‘I’m not stupid,’ she said. ‘I don’t believe in fairytales. I’m here to do a job.’ In that second she would have said anything to distract him from his examination of her, anything to cement her conviction that she was who she had always imagined herself to be. She was not a girl who dreamed in jewel tones and kisses. She was not weak. She didn’t need to covet the constructs of the Nobles. And one day she would leave this place behind, just like her parents had done.
