The plan had been simple. Too simple.
Kill Anastasia. Leave the country.
Disappear.
Juliette Anstorne had thought it out while lying on the cold cot in her temporary detention cell, while being charged as par of the victim of her parents' fraud and betrayal. While the truth was... she was just as venomous, if not more. A silent snake slithering in the shadows, waiting for her moment to strike.
She hadn't expected to bleed for it.
Now, the searing pain in her arm reminded her just how badly she had miscalculated. Blood soaked through the thin sleeve of her black coat, warm at first, then sticky, clinging to her skin like guilt. Her breath came in short, ragged huffs as she staggered through the underbrush of the woods, thorns dragging against her legs, sweat trickling down her back despite the cold wind that whipped against her.
