brave face, but terror gripped her. It had taken her years to come to this point. She refused to let fear rule her for all eternity.
    “You’ve already killed many,” the voice said.
    Swallowing, Willa closed her eyes. “Not of my free will. You know that. I was Silenced. I don’t know how the vampire king of the West is so powerful to control me for so long, but you have to believe that I wanted no part of his devious deeds.” Just the thought of being controlled by that monster once again turned her stomach.
    Her mind wandered to that dark place, the place where she fought to forget.
    So much blood.
    So many tears.
    She cringed at the memory of scraping away at the massive doors that trapped her in a dark and cold dungeon for more years than she cared to count.
    She sucked up her tears.
    Be brave.
    “Please believe me,” she begged, her voice coming out small and meek. Like a child’s.
    “We do.”
    We? Willa shivered.
    “Am I forgiven of those sins?”
    The silence that followed made Willa’s eyes pop open and dart around the empty room.
    They had to understand that she was once a captured woman forced to do things she’d never do on her own. Guilt was what she woke to every day. Guilt was what she fell asleep to.
    “We never blamed you. We see all, and we know the real evil that used you to carry out his will.”
    “Lukas,” Willa hissed. The memories of what he’d done to her brought a bitter grimace to her pale face.
    “Yes. We grant you permission to kill Lukas and claim his soul. One more and you will forever lose your title and Casting privileges.”
    A smile came to Willa’s lips.
    Images of slicing Lukas’ throat thrilled her. That smile faded.
    There were only a handful of ways to kill a vampire, slicing their throat was not one of them.
    “Thank you,” Willa said with a nod. Hope flooded her. She could do this.
    “Go. Save your sisters. Kill the vampire.”
    “I will. I swear it.”
    An idea came to her, bringing a wicked grin back to her full red lips.
    It was time to stop hiding.
    Willa woke up to pitch black. Safe in her room, she sat up and rubbed her eyes. The spirits granted her permission.
    She left her bed and grabbed her Caster book; the one passed down from her ancestors. Even though the fear of coming face to face with her captor and abuser once again frightened her more than anything, she was tired of hiding.
    Lukas. I hope you’re ready , she whispered, snapping her fingers to light the single candle on her desk.
    ***
    “W ILLA, YOU HAVE to see this,” Zoe said in a whisper that broke Willa’s attention from her journal.
    “Hmm?” The tone of her voice told Willa that her study of spells and formulas could wait.
    “Come. Quick!”
    Willa stopped twirling her long black hair and glanced up. Zoe stood at the door with her back to the crowded coffee shop. The pretty young woman with cocoa-colored skin and a curvy frame looked uncharacteristically tense as she watched something outside the glass.
    She took a sip of her coffee. “What is it?”
    “A vampire ,” Zoe said in a lowered voice as she waved Willa over.
    “Blimey.” Despite her fear, the very mention of a vampire intrigued her.
    Willa had seen vampires before. She knew them well. But this was different.
    It was daytime.
    The air felt thick as Willa shot from her seat and met Zoe at the storefront