The silver blade sliced through my ribs before I even saw it coming. Pain exploded across my side, white-hot and vicious. I stumbled backward, my hand coming away slick with blood. So much blood.
Renna smiled, twirling the dagger between her fingers like it was a toy. "Oops. Did I cut too deep? My mistake."
"You're insane," Maya gasped, pressing her hands against my wound. Her palms came away crimson.
"No, darling. I'm practical." Renna's eyes were cold, empty. "Queens who don't know they're queens can have accidents. Tragic, really. The lost heir, found just moments before bleeding out in a garden."
I tried to stand straight, but the world was spinning. The scent of my own blood filled the air, metallic and wrong. Around us, I could hear growls, the guards shifting, responding to the
