Confronting Sophie      

[EVE]

"You're too soft, Eve."

"Huh?" I paused mid-bite. What was happening? One moment we were navigating the dangerous waters of "us," and the next, he had effortlessly steered the conversation into an entirely different territory.

Not that I minded, of course. Any topic—anything at all—was a welcome escape from the suffocating weight of the previous discussion.

"If you'd let me handle it, I would've taken care of that fraudster and the trickster by now."

"Oh. That . . ."

The "fraudster," of course, was Astrid. The "trickster" was Sophie.

"It's my problem to deal with," I said, meeting his gaze. "And besides, your methods are extreme (by extreme, I meant death). It's better if Astrid lives to face what she's done, suffering every single day because of her choices."