Winter’s morning soured the moment she stepped into the dining hall and found Freya, Rosentine, and Cressida comfortably seated at her table. For a heartbeat, a wild, primal urge clawed up her throat. A desire to scream at them, to order the guards to drag them out and toss them into the courtyard like the pests they were. But she knew better.

That was exactly what they wanted.

She saw the taunting gleam in their eyes, waiting for her to falter, to lose control, to prove she was unfit to ...