EMMALINE
I’ve always appreciated irony, especially since I’ve spent most of my life on the receiving end of it.
But this? This might be the cruelest joke fate has ever played on me.
The very same woman who poisoned Alexander is the only one who can save him.
I almost want to laugh. Almost. But the sound dies in my throat before it can form, crushed under the weight of what I’ve done and what I now have to do.
I can’t refuse. Not without exposing myself.
Not without condemning him to death and myself to a lifetime of guilt that will hollow me out from the inside.
I have to save the very monster I tried to kill.
“I’ll do it,” I whisper, the words scraping my throat raw.
Mariam’s cloudy, sightless eyes remain fixed on me with unnerving precision. Slowly, she nods, as if she already
