EVELYN
I met Anastasia’s cruel gaze.
She had never liked me. Back when I was still Lady Caddel, she used to call me “that little, ill-mannered savage.” After I was demoted a palace maid, we rarely crossed paths. On the few occasions I passed her near the King’s quarters, she looked at me the way one might glance at a bug—an ugly nuisance unworthy of acknowledgment.
Now, her loathing had sharpened into something far more vicious. She looked like she was finally about to squash the insect that had annoyed her for far too long.
Her cold, calculated expression mirrored the one worn by her niece standing beside her.
A chill prickled down my spine. I thought suddenly of the maid rumored to have lost an eye after crossing Skyla.
“Speak!”
A hard shove to my back snapped me from my thought
