TWO CAN PLAY THE FAE GAME
Baby girl giggled, but then eyes flickered not red for Mara whisper, but black for spy whisper, because spy heart beating slow cold hidden, because spy not Mara, spy is someone in sixteen who pretends to learn small but actually beats slow cold hidden, waiting to kill birthmark baby again, tried killing baby again, second stab.
Who is spy? Not Julian, not Victoria, not dagger, not Lily queen of small chairs 6 who fixed toilet, not Maya, not Jake, not Aisha, not Mrs. Chen, not Leo, not twins, not mother 34 with baby 1 black and gold who saved unborn, not cook 45 — who is spy?
Day twenty-six, night, baby girl 15th throne small black and gold giggling, sixteen thrones sleeping on cloud-ice beds