Sniffles sounded in the corner of the otherwise quiet room.

  Aradia stared at the two children huddled together in the corner feeling pleased, but also a mite annoyed.

  She always was when her brother, the devil, was in his child form.

  He had no memories of any of his previous lifetimes, or his Godly parentage, and he couldn’t even use his abilities.

  “What do you want?” the little girl Ansar had told Aradia was named Penelope shouted.

  Aradia rolled her eyes to the ceiling.

  She had been hoping to go enjoy some lunch in the garden before spending the rest of her day watching two kids.

  Stepping over to the children, she noted the way Penelope had her arms wrapped around the devil. As though she were the one minding him. Pulling out a chair, Aradia sat down a short distance from where they crouched, and loosely clasped her fingers together.

  “Penelope, you saw Ansar. You know I’m a friend of his. I’m not sure why you are so upset. Hadn’t you wanted to be rescued?”

  The little girl scowled boldly at Aradia, her arms still wrapped protectively around Luca. “Well I didn’t! I was fine! And you didn’t need to take him anyway! He should be back with his parents.”

  Aradia tilted her head interestedly her eyes darting back to her brother. “His parents, hm? And is one of these parents Tamlin Ashowan by chance?”

  Upon hearing this name, the little boy lifted his tear stained face.

  “So what if it is?” Penelope snapped.

  Aradia stared at her brother; he stared back only a moment before he had to turn away and continue crying in Penelope’s shoulder.

  “Lord Tamlin isn’t your real father. You are the devil. You are my brother. The son of the Gods. And you,” Aradia’s eyes slid to Penelope. “Are the only remaining seer alive right now. The blood of your father saw to it that you inherited such a gift. I’m sorry to inform you your mother passed away while in your grandmother’s care.”

  “LIAR!”

  Aradia regarded her little brother who had shouted and at last released Penelope as he glared at her with intense fury.

  Aradia gave an unbothered shrug. “You don’t have your memories yet, brother. When you start going through puberty, they will start coming back, and you will remember every horrible thing you’ve ever done. You will remember our feud, and that I am your twin sister whom you wronged.”

  “I’m not the devil! My dad is Tam! My mother is Rosaline, and my mom is Eli! You are just—You are just a bad woman!” the boy declared while pointing at Aradia with a trembling finger.

  The first witch gave a long sigh. “I will be sending you back to the Forest of the Afterlife as soon as possible so that you can start paying for your sins.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you!” the little boy roared as snot dribbled down his nose and he rose to his knees.

  “You no longer have a choice. I admit, you were wildly clever—or perhaps it was your loyal imp who I should be commending—for placing you in the care of an Ashowan.”

  “I am an Ashowan!”

  Aradia blinked. Her cool mask not budging an inch.

  “What name did he give you?” she asked softly.

  “Don’t tell her.” Penelope’s voice was like steel. “She needs your name to do anything to you.”

  Aradia’s attention snapped to the girl. “And who told you that?”

  Penelope stuck her tongue out in response.

  Shifting her jaw, Aradia was reminded of how she didn’t have an abundance of patience for children.

  Well, she didn’t mind them exactly, but Soo Hebin had returned that morning and Aradia was already in a bad mood as a result.

  “Penelope, I’m going to be sending you away first. My brother and I will be joining you shortly once we get things wrapped up here in Zinfera.”

  “Where are you taking her?” the boy demanded passionately while moving protectively in front of Penelope.

  Aradia balked.

  Had her brother ever been so thoughtful toward a human before?

  Whenever she had seen him in his child form, he had always been stoic. Emotionless. World-weary. Tired. Wise beyond his years. Yet this time, he seemed like a genuinely frightened, good-hearted little boy.

  The Ashowan son must have really done a number on him.

  Giving a scoff of disbelief, Aradia rose from her seat.

  No sooner had she done this, than a loud commotion echoed out in the hall. Something broke, someone screamed. Then there was a great deal of shuffling feet and men’s voices.

  It sounded like Katarina Reyes was wrecking some new havoc. Most likely she had learned of Soo Hebin’s return and wanted to gift the woman a welcome home headache.

  Aradia smiled despite herself, and turned to the door.

  “My dad’s going to come get us, and you’re going to be sorry you took us.”

  Rounding slowly back to face her brother, Aradia stared down unsurprised at his wrathful expression.

  “I’ve been sorry for many things in my life, brother. But I’ve never been sorry for trying to restore the balance of the world, regardless of what doing so requires me to do. I’ll be back shortly. There are no windows, and two guards will be standing inside this room to keep an eye on you.”

  Things were proceeding exactly as she had planned.

  Which meant that in a fortnight, she would be heading to Daxaria, and by the time the autumn chill set in, she would have cast her brother back to the Forest of the Afterlife. The covens would be properly positioned as the religious powerhouses of the kingdoms, and with this all done, perhaps her parents would break her curse and allow her to go home at long, long last.

  *

  Penelope sat slumped against the wall, her eyes staring blindly ahead of herself.

  She had already been told by Tam and Eli about her abilities as a seer, but what good were those when she was being abducted again?

  Luca wiped his face with his sleeve, his breaths still coming out in shudders. “She’s lying, right?”

  “Doesn’t seem like it,” Penelope admitted grimly.

  “I’m not the devil! And why did she need my name?” Luca asked vehemently.

  Penelope brought her knees up to her chest and pressed her forehead to them. “She doesn’t have normal magic, and if she is using you to do something with or to you, she needs your name. That’s what my Uncle Thomas told me,” she explained quietly so that the guards couldn’t overhear her and tell the woman who’d taken them.

  “Oh... I’m sorry about your mom,” Luca added while leaning back so that he could press his shoulder a little more into Penelope’s while resting his folded arms on his own knees.

  “Thanks.”

  “Did you know we were going to get taken?” Luca wondered carefully.

  Penelope shook her head. “What I saw was us standing behind Tam and Eli in a room.”

  “Then that means we’re getting out of here!” Luca perked up, his eyes filling with hope.

  “Yeah.” Penelope barely managed a half smile.

  A particularly loud bang thundered outside the doors to the room the children sat in, making both Luca and Penelope look at the guards who were grimacing.

  “That Daxarian queen is disgraceful,” one of the guards muttered to his companion disapprovingly.

  “I heard she has cost Her Highness over a thousand gold coins in repairs by now.” The other guard shook his head in disbelief.

  Luca stiffened at Penelope’s side. “Did you hear that?” he whispered.

  “What?” she mumbled.

  “The Daxarian queen! That’s my aunt! She’s close by!”

  Penelope’s brow furrowed as she turned to stare at Luca. “Do you really think she’d want to help us? We haven’t ever met her.”

  “My dad likes her! And he loves my cousins, so she can’t be all that bad.”

  Not looking quite as certain about this assessment as Luca was, Penelope scrunched up half her face doubtfully. “How could we possibly find her?”

  The sound of something delicate shattering made the two guards wince, and Luca smiled.

  “We just follow the noise.”

  “Are you forgetting about the guards? Or about the other people who will stuff us all back in this room the second we run for it?” Penelope reminded warily. Though she was starting to look more quizzical than dismissive.

  “We can always distract them. Or hit them in the family jewels!” Luca’s dark eyes were sparkling.

  Penelope couldn’t resist a smile at hearing the idea—especially as it reminded her of Harris’s funny story from earlier. “They won’t let us get that close to them. Besides, if we do that, they’ll tie us up.”

  “I’m sure I could just go up and ask for a bathroom. Or say my stomach hurts! What do you think? Will you help me?”

  While Penelope was far from confident in their getaway scheme, she had to confess, the sounds of destruction nearby really did seem close enough that it wouldn’t be hard to reach.

  “Even if we don’t find the queen, we can scream for her,” Luca persisted, making sure his voice was as quiet as possible.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Penelope tilted her head. That did increase their odds a great deal…

  “Okay. Let’s do it.”

  Luca grinned excitedly while hiding his expression behind his knees from the guards. Penelope couldn’t help but smile in return. Despite the present circumstance and the fact that she had heard the confirmation of her mother’s death, she had mourned her mother for weeks on the ship, and already felt like she had come to most of those terms ever since she’d had to say goodbye.

  The only reason she wasn’t completely hopeless after that, was entirely thanks to the annoying kid she had come to like despite herself. And if he was going to go and get himself in trouble, she wasn’t going to let him do it alone. Especially if it meant that maybe she could go back with him to Tam, Eli, and Harris, who she had also maybe just grown to be a little bit fond of.

  *

  Kat kicked over a bucket filled with dirty water the maids hadn’t had a chance to empty after washing Soo Hebin’s silk sheets.

  The Daxarian queen stood with her hands on her hips, her fingers fluttering against her hip as she stared down the crowd that had thickened around her.

  “Where oh where is Soo Hebin,” Kat hollered out over them. “I have been trying to get in touch with Troivack’s delegation to discuss the recent commotion in Zinfera, and yet again I have been told no information, and stopped from leaving. Which makes me wonder if I am a prisoner here in this palace, which makes me rather annoyed!”

  No one answered Kat, nor did anyone approach her as her frightening gaze swept over them.

  Duchess Annika had gone to nap claiming to have a most unpleasant headache—at least that is what was told to the palace staff—and she was the only one capable of calming down the Daxarian queen.

  In actuality the emperor had awoken at long last, and she was in a private meeting with him. Which meant Kat had to create all sorts of distractions and commotions to ensure their discussion was not interrupted. It was doing wonders at aiding Kat in working out some of her aggravations over the fact that her brother’s connection with her, after days of flickering in and out of existence, had turned steady once more, though was visibly weaker.

  Kat looked around the small courtyard, her eyebrows raised. She needed something else to smash. Maybe she’d rip up a shrub or two… Though she felt bad for the gardener of the palace. It was bad enough she had had to terrorize a number of the maids who, while they worked for Soo Hebin, were forced to clean up after Kat’s bouts of destruction.

  The queen was starting to wonder if perhaps she should start to be more creative in her approach to aggravating Soo Hebin, when a shrill shout pierced the air.

  “KAT! AUNT KAT! KATARINA! TAM’S SISTER!”

  Kat’s head snapped round.

  It sounded like a child.

  Her aura burst outward, and without a moment’s hesitation, Kat bolted straight toward the sound.

  “KAT! PLEASE HELP US! KAT!”

  She skidded to a halt at the far side of the courtyard; just in time to see some sort of scuffle taking place near the second floor balcony.

  Bending her knees, her eyes filling with golden light, Kat leapt up, and soared inhumanly high. She seized the wooden railing of the second floor balcony, and swung herself nimbly over and down. She drew her sword out when she spotted two guards wrestling back what appeared to be two children.

  “AUNT KAT!” The little boy wrenched his body against the guard’s hold as soon as he saw her, though she saw the nervous fear in his face at the sight of the blazing light in her eyes and her aura.

  “HALT!” Kat boomed, her voice sending shudders through the air.

  The guards, at last noticing her presence, faltered at the sight of the Daxarian queen.

  “Put the children down.”

  The guards tried to readjust their grips on the children while sharing a nervous glance with each other, but the little girl bit down hard on the hand of the one man who held her, and the little boy dropped a firm fist into the man’s groin shouting. “FAMILY JEWELS!”

  Kat pressed her lips together as she found she suddenly had to struggle against laughing. The boy then darted away from the guards behind the little girl, and they both skidded around to hide behind her.

  “Your Majesty.” The guard who had been bit bowed while his injured hand clenched into a reddened fist, while the other one was still doubled over on the ground.

  Kat could’ve sworn she could’ve heard the man on the ground weakly utter “Why… Again?”

  “These children are special guests of–”

  “I’m Tam’s son!” the boy interrupted staring up at Kat with all the urgency and sincerity a child in danger could muster.

  “It’s true!” The little girl shouted. “We were with Harris, Eli, and Tam, and were kidnapped yesterday!”

  Kat’s heart pounded.

  They’d been with Tam?

  Wait… Didn’t that mean that this little boy was the devil…?

  Kat gazed down into the child’s face, and felt herself still.

  He looked so much like Tam, but then again, the devil had looked very similar to her brother back when the devil had been a fully grown man in Troivack all those years ago…

  Both guards were on their feet and stepping closer to Kat and the children. “These children are going to be returned to–”

  “Touch me or these children and you will lose a hand each.”

  The terrifying aura around Kat surged, and the guards flinched back.

  “These children are coming with me, and if Soo Hebin, or a certain bitch named Aradia wants them, tell them they can come see me.” The demonic, hungry smile Kat gave the guards with a tilt of her head had the men paling in fear.

  They shuffled backward on trembling legs, until they abandoned trying to leave the queen’s presence with their dignity intact, and instead bolted away as quickly as possible.

  With her aura shrinking back down, Kat peered around their surroundings, then, slowly put her hands on each child’s back protectively.

  “You two come with me. I’m going to take you to my quarters, and I do not want you leaving my side for an instant. Understood?”

  The two children looked at each other, then up at the Daxarian queen happily before nodding.

  Kat let out a long breath of air.

  Well, this was a surprising turn for the day.

  “Excuse me?”

  Dropping her gaze down to the young boy, Kat waited expectantly.

  “My dad says when I saw you I should call you Aunt Queen and that you’d think it was funny.”

  A snort escaped Kat before she could stop herself.

  “He’s right. I like it,” she admitted with a grin. A welcome bout of relief wormed its way into her heart. That was exactly something Tam would’ve said.

  Then she remembered that the child she was now protecting was most likely the devil.

  Though it was strange…

  He didn’t seem like the devil at all.

  Which then brought up a whole other disturbing possibility.

  “Erm. Hey.” The two kids looked up at her. “You called Tam your dad… Did he tell you to call him that?”

  The little boy smiled timidly, his cheeks blushing, startling Kat with his innocence.

  “Uh. Yeah… I’m a bastard. My dad used to court my mother back in Daxaria, and I finally got to meet him when I snuck onto the boat going to Zinfera.”

  “W-wait,” Kat spluttered just as she reached one of the rooms to her quarters and pushed the doors open. “You… Wait. Tam had a lover, and she had you?”

  The boy nodded slowly, his uncertainty palpable as he visibly shrank back from Kat’s reaction.

  The girl darted into the room while calling over her shoulder. “They also found me on a boat.”

  “A different boat!” Luca added swiftly as he too entered into the room.

  Kat’s mouth hung open. Unable to form words.

  “Tam’s not my dad,” the girl contributed helpfully. “Well. Not yet really. He and Eli are going to adopt me.”

  “Pardon?” Kat squawked while moving into the room, then closing the doors firmly behind herself.

  “Yeah. That won’t happen for a while though,” the girl explained reasonably.

  “Can I say you’re my sister now, or later?” the boy asked the girl with genuine curiosity.

  Kat’s mind flailed in its effort to grasp what was happening.

  “Ugh. I guess saying it now is fine,” the girl sighed irritably, then fixed her big brown eyes up at Kat. “Can you help Tam, Eli, and Harris? They’re probably worried about us. They were trying to get here to Gondol. They’re in the woods.”

  Kat’s mind spluttered. How does this girl even have my mother’s eyes? Just what the hell is going on?

  “Aunt Kat, are you okay? Oh. Sorry. Aunt Queen?” the boy asked worriedly before grasping his thumb and fidgeting.

  “Are you allowed to say the word ‘bitch’? I thought it was a bad word,” the little girl speculated as she drew closer to Kat with the boy. “I heard you call that bad woman Aradia a bitch.”

  The Daxarian queen stared at the two of them.

  “Right… Right… I’m going to have a drink, and uh… You two better start preparing yourselves.”

  The children shared nervous looks as Kat stumbled over to a discarded red dress, where she fished out a flask from a discrete pocket, unscrewed its cap, and proceeded to take several gulps.

  “Prepare for what?” the boy wondered nervously.

  Kat lowered the flask, wiped her mouth with the back of her wrist and said, “For meeting your grandmother. This is going to be a lot, even for her.”