They Think I’m Easy Prey—but My Words Manifest into Reality Chapter 01

They Think I’m Easy Prey—but My Words Manifest into Reality Chapter 01

My words carry a death sentence.

Whoever I condemn doesn’t get to live. It’s that simple.

When I was six years old, I was kidnapped and sold off to some backwoods hellhole in the middle of nowhere. My foster father decided I wasn’t working fast enough for his liking, so he grabbed an axe and brought it down on my hand. Shattered three of my fingers.

I bit down on my lip so hard it nearly bled, but I didn’t cry. I just stared right at him. “You broke my hand,” I said. “Your bloodline ends with you.”

The second those words left my mouth, a century-old pine snapped clean in half and came crashing down right on top of his spine. Didn’t kill him. But he spent the rest of his miserable life flat on his

back, shitting into a pan.

I was nine when my foster mother decided I ate too much. She kicked my pot over and watched my dinner spill across the dirt. Something behind my eyes caught fire. “You took my food,” I said. “Now you get the box.”

She let out this nasty little laugh and came at me to slap me around. A second later, the main beam

of the barn gave way and crushed her into pulp.

That was the moment I finally understood. My words could kill.

From that day on, I kept my mouth wired shut. I became a total mute. A complete and utter mute.

That is, until the Harrington family, the richest family in the state, brought me home.

I’d only been back for a week when my parents decided they couldn’t wait another minute to throw

me a giant gala. They wanted to introduce me to society. Welcome me back into the fold.

My adoptive sister, Vanessa Harrington, linked her arm through mine all sweet and friendly and led

me over to the edge of the pool.

The instant I stopped walking, she let out this dramatic little gasp and threw herself headfirst into the freezing water.

She started thrashing around like she was drowning. “Luna! Why did you push me?”

Before I could even process what was happening, my mother came flying at me like a woman possessed and slapped me so hard across the face that my ears rang.

“Vanessa has severe asthma! It’s the middle of winter and you shoved her into the fucking water! Are you actually trying to kill her?!”

My father’s face turned a shade of purple I’d never seen before. He jabbed his finger right in my

face and roared.

“You haven’t even been formally introduced to the family yet and you’re already assaulting people under my own roof! Is this how you repay us? After everything we’ve done to bring you back? Get on your knees. Right now. And apologize to your sister.”

I looked over at Vanessa, who was snuggled up in my mother’s arms with this smug, taunting glint

in her eyes, and I let out a cold laugh.

Assault?

Fine. If they were going to force me to speak, I’d give them exactly what they asked for.

***

“Dad, Mom, please don’t be mad at Luna.”

Vanessa was stretched out on the couch, looking pitiful as she sucked oxygen from a tank and

squeezed out a few weak tears.

“She was just trying to play a joke on me. I’m sure she didn’t mean to hurt me.”

My mother was sobbing, her heart clearly breaking. Then she spun around, grabbed a cup of scalding hot tea from the coffee table, and hurled it at the floor right by my feet.

“You hear that? She’s still covering for you.”

“We pulled you out of that backwoods hellhole. We put you in designer dresses. We’re throwing you a party half the city’s gonna show up to. And this is what we get?”

“What the hell is wrong with you?!”

The boiling tea splashed up onto my shins and the pain was excruciating.

I ground my teeth together and didn’t say a word.

My cursed mouth speaks and reality obeys. It has never once been wrong.

In the three days since I’d been brought to the Harrington estate, I’d felt a warmth I hadn’t known

existed in the world.

My mother had measured me herself so she could have my clothes custom tailored.

My father had canceled a critical board meeting just so he could drive to the train station and pick

me up personally.

Even my hotheaded little brother Ryan Harrington, who had a chip on his shoulder the size of a boulder, would sit at dinner and peel the biggest shrimp and put them quietly into my bowl.

I wanted to hold onto that sliver of warmth, so I kept my mouth clamped shut as tight as a steel trap.

I was terrified that the moment I opened it, I would destroy everything.

Since I wasn’t saying anything, Vanessa cranked up the waterworks even louder.

“Does Luna think I took her spot? Is that what this is about? I’ll move out tomorrow if that’s what

she wants. I just want her to be happy here.”

Ryan’s face was practically glowing red with rage. He stormed over and grabbed me by the collar.

“What the hell is your problem?!”

“Vanessa spent two weeks decorating that ballroom for your stupid party! She gave you her bedroom! The good one! The one with the lake view!”

“What else do you want?!”

His hand shot up and he snatched at the Saint Christopher medal hanging around my neck. He

yanked on the chain hard.

It was the one my mother had clasped around my neck the day I arrived.

She told me she’d climbed three thousand steps on her knees at St. Mary’s Mission Church, begging

the Virgin to protect me. To keep me safe.

“Give it back!” I lunged for it, desperate.

Ryan drove his foot right into my kneecap and sent me crashing to the floor.

Right in front of my face, he slammed the medal down onto the marble tile and shattered it into a

dozen pieces.

“A spiteful, trashy little hillbilly like you doesn’t deserve to wear anything with the Harrington

name on it!”

He kicked the broken pieces of the medal across the floor and turned toward the front door, bellowing at the top of his lungs.

“Security! Get this ungrateful snake out of my sight and lock her in the attic!”

“And nobody, and I mean nobody, brings her so much as a crust of bread unless I say so.”

Two guards rushed in and grabbed me by the arms.

I stared at Ryan’s leg, the same leg he’d just used to kick me to the ground, and I finally let my mouth fall open.

“Kicking people that hard,” I said quietly. “You should be careful. Wouldn’t want to snap your own leg clean off.”

Ryan blinked, confused for a split second. Then his face contorted with fresh fury and he drew back

his fist.

Before he could swing it, a sound like a dry branch snapping echoed through the room. The bone in his right leg gave way with a sickening crack.