The Villainess They Made
"Mm. I prefer to say I sat at the table while it was being shuffled. Your uncle Rick believes the deck is his. Your consort believes the deck is your uncle's. Both of them have been playing a hand I dealt thirty years ago. It is not personal, eighth. It has never been personal. I have done the same to your mother, your father, your grandmother, and three of your great-aunts. Your line has a particular flavor I have been collecting for some time."
"Why."
"Because for two hundred years I have been the only one of us awake. Because the seventh died last year. Because the pearl in your chest has been waiting for a body, and I have been waiting for the pearl to choose, and now it has chosen, and
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