Barbra Fein. The name landed like a physical blow. Adena's face crumpled, the last of her composure collapsing entirely, and for a long moment she simply sobbed into her knees before finally, haltingly, the words began to spill out.
"I killed her," she whispered. "Barbra. She wasn't even— she wasn't a threat, not really, she just liked Caelestis, the way half the girls in the capital did. It is I who love Caelestis the most, it made me furious, and I—" She swallowed hard. "I pushed her. Down the stairs at her own estate. It was made to look like an accident."
Eleanore's jaw tightened, but she said nothing, letting the silence pull more out of her.
