Octavia blinked in confusion.
Antoinette’s gaze flicked to her hand, then back to her daughter’s blotted red cheek.
“I…I’m sorry, Octavia,” she choked out.
“It’s fine,” Octavia whispered. “I’m used to it.”
The way she said it made something in my chest twist.
“Don’t be dramatic.” Humphrey rolled his eyes. “If you hadn’t been poisoning everyone constantly, your mother wouldn’t have assumed the worst.”
“I don’t poison anyone,” Octavia said, her voice barely audible.
“Yeah,” Archibald muttered. “So, Delphine’s just making it up? Your trips to the herbalist were all bullshit?”
Octavia’s lips pressed together so tightly they went white.
“I apologize for my part in the disruption of your supper,” I said, bowing my head. “I’m just not used to this level of work. Miss Delphine was very kind to offer me tea.”
I let a hint of my basilisk nature bleed through as I felt my fangs throb when I smiled at Delphine. Venom shimmered at the back of my tongue.
It would’ve beensoeasy to just dose her back…
Delphine flinched.
“I…I was not aware you were a basilisk,” she stuttered.
“I wasn’t hiding it,” I said innocently. “Is something wrong with my nature?”
“Of course not.” Her gaze dropped back to her plate.
Dinner continued with forced normalcy, but every time I caught Octavia’s profile, I burned the image of her into my memory.
She was so young, yet so mistreated.
Later, after the estate had quieted and the family retired to their rooms, we clustered in the upstairs corridor under the guise of “night staff.”
“I’ve uncovered a bunch of surveillance,” Slater said over the comms. “And it doesnotlook good.”
“Care to elaborate?” Kane muttered.
“First passes show Octavia hurting Delphine,” Slater explained. “Lots of it. Slaps, shoves, pushing her down stairs, and toxic little moments. It’s so fucked up.”
“Octavia?” My stomach sank. “Seriously?”
“But,” he continued, “that’s the edited version. The looped security. Snakey and I cracked the encrypted buffer. Sloppy hacking, honestly. The raw feeds, though? Delphine has been staging it all. She’s setting up the scenes and hurting herself. Forcing things into Octavia’s hands and making sure the cameras only see one angle. It’s honestly concerning. That shifter is psychotic and not in the cute way you can be.”
I exhaled slowly. “Yeah. That lines up for me.”
Cassie nodded faintly beside me, dusting off her maid’s skirt. “Delphine’s scent goes sour every time someone mentions Octavia. Classic jealousy, but twisted dangerously.”
Bradley leaned back against the wall. “Whole family’s blind or willfully ignoring it.”
“During dinner,” I brought up, tucking a piece of glamoured brown hair behind my ear, “they praised Delphine for breathing and tore Octavia apart for existing. Every time Antoinette’s voice raised, Octavia flinched. Delphine smirked every time. She takes immense joy in harming Octavia.”
“Document everything,” Lysa said through comms. “Every interaction. Every bruise. Every word.”
Around the corner of the corridor, raised voices suddenly cut through the quiet.
