Meredith.
I climbed the staircase, each step echoing faintly behind me, my chest still rising and falling from the leftover adrenaline.
For the first time in so long, I felt as if the power I had quietly been nurturing inside me had finally slipped through my fingers and left a loud, bruising mark on Wanda's perfectly arranged face.
My mind replayed the moment over and over: the sharp shock in Wanda's eyes, the helpless shriek when her face slammed into the plate, the flare of horror among the servants.
A slow, small smile curled the corner of my lips.
When I pushed open the door to my bedroom, I found all five of them waiting—Azul, Kira, Deidra, Cora, and Arya—standing in a neat line by the window.
Their heads lifted when they saw me, and something in my stride must have given me away.
"My lady," Azul started carefully, "you look… pleased."
That did it. The smile I'd been trying to suppress spread across my face.
