HER sharp ‘No’ still lingered in the stale air between them, hanging like a thread that threatened to snap at the slightest touch. The soft echo of her own voice startled her, she had not spoken with such force in so long, not since the day she had first realized the locked door would not open no matter how loud she screamed.

Queen didn’t move at first. She simply stood there, eyes wide with a false innocence Orlanda could see right through. But behind that softness was steel, a polished serpent coiling itself into Orlanda’s life under the disguise of help. Orlanda could almost taste the poison behind every warm...