“Clumsy me! Clean this up, worthless.Now.”
When I didn’t answer, only grabbed the broom and dustpan, they left, their laughter echoing through the kitchen as the door slammed closed behind them.
I turned to Brumous.
“Let’s getyoufed at least.”
Filling his bowl with my own dinner, I watched as he ate with gusto, making me smile. My gaze drifting to the window, I leaned against the counter and stared at the sky, the deep gray clouds warning of rain coming. Birds flitted between the trees, their movements quick and restless, as if they could sense the inbound storm, too.
My eyes followed them, my mind working as hard as their wings. I needed a better plan. A way to escape, to protect Josslyn and Brumous. A way to finish the protection ward before Arabesque siphoned me to death.
The first time it happened, that day at the cemetery, the pain had been unbearable. Like I’d been tossed into a bonfire. Worse, though, was the helpless, horrifying realization that she was takingme. My magic. My power. Myself.
My stepsisters had watched, of course. Amabel and Eluned, those twin devils, had looked on with cruel grins and eager eyes.
“Oh, stop snivelling,” Amabel had sneered afterwards. “You’ll be fine.”
But Iwasn’tfine. Each time after that, the siphoning left me weaker and weaker until I could barely muster enough energy to lift Josslyn, let alone challenge the woman who kept us both prisoner here.
My stepmother frightened me like nothing else ever had. Her cold indifference. How she would watch me like a hawk circling its prey. How her pale green eyes held no warmth, no tenderness.
Each day blurred into the next, my mind clouded by exhaustion and fear and pain, but I at least realized Arabesque was tightening her grip, keeping me confined, keeping me unable to fight back or even think clearly. I’d considered reporting her, but who would I tell? Mama used to talk about how just the wolf kings were, but the world outside felt like a distant fairy tale.
This is what happened to Papa,I’d understood at last.
And would happen to me, too, if I didn’t find a way to stop it.
#
After dinner, I stood at the sink, moving mechanically as I scrubbed a pot that had seen better days. The suds stung my raw hands, but I forced myself to finish the job. Brumous lay by the back door, his blue eyes never leaving me, a silent guardian in a place where no one else watched over me. I hummed to myself, a soft tune my mother used to sing when I was a child. It was a fragile thread to the past, one I clung to when the present felt too heavy.
Then the sound of laughter made me pause, my heart sinking.
Again? Couldn’t they torment each other instead of me?I groused silently.
My stepsisters ambled in, as unwelcome as a storm on a harvest day. Amabel watched me with a smirk that always spelled trouble for me.
“Looks like someone’sfinallyhard at work,” she crooned, her voice as smooth as honey, but tinged with poison.
I didn’t look up. I didn’t need to. I knew the game. Their words were barbs designed to prick and bleed. And I could never understand it. They had everything: Freedom, confidence, and the unwavering support of their mother.
I didn’t dare respond to them. Not when I had Josslyn and Brumous depending on me. Not when I knew how quickly their taunts became weapons. One whisper to Arabesque, and my world shattered into pain, so I’d learned to wear silence like armor, to let their words glance off without leaving a mark.
Only they did, no matter how hard I tried to guard my heart.
“Enjoy your little home here while you can, Serafina,” Amabel went on. “The rogues are going to have fun with you, although I’m sure you won’t be able to say the same.”
“What do you think they’ll do, worthless? Keep you as a pet? Or tear you apart?” Eluned’s laughter was high and brittle before she broke into one of her creepy sing-song nursery rhymes.
“Hark, hark,
The dogs do bark,
The orphan is coming to stay.
Rend her apart, eat her heart
And bury her quick today.”
