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Roman was gone by the time Violet woke up from her sleep.

Good thing for him because had he still been there, she would have introduced his smug face to her clenched fist for blatantly disobeying her wishes and sharing her bed. The audacity.

But deep down, Violet knew she could never have rejected Kitten Roman. That bastard knew just how to slither past her defenses. The cat was her weakness, and Roman knew it alright.

Stretching out with a groan, Violet sat up, rubbing at her tired eyes. She was just about to swing her legs off the bed when her phone lit up on the nightstand.

It was a message. Curious, she reached for it and tapped her screen.

Violet’s frown deepened as she read the message twice, then a third time.

What the hell?

There was no name, just an unlisted number not saved in her contacts. The only person she had spoken to about the possibility of Elsie harboring a secret was Micah. Could it be one of his other lines?

Just to be sure, Violet swiped to her regular contact list and tapped on Micah’s number she already had saved.

The line barely rang once before he picked up, as if he had his phone in hand.

"Violet?" Micah said, his tone suggesting he was surprised at the call.

"Hey," she began, "Sorry to call you this early. I just wanted to confirm something."

"Sure, go ahead."

"You didn’t... send me a message just now, did you? Asking when I planned to reveal Elsie’s secret?"

There was a beat of silence. Then Micah asked, sounding alert. "What are you talking about? What message?"

Violet blinked. "You... didn’t send me that?"

"I did no such thing," he said firmly.

She stared at the screen, her gut twisting with an uneasy feeling.

"Oh," Violet murmured.

Micah caught on instantly. "Violet. What’s going on? Who would send you something like that?"

"I don’t know," she replied automatically, brushing her hair back with her fingers. "Maybe... it’s nothing. Just a prank. Sorry for bothering you."

"Violet—" She heard him start to protest, but Violet ended the call before he could pry further.

Biting her nail, Violet paced across her room, staring hard at the message. Who the hell was this?

It couldn’t be Asher. She hadn’t seen him in days.

Besides, his style would be to expose the secret himself and then inform her so both of them could watch and savor the victory.

It couldn’t be Griffin. She just knew it.

As for Alaric, and Roman, they were all too concerned with playing servants to their queen Elsie and would never give her a weapon like this.

Left with no choice, Violet typed back.

She sent it and resumed pacing. A minute passed and then her phone pinged.

Violet sucked in a breath. The nerve. She didn’t like their tone. But if whoever this was had dirt on Elsie, she needed it. Badly.

Fine, if that’s how they wanted to play.

[If you’re that smart, why bother me? You could easily destroy her.] she replied.

The response came almost immediately.

Violet felt the hairs on her arms stand on end. If this wasn’t a prank, it meant someone out there had an agenda, and wanted to use her as a pawn.

Or maybe it really was just a twisted joke.. After yesterday’s disaster, it wouldn’t surprise her if some attention-seeking parasite decided to test how close she was to snapping.

But somehow this didn’t feel like happenstance. Violet decided to push further:

Her pulse spiked as she waited, eyes locked on the screen.

Another ping.

Violet’s brows drew together. What kind of game was this?

Violet then sat down on the edge of her bed, the anxiety thick in her throat, the seconds stretching longer than she ever thought possible.

Then the message arrived. One line. Two words.

What the...? Violet stared at the words.

"Position" could mean anything, but Violet was well aware that she had none left. She had been pushed off the Luna ranking and after yesterday’s incident, she has lost the prestige of the Rogue Queen.

In theory, only her "Purple Queen" moniker used by Asher remained, and even that was worthless in the official hierarchy. Yet something about the phrase "Your Position" unsettled her deeply, like a puzzle piece implying so much more than she could see.

Violet was just about to type a response when her door flew open without warning. Startled, her phone slipped from her hand and fell to the floor.

It was not hard to predict who the culprit was.

Lila Meadows stood in the doorway, arms crossed and eyes blazing. "Thank God you’re awake," she said, marching inside like a general about to give an earful to her subordinate. "Now we can talk. And don’t think you can shy away from it this time."

Before Violet could even process that, Ivy and Daisy stepped in right behind her, shutting the door with a quiet but firm click that sealed the room off like a war council chamber.

Ivy didn’t waste a second. "If you think we’re going to let you wallow in misery and rot in your blankets like some tragic heroine, think again."

Violet blinked. "Who’s wallowing in misery?"

The girls paused, their brows furrowed as they glanced at each other in confusion. That wasn’t the reaction they were expecting. They had expected Violet would still be depressed.

"This is perfect anyway. I was just about to call for a meeting with you guys. "

Violet looked each of them in the eye, that fire in her gut roaring back to life. "Because it’s time we rain down vengeance on our enemies."