RE: Monarch

Beyond the immediate object of horror, the contract itself was strange. Less cold-blooded and stringent than mine by an order of magnitude, filled with little additions and considerations that prioritized Annette's wellness and care. All of which would have been at the very least suspicious, if the section that kept drawing my eye back, over and over, didn't spell out the intention clear as day.

Pursuant to verbal deliberations, Princess Annette, of House Valen, cedes exclusive courtship rights to the Fiendish Consortium. The princess will attend no outside suitors nor uphold formal or informal courtship with any person or persons outside the consortium.

"You... let this go through?" I breathed, a black rage billowing up from within me as the pang of betrayal grew too great to ignore. Confronting Loria, facing down a woman who had—unknowingly—done catastrophic damage to my psyche, was supposed to buy Annette and Maya enough time to work Ozra and prevent something like this from happening.

"It was not—" Annette began, before Maya cut her off.

"—No." Maya shook her head, looking between Ozra and Annette in quiet frustration. "In fact, I spent a great deal of time pushing back against it, but the princess would not yield. So my time was spent ensuring the terms favored her."

"I—" Annette's mouth closed, opened again. "I thought we were in accord."

"Then you were not listening to my many, many warnings." Maya snapped at her flatly. "Nor my attempts to pivot the focus of the proceedings."

"Enough." The growing surge of frustration that always accompanied the realization I'd need to trigger a reset flooded in, clouding my thoughts. It was right there, written in Ozra and Loria's gloating faces. They'd won this bout.

But they would not win the next.