"I’m all for letting people make their own choices, but...." She trailed off, her tone suddenly guarded, "I’m afraid I cannot let you go, Ivy. You know my secret, and that of the princess,"
Ivy bristled. "But you told me I wouldn’t be able to spill your secret."
"Yes, the spell is binding," Lila admitted, her eyes sharp with caution, "but you humans are tricky creatures. You might find a loophole, and I’m not taking that chances. You have to stay where I can see you."
Ivy let out a dry, humorless laugh. "So, I’m your prisoner now?"
Before Lila could answer, Daisy spoke up. "You’re no prisoner, Ivy. You swore to do this together."
"I swore to go to the same house, not this," Ivy snapped.
"This is a house," Lila pointed out, gesturing at the ramshackle walls. "House of the Rogues. They may never accept us, but we can start our own pack right here."
Ivy stared at her, dumbfounded for a moment. Then she burst out. "You all have lost your damn minds. It’s not enough that you’ve been reduced to—"
"We," Violet interrupted abruptly, correcting her sternly. "We have been reduced."
Ivy glared at her. "Excuse me?"
"You’re part of this just like the rest of us, Ivy. Refusing to admit it won’t change the fact that we are all social pariahs now."
"And yet, you want to start some sort of rebellion?" Ivy scoffed, disbelief laced in her tone.
"So you’re just going to roll over and let them do whatever they want to you?" Violet challenged, her golden eyes flashing with fury. "If today’s fiasco was any indication, then this is only the beginning. Elsie Lancaster is out for my blood."
"Yes, a war you’ve now dragged us into," Ivy countered bitterly.
"One you chose to be a part of," Daisy interjected, her voice cutting through the tension. "Don’t dump everything on Violet. This is about you too. The plan was to pick a house, sure, but she made a last-minute decision and even begged you to leave. But you stayed, Ivy. Why? Because you trusted her. So trouble her no more and take some responsibility for your own choices."
And just like that, Ivy’s mouth hung open, speechless.
"And another thing," Daisy continued. "Even if we had moved into the North House, do you really think it would’ve been all sunshine and roses? Elsie has hated everything about Violet from the start. That includes us too, her supporters. Do you think she would have made our stay in the North House easy?"
Ivy’s brows furrowed as the reality of Daisy’s words settled over her. Both Elsie and Violet were bitches in their own right, but the only difference between them was that Violet had a heart, unlike Elsie, the cold-blooded she-wolf. And if hurting those close to Violet was what it took for Elsie to get her revenge, she would do it without hesitation.
Seeing her hesitation, Daisy stepped closer, placing both hands on Ivy’s shoulders, forcing her to meet her gaze.
"It’s for better or worse, remember?" she reminded her. "It might seem like the worst right now, but at least we’re together. We can fight back together."
"How?" Ivy snarked, although her bite was lesser now. "She’s off the ranking. The Purple Storm has been cleared. Her fever is over. She has no power now."
At that moment, Violet, still unaware of her exact fate, fished out her phone. The moment she saw the screen, her stomach dropped.
Her name had plummeted to the very bottom of the ranking board. Even Ivy, Daisy, and Lila’s rankings were higher than hers, even though they had all been grouped at the very bottom, with her own name standing out as the lowest of the low.
"Those motherfuckers," Violet growled under her breath.
Violet had never been obsessed with rankings, but she had been at the top. And being at the top had given her leverage. It had let her challenge Elsie Lancaster. It had let her date Alaric Storm. It had let her make money with Roman Draven.
But now? She had nothing.
Perhaps, she should have really thought this through because how was she going to make money now?
Her heart pounded as she quickly opened her Moonstagram, the account Lila had set up for her before the bonfire party. Just yesterday, she had shot up to two million followers, all because of her relationship with Alaric Storm.
Violet exhaled a shaky breath when she saw that her follower count hadn’t dropped. It remained exactly the same. They had pushed her off the ranking yet did not unfollow her? That was strange.
But it wasn’t until her notifications blazed with relentless pings that Violet realized she was not as free as she had thought.
Thousands upon thousands of notifications poured in and they weren’t praise. They were vicious.
The picture Lila had taken of her and Alaric together, with her laughing at something he had said, while bathed in the glow of the bonfire, was now flooded with venomous comments.
And it was not just that picture. There were others, like when Alaric kissed her, and the way he had held her waist, pulling her close.
In one word, they were targeting the same bonfire pictures that only hours ago had been adored by eveyone.
As for the comments, the abuse was relentless. Whore. Slut. Trash. Gold-digging bitch. They all called her.
Violet’s vision blurred with rage and her grip on her phone tightened so hard she nearly crushed it in her fingers.
"What is it, Princess?" Lila asked, noticing the shift in her energy.
Violet turned to face them, eyes blazing with fierce resolve.
"It’s not over," she declared. "Not when we have something they don’t."
"What, exactly?" Ivy retorted warily.
Violet took a deliberate step forward, the fire in her veins burning hotter.
"We have a Fae," she said, eyes flicking to Lila. Then, meeting Ivy’s gaze again, she added darkly, "And my anger."
She clenched her fists. "Elsie Lancaster has to go down."