Chapter 18. The Bet

Charlotte’s POV

Since our last encounter, Iris made a conscious effort to avoid crossing paths with me. While this should have brought me some relief, I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was plotting something. It wasn’t necessarily something bad, but it was disheartening to see her training tirelessly from morning till night, day after day.

As the Queen had proclaimed, nobody dared to mess with me or speak to me in the disrespectful manner they used to. Even without the Queen’s intervention, rumors were spreading like wildfire that I would be the one to succeed her. Surprisingly, Kali also started to keep her distance, and I couldn’t help but wonder what went wrong. Even if everyone turned their backs on me, I had expected Kali to stand by my side. However, she seemed to be the first person to create a divide between us, and it pained me.

Every attempt I made to talk to her failed. She had already built a wall between us, just like the others. She even be