"She's out. For now," Matthias said. His voice was a flatline, offering no celebration, no smirk. "I'm not sure which of her own schemes backfired to cause this collapse, but the Empress has fallen."
A cruel smile cut through Olivia's face, catching the cold glare of the chandelier. "I'd empty my coffers just to watch her face hit the dirt," she hissed, a dry, sharp laugh escaping her. "Power was her oxygen. Now, she's suffocating, watching it peel away from her like rotting skin."
In any other world, Kyle would have swung at anyone insulting his mother. But he didn't move. He stood there, his face a slab of unyielding stone, eyes vacant. "She earned this," he said, his voice sounding like it was coming from the bottom of a well. "Mother or not, she stepped over a ledge you don't come back from."
"You're right, Kyle," Olivia cut in. Her voice was too smooth, coated in a layer of empathy so fake it was insulting.
