It was the baby crying that kept Maud awake through the night. Her and Jasmine. And Theresa. Paul was in and out of sleep, thankfully, but when he woke, he, too, would cry, which made it worse. Theresa would yell and scream at him. Jasmine would yell at her to stop. At one point, Jasmine backhanded her sister across the side of her head so hard that she was thrown into Maud’s dressing cabinet. That was Maud’s last draw. Maud leapt at Jasmine with her fingernails raking and fists flying.

  “She’s my sister!” Jasmine shouted in between her pounds into Maud’s stomach once she had Maud on the ground beneath her, “I can do what I want to her!” She hit hard. Much harder than Maud expected.

  Maud scrambled to get her off. Theresa jumped on her back. She didn’t know how Jasmine got her leg up there, but she did remember having her face pulled into that knee of hers—not hard enough to break anything or leave a bruise, just hard enough to jolt her and stun her. She somehow got a hold of Jasmine’s long straight hair. And she didn’t let go for the rest of the fight. She just jerked it in whatever direction she saw something hard to throw Jasmine into. A bedpost, a drawer, a chair, a wall…Jasmine kept punching, clawing, kicking.

  “This is my room!” Maud shouted between her jerks and throws. “I will not tolerate fighting in my room!” There were some kicks in there somewhere. “I don’t care if she’s your sister! She’s my ward!” Jasmine broke free at one point. More punches. More clawing. More hair pulling. More thrashing. Clothes were ripped. Pillows were used as clubs. Trinkets and brushes were thrown.

  Paul slept through the whole thing, once he rolled under the bed. Even as Maud was rolling and scuffling with Jasmine on the floor, whenever she saw him snoring away, she couldn’t help but look at him in disbelief. At least Theresa was hysterical at the violence from the fighting, eventually hiding in the furthest corner, hugging her knees and crying.

  Jasmine twisted Maud’s arms behind her back and kicked her legs from under her, planting her face hard into the floor beneath her. Maud gritted her teeth, helpless, beneath the weight of the teenager who took a fistful of her hair and tugged her head back from the ground. She braced, clenching every muscle of her face—her eyes, her mouth, her cheeks—right before Jasmine slammed it hard into the wood planks with a yelp.

  “Let this be a lesson, Princess,” Jasmine leaned over her, laying completely across her body, pinning her. Her lips were moving across Maud’s ear. She could feel the tips of teeth on the edges as Jasmine growled, “No matter what anyone says, you will never be anything more than the little farmgirl with a tiara. You will never be a Taggerty. You ever try to command me again…” Jasmine jerked her by the hair back and slammed her into the floor again.

  Maud trembled. She didn’t move but to let her arms fall to her sides from behind her back. Trickling tears fell from her eyes as she watched Paul sleeping beneath her bed. She listened but didn’t look. She listened to the cries of the baby in the other room hiding Jasmine’s slaps and Theresa’s muffled screams. Powerless. She yearned to rise from the floor and defend the girl again, yet her arms were too weak to lift her. She wanted to kick out onto her feet but her knees could barely bend. She was beaten.

  The bed shook as Jasmine climbed into it. Her bed. “Goodnight, little princess.”

  Maud was frozen, shaken to her bones. She could hear Theresa sniveling in that corner. She listened to the soothing of the baby through the door between her room and her mother’s. She could run to her. She wanted to. But that wasn’t enough. She knew that now. This was different.

  Isabella? Who could she go to? She felt trapped. Even Adrian seemed like a dangerous gamble. He would side with his sister, wouldn’t he? The realization made her heart ache.

  As quietly as she could, Maud got to her feet and sank toward the door through the glimmer of the brazier, keeping her eyes fixed on Jasmine’s sprawling lump on her bed for any sign of movement. She winced as she opened it, thankful that it didn’t click or creak, even as she eased it shut behind her.

  The Paladin beside the door jumped to his feet, but she put a finger to her lips for him to keep quiet with a whisper, “Don’t want to wake the babies. I’m going to the King. Which one is his?”

  He pointed at the door at the end of the hall, where, to her surprise, there were no guards. Also, which surprised her more, it was the room she had put Isabella and Jasmine in during their confinement. She pursed her brows but nodded her thanks.

  The door opened just before she was going to knock, her knuckles landing on Enya’s chest plate instead.

  “Oh,” Maud blinked up at her with a mousey step backwards.

  Enya cocked a brow, “What in the world happened to you?”

  Maud shook her head, hoping to shake her hair to cover her face and, now that she looked, the tears of her dress. “Nothing, I just want to speak to my father. Is he available?”

  “If you make it quick. We’re about to head out,” Enya winced. “And he must come with us, unfortunately, though this looks like something he needs to attend to as well.”

  Enya barely took a step aside before Draka shoved his way into the doorway, also fully fitted in his armor. His face went from shocked to grim the instant he looked at her. Maud hugged her shoulders and rubbed at them beneath the blazing gaze of his golden eyes.

  “I was wondering if I could stay in the room with you all instead,” Maud tried to lean her head sideways to stop the trembling. “I don’t want to wake mother and I…feel safer with you.”

  Draka’s eyes searched. She knew he was trying to think of a way for him to keep her safe and do whatever they were doing, but as Qasim finished buckling his sword and rose from one of the mats behind them, Maud knew that she was out of luck. The look of sorrowful defeat on Draka’s face confirmed it. Whatever they were setting out to do was more important.

  “Maybe I could…go with you?” Maud was nearly to tears. She wanted to leap into Draka’s arms so badly. Only feeling his hands on her shoulders wasn’t enough. She needed him again, the same way she did before. It felt so similar, so familiar, the helplessness, the panic, the paralyzation. She had the living embodiment of Lilith sleeping in her bed and there was nothing she could do about it without him, without her Draka intervening. Until then, like before, she’s at her mercy. Powerless. “Please. I have armor in the dressing room down the hall. I can get it on quickly.”

  “That’s a very bad idea,” Enya’s angled tone at Draka made him pinch his mouth to the side. “A very, very bad idea.” She looked down at Maud, “What happened?”

  Maud shook her head. Her eyes moved to her feet. Draka lifted her by the chin.

  Tell me, his eyes said.

  It was stupid, Maud’s own eyes rolled. She turned them to meet his gaze. I’m scared to go back to my room. Don’t make me go back. I can fight, if that’s where you’re going. I’m not leaving your side, even if you make me. I’m safe with you.

  Draka hefted a long sigh at her. This isn’t something you should be part of.

  I don’t care. I’m not stepping one foot from your side, like it or not, Second Pa. Maud narrowed her eyes even though her lips were trembling. I’m terrified to be without you right now.

  Go to your mother, Draka looked toward the door down the hallway with a nod.

  Maud shook her head.

  “Is it just me or are they…?” Qasim furrowed his brows.

  Enya nodded. “Yep. Just give it a minute, they’ll finish.”

  You really can’t. Not this time, Draka put a hand to her cheek and rubbed the single tear that dropped from her eye away.

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  “Please,” Maud barely whispered, pleading.

  Draka shook his head. He motioned, Go in the room and sleep there until I return. I will have you well guarded. I won’t take long. He smiled with her face in both his hands and kissed her forehead. He made certain that he grasped her eyes in his gaze when he leaned back from her, I promise.

  Maud nodded. “Okay. You better.”

  “Ready?” Qasim met Draka’s nod with a hand on the hilt of the sword at his side.

  Draka turned back to Maud one last time, pointed for her to go into the room, and waited for her to close the door behind her.

  She heard the Paladins taking their places on guard in front of it from the thumps of their boots. Pressing her ear to the door, she listened to the hurried steps of Draka, Enya, and Qasim, heading down the hallway as a dozen others moved towards her door and took their places.

  She let out a sigh and stepped back from the door. It was a smaller room than she thought. One bed, three mats, and a window. The draft of cold air from the window made her tuck her arms until she found the mat that smelled most like Draka. She wasn’t all that surprised that it was the one directly beneath it. That actually made her smile a little as she wrapped herself in his thick blanket and curled against the wall. The mere scent of him surrounding her, on the pillow she lay her head on, was enough to steady her beating heart and cool her nerves.

  She watched the flickering glow of the lamp on the walls while dreariness weighed on her eyelids. She could barely hear the baby’s cry in here. At least, in comparison to her room. She traced the grains in the wood walls with her eyes as she waited. Up the creases between the boards, along the beams, across the top of the doorway, and down again.

  Her eyes widened as the trembling returned and she leapt to her feet. The lamp blew out. The window blew open in a burst of snow and a waterfall of smoke towards the ceiling.

  Maud scrambled to find something to carve with in the room. A knife, a sword, a quill, anything…she was stepping backwards toward the door.

  “Sssh,” Lilith’s sing-song voice soothed in her ear as a cold hand covered her mouth the same moment her backsteps were halted by someone behind her. “No harm will come to you, precious little daughter.”

  Maud felt it again. Paralysis. Helplessness. Beaten. She was stiff and upright, only aware then that her feet weren’t even on the floor anymore. Only her eyes turned to find the yellow and red orbs to meet them. Lilith’s arm had wrapped her waist, almost as if she were embracing her while restraining her.

  “You forgot a few rooms,” Lilith’s long lashes fluttered. “A serendipitous turn of unfortunate circumstances. I thought you were so purposeful with avoidance in your thoroughness, but then I saw that you left a few places where we could speak and thought, perhaps she was seeing things more clearly now.” Lilith ran the back of the hand that had been around her waist along her cheek in a soft caress, “You are my daughter now, after all. If I could, I would punish her for you in ways that would be engrained in the bloodlines of a thousand generations. You need only lure her into this room, if you so choose.”

  Maud shook against the grip on her mouth, against the cold, pale skin against her cheek. A horn dug into the top corner of her temple.

  “No?” Lilith rolled her head on Maud’s shoulder so she could see her disappointment on that frightfully beautiful face. “Your innocence shall be intact from temptation as always. That’s why I love you, my dear stepdaughter.”

  Maud’s brows pressed together. She whimpered, confused through her terror. Her toes wiggled, searching for the floor. The glowing of those red and yellow eyes brightened.

  “I do love you, as if you were my own, I’ve decided. You’ve proven worthy,” Lilith’s rosy lips pressed to her cheek. Maud’s stomach churned. “Such righteous viciousness to be unleashed.” At a whisper hinged on a growl, “And I shall aid its release. Vengeance was promised but it should have been promised to you. You, my sweet, precious little flower, are the one who is worthy.” Her lips tickled Maud’s cheek. “God loves you as much as Draka does, as much as I do. And we share a common enemy. The one I protect you from.”

  The tightness loosened. The stiffness relaxed. Maud’s terror was subsiding.

  Lilith grinned. “I cannot loosen my protection of you without letting him see you. Not yet. Not until certain things are done to make you unreachable. That protection,” Lilith slowly released her hand from over Maud’s mouth, knowing that Maud wasn’t going to cry out, “Is not for Draka’s love any longer. It is in spite of another’s love for me.”

  “Who? Why?” Maud was grinding her teeth against the trembling that was still there. ‘You are being tempted by evil,’ she was telling herself, but she had to know. She had to understand.

  “Let’s just say,” Lilith slid around her in tendrils of darkness within darkness, only the paleness of her face and those glowing red and yellow eyes visible through it. “I’ve had a revelation of your potential.” Air swirled around her and Maud jerked back to the suddenness of Lilith upon her. Sinewy black nailed fingers caressed her cheeks as the demoness said, “I came to give you a gift. A final gift, a farewell between a grieving mother and her soon to be estranged stepdaughter.”

  Maud’s terror erupted back into her senses as Lilith’s words were seared into her brain as piercingly as the eyes that stared into her, “I did not kill your father and brother. I only meant to prevent your mother from her fate that is undeterrable. But I know the one who is.” A grin formed that revealed elongated fangs as Lilith flicked her perfectly shaped brows, “Would you like the gift I offer you, daughter?”

  “I don’t believe you,” Maud sneered. “Get behind me,” she stammered, “In the name of…”

  “Again with this,” Lilith stopped her short, then regarded her for a moment, “I ask for nothing in return, but if you are so inclined, I shall rescind my gift and be gone from you. Only, know that the blood on his hands is not just your family, but your beloved’s, and Draka’s own, though she has found herself an alternative way of returning to his side, much to my protestation. But she had a choice I do not, or I might have done the same. It is a gift, not a temptation. Do with it as you will.”

  Maud’s feet touched the ground. The swirling tendrils around Lilith’s form began to soften within the darkness, like shadows that were wrapping through smoke. Lilith was crossing her arms at her.

  “I’m waiting. Do you accept or no?”

  Maud narrowed. Fists formed at her sides. “Who are you speaking of that is Draka’s own, first?”

  “One gift at a time. She’ll reveal herself when she deems it necessary.”

  Maud bit her lip and huffed, though her trembling was becoming less from the terror gripping her and more from the rage building in her veins. She was shaking her fists.

  Through gritted teeth. “I want you to leave us alone after. He’s going to divorce you and marry my mother. He loves my mother. He mourned you his entire life until now. He honored you enough. Leave us in peace.”

  “I can’t do that,” Lilith raised a brow at her. “Our fates are intertwined, daughter. You will be hunted if I lift my protections from you and Draka. He will send far worse for you when this is done. You both are far too valuable and your mother is…it is not possible, I’ll leave it at that.”

  “Then a truce,” Maud’s fingers were digging into her palms. “Time. Three years. After the end of the siege, however long it lasts, and all of us must survive.”

  Lilith’s one brow raised higher, “Are you making a deal with the Mother of Demons?”

  “I’m…” Maud gaped, blinking. Was she endangering her soul? Was she forsaking herself by doing this? Forsaking God? Will she now be corrupted? “I’m…Jesus taught us to love our enemies as ourselves. I would allow you peace for three years as our enemy. Truce, between a,” she gulped the taste of vomit down, “stepmother and stepdaughter. You keep my family alive during the siege and leave us be for three years after the end of it and our retaking of the Abbey, even after the divorce—which will happen the moment I can, believe you me.”

  “In exchange for what?” Lilith’s smile was far too mischievous.

  Maud glared with a fierceness, “Me not shouting for every Paladin in this fort to hear that you’re within the walls right now.”

  Lilith’s smile didn’t change, “You can do better than that.”

  Maud felt herself unraveling. She couldn’t give anything. She refused. Then, it struck her. “I’m your…” She met Lilith’s eyes, all strength in her faded away, “daughter. Please, leave us be so that we can have peace after this. Let my mother and Draka be together. He honored you for so long. He deserves to be happy with her. And I…I’m tired of being…helpless.”

  Lilith regarded her for a moment. “Very well. I shall peek now and then, but it won’t be intrusive until they move against me. Not setting a time on it. It shall be however long they or God decide. In the end, we are all His toys, are we not?”

  Maud sank. She still felt defeated.

  “Now,” Maud didn’t look up from where she knew the floor was through the deep of the darkness beneath her. “Who is it that killed Alden and Pa?”

  Lilith beamed, red and yellow eyes twinkling. She held out her pale skinned hand through the swirling darkness, “My gift is much more than just telling you.”