"When we were little, you tried so hard to win our parents' love, and they only ever loved me. When the time came to divide the inheritance, they wouldn't give you a single coin. Then you chased after my mate, and he didn't want you either. As for Sylvia Vale, he was good to you, I'll grant that. But he's dead now."
She let out a soft laugh, her voice growing lazier, more contemptuous. "A pitiful creature nobody loves. Tell me, what's even the point of you being alive?"
I looked at her, and all at once the whole thing struck me as absurdly, horribly laughable.
From childhood until now, she had taken everything I ever had. Our parents. My intended mate, Sylvia Vale. Even my claiming Alpha, Sylvia Nightfang, had in the end belonged to her.
Everyone loved her.
And still, even with all of that, she refused to let me go. She had to stand in front of me again and again, showing me her victory.
I thought it, and then I actually asked it aloud.
She heard me out, then smiled with open scorn, not bothering with even the thinnest pretense anymore.
"There is no why." Her voice was casual to the point of cruelty. "I just can't stand the sight of you. I never wanted a sister. I've been trying to drive you to your death for years, but you're stubborn about staying alive. So I suppose I'll have to do it myself."
Before the last word had left her mouth, she lunged forward and shoved me hard.
"Die!"
The sudden force knocked my feet out from under me. My center of gravity broke apart in an instant, and my body pitched backward. Behind me there was nothing but open water, black and infinite.
In the chaos of falling, instinct seized my hands. Hazel Ashford hadn't expected it. My fingers locked around her wrist.
The next second, we both plunged into the sea.
Two splashes and a scream shattered the banquet's calm. Shouts erupted across the deck, overlapping, frantic.
"Someone's fallen overboard!"
The cold hit me like a wall of iron. The sea swallowed me whole. I couldn't swim. I could only thrash, clawing my way above the surface for half a breath before the churning waves dragged me back under.
Suffocation and terror blanked my mind. Nothing remained but the animal drive to survive.
"Help... help me..."
When I fought my way to the surface again, I finally heard two bodies hit the water nearby.
My vision had already blurred, but I still recognized them. Sylvia Nightfang. And Hazel Everett.