At the end, only three people did not think she had betrayed them. Emil was the only one she liked to think about. She hated that Ami had realized otherwise. She could not talk about it, not even with Emil. He liked to contemplate how things were going with the new queen. Coleen could not bring herself to say a word.

“I want to do something different with my hair,” Emil said one day as he searched for the scissors.

“You don’t have to cut your hair to do something different with it,” she reminded him. Not like he needed the reminder. Then again, he probably didn’t need anything from her anymore.

Emile stared at her passively, like he always did. Coleen found herself brushing his long hair with a brush, then with her fingers as she pulled it back into braids.