The silence that followed was immediate.
Nastya blinked while Victoria turned very slowly.
Valentina smiled, serene and merciless. "I am only asking. For emotional clarity."
Maddie nearly choked on her laugh.
Sierra covered her mouth, shoulders shaking.
Victoria looked out the window again, dignity bleeding quietly in the corner. "This car is becoming intolerable."
"It was already intolerable," Nastya muttered.
"Yes," Maddie said happily. "But now it has character."
"It has too much character," Victoria corrected, and then, because misery did at least love company, she added under her breath, "and not one functioning ally in it," which made Nastya glance at her sidelong with the faint, startled warmth of two proud women discovering they had been drafted into the same losing army.
