Before he left, Phei turned to Elena Ashford who had been quiet since Maya returned.
Too quiet.
She looked composed. Posture elegant, face calm, hands folded like a woman at peace with the world:
Inside her skull: a war room.
Maps on every wall. Names pinned across them and pieces moving while she smiled pleasantly at a room full of rivals, every one of them due to be handled.
Because Maya Scarlett was not simple as Elena has thought she'd be as one of the contenders of the Queen Throne — and Phei the way held her like she was the only fixed point in his spinning world.
Elena had catalogued exactly one Maya Scarlett before this morning: sweet, rambling, harmless.
Wrong.
Catastrophically wrong.
Maddie — chaos. Open field. Fightable. Loud enemies were manageable enemies.
Melissa — a pillar. One did not fight a load-bearing wall. One learned to live in the room it held up.
Sienna — theology. Burial rites. A professional with hazard pay and no dependents.
Maya —
Nothing.
