To Prevent Smart Choices (Magical Mayhem) Read online

  “I’m not a typical villain! I only fight corrupt magical girls!”

  Rhea went still. No . . .

  She went back to check the other scenes thoroughly. And sure enough, the hints were all there.

  “If you’d used your powers for good, then I wouldn’t be breaking this.”

  New scene.

  “You killed my magical girl form! Without it, I’m nothing!”

  “You’re not convincing me you’re stable enough to handle magic.”

  New scene.

  “And now you will apologize for fighting one another!”

  “Sorrrrry . . .”

  New scene.

  “Hello, Chicago police? I thought you’d like to know Wisteria has been taking bribes.”

  No, Rhea thought, breathing heavily. No.

  She raced back to the original blank space, looking for any hint that she’d missed. And at last, she found one. One lone scene in two weeks of blankness, shining in the emptiness like a jewel of clarity.

  “I didn’t want to quit.” Kendra traced her finger in a circle around the knee of her jeans, speaking to the black girl who had been her best friend in so much of her past before Chronos. “I really didn’t want to defect. But . . . I found out . . . it’s possible for magical girls to turn corrupt. One with sufficient charisma and arrogance could even lead the world to destruction. That would have been my future. A born mage showed me. So I . . .”

  “You listened to a born mage?” her friend exploded. “After all the things you said to me about Lute Deathwave? Are you crazy? Obviously he was lying!”

  “No, she wasn’t!” Kendra snapped. Her feet stomped back on the floor, and she planted an accusing finger forward. “I became a villain for the same reason we both became magical girls: to protect world peace!”

  Rhea’s hands jerked, and she stopped the vision.

  “She . . . became . . . a villain . . . to . . .”

  It was unreasonable. It was unthinkable. It was unbelievable.

  It was so very, very Chronos.

  “. . . to cull out the corrupt?!” Rhea exploded. “That’ll only make the others more powerful!”

  She couldn’t believe her sister would do this. She knew it went against everything the Olympians stood for. Enemies were supposed to be destroyed or eroded, not improved.

  “Wait . . . does Chronos know about this?” Rhea muttered.

  It was possible she didn’t. Kendra could simply have gone rogue. Chronos might be clueless enough that, despite her power, she had somehow failed to figure out what the defector was doing.

  It was hard to believe that anyone could be that clueless, but if anyone could, it would be Chronos.

  Rhea opened her hands, skimmed back to the start of the scene, and watched and listened carefully until she reached the same place she’d stopped at before.

  “I found out . . . it’s possible for magical girls to turn corrupt. One with sufficient charisma and arrogance could even lead the world to destruction. That would have been my future. A born mage showed me. So I . . .”

  Rhea clenched her fists so tightly, the knuckles turned white.

  “She knew,” she whispered in a deadly voice. “She started this when she knew.”

  Chronos was a traitor.

  Zazz gulped her drink and handed it back to the bartender. “Another one, please!” she said brightly, swinging her arrowhead-like tail back and forth. The people of her world weren’t capable of getting drunk, but she enjoyed the flavor of alcohol. The way it burned on the way down made her giggle.

  Sipping her next drink, she headed over to a table where she leaned back in a chair to watch the party with a grin on her face. Minion bars were the best. Nobody cared that she had a tail here — in fact, there were plenty of guys who thought it was sexy.

  “So then I built this death ray . . .” a bearded man in a cloak was saying.

  “Ha ha!” the woman across from him giggled flirtatiously.

  Zazz downed her drink and got another. Working as Rhea’s shopgirl could be a drag. She had to pretend to be sweet and helpful, even when she wanted to smack stupid customers upside the head, and her tail was always stiff after a day of keeping it hidden under her skirt. She didn’t even get to use her real name. She had to go by “Minerva,” some goddess of wisdom from this world or something, because her real name was so common in her home world that it would have been a dead giveaway where she was from, and Rhea was a quiet villain, not an open one. Blargh.

  But here, in a minion bar, she could relax. Here, surrounded by Deathwaves and otherworlders and born mages independents, she could be herself and do as she pleased.

  She finished her drink. “Another!” she yelled.

  “Zazz! Phone!” someone called out over the crowd, waving a large bricklike object at her.

  “Hmm?” Zazz turned around.

  “Phone,” the man repeated, dropping the bricklike thing in her hand.

  Zazz stared at the thing with a sinking feeling. There was only one person who was guaranteed to know exactly where she was and how to reach her at all times.

  “Rhea! It’s my day off!” she protested, not waiting for the person on the other end to speak up.

  “Take tomorrow instead,” her boss’s voice said. “I need you today.”

  “But I don’t want to deal with customers!” Zazz whined.

  “No customers today,” Rhea said in a clipped voice. “I’m closing the shop.”

  Zazz was shocked into silence. Her boss never closed the shop, not even on Christmas, a holiday in this world that was apparently a big deal, but not to Rhea. She’d missed quite a lot of parties because her boss wouldn’t give her time off for them.

  “We’re going to visit my sister,” her boss said.

  Zazz frowned. “Isn’t that the one who you say never answers the door?”

  “That’s the one.”

  “The one who moved out of the apartment you knew about?”

  “That’s the one.”

  “I thought you didn’t know where to find her now.”

  “I didn’t bother to try,” her boss said coldly. “It took me less than an hour once I went looking. A realtor I know recently sold a lair to someone using my sister’s name. I checked. I can’t see inside it. That means it’s certain Chronos is there.”

  “And we’re going to visit?” Zazz asked.

  “Yes.” Rhea’s voice was cold.

  There was something strange about this. What was the rush? Why was her boss closing her shop? Why did Rhea sound so angry?

  “Boss,” Zazz said cautiously, “is something wrong?”

  There was a long pause.

  “Yes,” Rhea said. “I think my sister is a traitor.”

  Zazz’s eyes widened. She’d never seen her boss deal with a traitor, probably because every villain or minion knew it was impossible to double-cross her, but she had no doubt what Rhea would do.

  “So we’re going there to . . .?” she asked slowly.

  “So we’re going there,” Rhea said in a clipped voice, not answering her minion’s unspoken question. “Today.” k12

  Next Book:

  If Rhea’s sister is a traitor, she knows what she has to do. She heads to the lair ready to do what’s necessary . . . and clueless Tiffany lets her in.

  Chronos is not delighted.

  One of Kendra’s friends finally gets what she’s wanted for a long time. But will it be a dream come true — or will it be a nightmare?

  You can get it here.

  As the daughter of a landowner, Raneh lives in a world of clearly defined roles and rules. She’s supposed to get married, gain status, become a landowner herself, and definitely not have magic. Seeing as it’s forbidden and all.

  Too bad she has it anyway.

  On top of that, a suitable courtship does not seem to be forthcoming, her younger brother is a social embarrassment, her younger sister is better at everything than she is, and . . .

  And the Ruler’s comi
ng to visit.

  You can get it here.

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