Page 270 of Rage

"I liked you," Josephine said with a smile. "When I saw you for the first time, I told Nan how a girl with snow in her hair made my heart hurt. You had so many friends. Enough to fill your yearbook with tiny little signatures, even me.”

“You?” Scarlett asked, brows furrowed.

Josephine let out a groan as she stood, as if her body ached and bore the brunt of a thousand invisible cuts. "I was quiet.Did my work and went home. You were nice to me. You were so nice that when Zeke stained your dress, I held his puppy over the ravine near Crestwood and made him promise to never bother you again.” Scarlett stepped back as Josephine stepped closer. “And when Jackson said he wanted you for himself, I pushed him down the stairs hard enough to break his neck. Cockroaches, my brothers. All of them.” Another step and she was towering over Scarlett. “I suppose I should clear the air. I didn't ask for your hand because I want to control you, Little Dove. I asked for your hand because every time I dream of a wife, I see you.”

Scarlett was taken aback by the pleading tone in Josephine’s voice. Her brows furrowed together in despair, and she stood there, hands tucked behind her back, waiting for a response.

"What're you saying? Are you saying you love me? Some schoolyard crush turned you into a fucking psycho?"

“There are worse things in Nameless City than a psychopath."

“Like what?”

“Like men.”

She had a point.

Josephine was a weapons specialist and socialist, the face of the Birzan Dynasty if she succeeded at eradicating those who stood in her way. She was a businesswoman who wasn’t opposed to shaking hands with the enemy, because the enemy of her enemy was her friend. And more than that, she had magic in her veins. Scarlett didn’t know to what extent, but it was there, dancing at the lapse of her consciousness.

That made her dangerous, but not dangerous enough to keep Scarlett at bay.

“I’m keeping her,” Scarlett said. And when Josephine’s brow twisted in confusion, she set a hand against her stomach and said, “My baby. I’m keeping my baby. I want out of the DarkPalace unless it’s reborn under your hand, I want the Doll Houses eradicated, and I want my father’s head on a platter. But more than that, I want to see your brother burn.”

Josephine nodded. “As you wish.”

“That’s it?” Scarlett asked, flabbergasted. “I’m using you,” she emphasized with a sneer.

“To the world you’d be my wife. You’d be the face everyone sees, one they respect. You feed me information; you tell me about your sufferings. You command me to change the wrongdoings of this city, and you’re carryingmychild to term. Am I not using you as well?”

Scarlett said nothing else. She merely swallowed the growing lump in her throat, set a hand against her chest at the fluttering of wings trapped inside. "You're not as bad as they say, Jinn.”

Josephine pulled a signet off her hand. Made from brambles and thorns wrapped around gold, the jewel was a blaze of scarlet red. Then, she took the Darling’s hand and slipped it onto her ring finger, a perfect fit.

“Not to you, wife.Neverto you.”

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