MONICA'S POV

“Before she was exiled, she handled the trade herself,” the response came out of her lips in a panicked rush, each word tumbling over the other. “Everything passed through her hands but since she left, nothing has worked the same.”

The fire in my chest didn't just burn; it roared, consuming my control.

Even when that pathetic witch was gone, even as a disgraced exile wandering the woods, her ghost still managed to be more successful than every educated administrator I put in place. I had spent months, years, trying to prove that I was the superior mind, the sharper asset. And now I was being told that...