Thorn

d barely faded down the spiral stone staircase

the room alone, having dismissed the guards outside

the sweet, heavy steam of honey and steeped roots, my senses caught it

ed Drake-T

blister mucous membranes and permane

ng the corners of her eyes with a lace han

g with soft, practiced compassion. "He thinks only of the clan's standing. But

ir, watching her through the dark, p

he dressing table, then picked up t

dess's light," she murmured, standing behind me with a gentle, saintly smile. "Your own mother departed

eeth touche

mind the stray strands along the nape of my neck. Keep your hands steady, Stepmother. If you pull out even a

rned white from the strain of suppressing her rage, but with the marriage decre

my dear. G

the only sound in the room for a few moments. Concetta

A woman of such stubborn fire, always demanding what was not hers... pride like that only invites tragedy. You remember how she died in her alchemical workshop,

fted down t

ice was a teardrop pendant carved from deep blu

Tear of th

over Concetta's wrist, pressing down against her pulse.

mical backlash. They said her blood boiled and her breath failed in the dead of night, leaving no time to draft a final will. If she was claimed by an un

mb slipped from her numb fingers and

, fixing her with a dead, unblinking stare tha

at her bedside three days before she stopped breathing... did it carry this exact same scent? The scorched-almond stench

ilated in sheer,

pping yourself in my mother's jewels and draping yourself in her silk would make anyone forget what you truly are? A cheap, rutting whore who couldn't find an Alpha of her own, so you crawled

aristocratic respectability she had painstakingly built evapor

tle mistress living on stolen linen," I whispered, leaning in closer, watching the veins pulse wildly in h

mask complet

ttural screech of raw, humiliated fury tore from h

into an ugly, feral snarl. "I should have strangled you in your cradle like I

in bowl with both hands, using her wolf-blooded

r did I grapple wi

her reach. My right thumb drove with pinpoint precision into the ulnar

asm shot through her arm. Her fingers went

base, catching it cleanly. With my right hand, I hooked her wrist an

ir in shock, her mouth flying wi

ed the lip of the bowl between her p

her own swallowing reflex betraying her as the dark liquid emptied entirely into h

ing her collapse ont

toxin was instantaneous; the corrosive sap seized her vocal cords in a vice of fire. She opene

.. hr

napkin from the vanity to wipe a

the blue crystal pendant. With one sharp, unhesitating jerk, I snapped the clasp

he pocket of my skirt, then patted Co

ou stole, Stepmother," I whispe

ing like a struck cur, weeping s

rm, "make sure my mother's apothecary chest and those ten tho