It Never Rhines but It Pours Read Online Free Page B

head. It’s too perfect for you. Revenge for what happened at the USB and a clean conscience to go with it.”
    Cecily shook her head. “I do not hold a grudge against you, little witch. I am merely doing my job.” She raised the sword again. Man, she was eager to use that thing!
    “Cecily, stop!” I commanded.
    She froze and then glared at me, “You would use your power on me?”
    “I’m sorry,” I truly was. “But we can’t just kill him without being sure.”
    “Yes, we can,” she insisted.
    “No, we can’t.”
    “Yes, we can!”
    “No, we can’t!” We were both yelling now.
    Sarah raised her hand, “When you two are done acting like grown-ups can I say something?”
    We both glared at her. “What?” I demanded, angrily pushing wet hair out of my face.
    She smiled at me calmly, the annoying little twerp. “Cecily, you said that if we let him go we will all die.”
    “That is correct.”
    Sarah took a squishing step forward, “What would happen if, and I’m only saying if , he was innocent and we found the guilty person?”
    The rain chose that moment to let up and a ray of sunlight shot through the clouds and bathed the scene in light. It was too dramatic to be a sign. I chose to believe that it was merely a typical Florida rain storm passing overhead and leaving sunshine behind.
    Cecily looked up at the patch of blue sky and frowned. “Well,” she was obviously thinking, “as long as the correct person was punished, the Synod would not care that we let an innocent witch go.”
    Pravus was still kneeling in the mud, looking wet, bedraggled, and miserable. “Are you going to kill me or not?” he demanded irritably. “Because this is really uncomfortable.”
    Cecily raised her sword again, “I wouldn’t want you to be uncomfortable.”
    “Cecily, stop it!” I grabbed her arm and forced her to lower the blade. Well, I didn’t force her. Cecily is a vampire and I could have hung my entire weight on her arm and done chin-ups and she wouldn’t have moved. That is, if I could do a chin-up to save my life, but you get the point.
    “What are we going to do?” Sarah asked. She looked young and scared and I felt horrible for bringing her into all of this. This kind of stuff was way beyond her age and maturity. Hey, it was beyond mine too.
    Cecily turned to me, “Well?”
    I shuffled awkwardly in the mud, grimacing at my dirty flip-flops. I let out a huge sigh. “Pravus?”
    “Yes, abominor?” he sneered.
    My temper snapped, “Do you want us to kill you?”
    “It’s bad enough that I have to be executed by a bunch of amateurs for something I didn’t do, but to have to kneel here and listen to your stupid conversations and answer idiot questions is cruel and unusual punishment!”
    I growled and thought about snatching the sword from Cecily and using it on him myself.
    “He’s right,” Cecily said. “He would say he was innocent even if he wasn’t. This conversation is pointless. I say we do our job and sort it out later.”
    “Sort it out later!” I felt like pulling my hair out. “You can’t sort it out later when it involves cutting someone’s head off! It’s not like we can glue it back on if we make a mistake!”
    “Why don’t you command him to tell the truth?” Sarah wanted to know.
    “No,” Cecily said. “Some of the stronger witches can resist her command, especially if they are prepared for it. All they have to do is work a shield around their mind to protect against command. If Pravus did indeed murder those students in a death ritual then he is a very powerful witch and should have no trouble shielding.”
    Cecily was right. I remembered back to my attempted breakin and robbery at the witches’ abortion clinic. One of the witches had been ready to obey me when the other one told him to “Shield his mind.” Maybe if I snuck up on Pravus when he wasn’t expecting it and commanded him to be truthful before he realized I was there. Maybe not.
    “Wait!” Sarah