My hands balled. “I’ve heard enough.”
Bonnie had summoned me. She’d scared and intimidated me but she was no match for my sheer hatred. I wanted to throw her in a cauldron and watch her bones bleach white. I wanted to behead her and witness her body twitch with death throes.
That’ll come true before this is over.
“Take me to her. It’s time we had a little chat.”
“About bloody time.” Bonnie sniffed as Flaw beckoned me over the threshold.
The second my sock-covered feet padded onto the pale pink carpet of Bonnie’s domain, he cocked his chin in goodbye and abandoned me behind the closed door.
All alone.
An opportunity or a disadvantage?
She couldn’t hurt me. Names and slurs weren’t enough to subdue me anymore.
Screw surprise and secrecy.
If I have an opportunity, I’m taking it.
“What do you have to say for yourself, girl? Tardiness is a dirty sin and must be abolished.” Bonnie tapped her cane like a cat flicked its tail.
No matter how much time I spent in the Hall, I doubted I would ever explore all the rooms and levels it offered. Bonnie’s quarters were yet another surprise. Flaw had guided me up the stone staircase where Jasmine and Cut’s study rested, only to pace down a different corridor and up another set of stairs made of winding red carpet and unicorn spindles.
Straightening my shoulders, I looked down my nose at the shrivelled old woman. “I have nothing to say for myself. I was in the middle of something important. I couldn’t let a simple summoning derail me.”
She made a strange wheeze—like wind through wheat or ghosts over a graveyard. “You insolent little—”
“Guttersnipe. Yes, I’ve heard it before.” Moving forward, I didn’t ask permission as I inspected her domain. Every part of me shook. I was angry, afraid, livid, terrified. Lying in the dark, bolstering my courage and fermenting in hatred hadn’t prepared me for face-to-face duelling. This was new—putting my thoughts into action.
Now that I knew Jethro was alive, I had something to risk.
A future.
Jethro’s alive.
I’m alive.
We can be alive together—far away from here.
If I became too impertinent, I could ruin my plans and destroy my future. But if I didn’t stand up to them, I might not see the next debt coming—just like I didn’t see the Third Debt until it was too late.
I had to be strong but aware, vengeful but intelligent—it was an exhausting place to be.
Bonnie’s room wasn’t what I expected. The peach coloured walls, white fireplace, and rose fleurs on the ceiling plasterwork all spoke of a law-abiding, cookie-baking grandmother.
How can a room fulfil the stereotype of elderly nana when the woman is anything but?
The wainscoting gleamed with gold wallpaper, while cross-stitch framed artwork graced every inch of wall space depicting bumblebees, dragonflies, and multihued butterflies.
I expected torture equipment and the blood of her many victims on the wall.
Not this…
I hated this room because it made me doubt. Had she been nice once upon a time? Had she become this hard-hearted dinosaur thanks to situations in her past? What had Cut done to his brother in order to turn his mother into such a beast?
Because it had to be his doing. Whatever happened with his brother reeked of sedition and backstabbing lies.
It doesn’t matter.
She is what she is.
And she’d pay for what she’d done.
Bonnie didn’t say a word, watching me with the signature Hawk attentiveness. The room throbbed with power; subjugation coming from her and rebellion from me. If our wills could battle, the tension would suffocate with unseen clashes.
I paused over a particular stitched oval, trying to make out if it was a praying mantis or a stick insect.
“Jasmine did them for me.” Bonnie’s voice was sweet venom. “Such a wonderful, obedient granddaughter. It was part of her etiquette and decorum training.”