Aria as the architect of every inconvenience.
Even missing, she was to blame.
I stepped around the desk without haste, because haste suggests loss of control, and I have never liked looking uncontrolled in front of anyone, least of all Chloe.
“You shot her,” I said.
“She was humiliating you,” Chloe shot back immediately, as if that justified everything, as if humiliation were a crime punishable by silver. “She was winning in front of warriors. You hesitated.”
“She was unarmed.”
“She was defiant.”
“You put silver in her spine.”
“And she survived,” Chloe said, and there was irritation in her voice now, a flicker of something sharp and ugly. “So clearly it wasn’t fatal.”
I stared at her long enough that she shifted her weight.
Survived.
Yes.
She had survived.
That fact settled de
