Page 116 of Queen of Nothing

My brother draws away from them, and stalks right for Asta.

His smile is bright before he cups her cheek, tilts her head back—and plants a kiss right on her lips.

My brows shoot up to my hairline.

For a beat—I am frozen.

Staring.

Bewildered.

Asta…

Asta married higher.

She is with her second child now.

But it’s not Dray’s.

I throw an accusing glare at Dray, but he isn’t paying attention to me.

He mutters quietly with my father, neither of them breaking stride across the foyer.

I turn my back on them, on the fucking circus act of this coven.

And I land my gaze on the footman who looks at me from across the dining hall.

His blank expression is patient as he draws out a chair from the table—

It sends the message loud and clear.

My position at the table has changed.

Oliver has graduated. He married. He has a child already. His wife lives at Elcott.

And I’m the spinster sister.

I’ve been demoted from my usual chair.

I huff out an exasperated breath—

And glares swing at from all angles of the dining hall.

My cheeks heat in response.

I keep my gaze low as I make my way around the grand stone table. It’s new. Well, new in the years I’ve been gone.

I slip onto the tall-spined chair.

The footman pushes it in towards the new table with a surface that looks porous and rough but, as I glide my fingertips along it, I find that it’s rather smooth.

I lose interest in the table and look around the hall.

It’s as grand and large as it used to be, but this table is bigger than the last, so I feel closer to the stone busts on the podiums against the wall, planted between the portraits of Cravens passed.

My neck cranes.

As the whole party finds their seats, I consider the painted ceiling, the pale blue brushstrokes I used to stare at when I was a child and being stubborn about eating my vegetables and throwing my weight around my chair.