I'm feeling festive and generous today. Here you go!

"We'll need to meet up with Trey, and I don't think it's safe to have him in the castle," Eric said, putting his sharpened sword into its sheath. The sun hadn't risen yet, but none of them could sleep.

"I don't think it's safe to have him out at all until we know where the traitor is." Phoenix adjusted her sleeveless tunic. She and Eric both were bearing their arms today, showing as much of their markings as possible. They wanted Helena to know right away who she was dealing with when they revealed themselves.

"Good point. Either way, we'll eventually need to leave the castle." Eric flexed his arms, the markings shifting on his pale skin. "I don't want any harm to come to Trey--Abigail wanted him protected, and I don't want Altair to lose his son."

A memory hit Phoenix so hard and fast she faltered, dropping her sword. It clattered to the ground. Eric looked up, brows arched.

"Something wrong?"

"N-n-" Phoenix faltered, unable to lie. "Not exactly."

A toddler being passed into her arms, his eyes discerning for someone so young. Reaching out to touch her face. Turning to look up at his mother.

Reed.

Eric's son. Reed.

Phoenix stared at the ground, unable to look at her brother. She couldn't tell him--not now, not this close to retaking the castle. He'd be distracted, worried. It would do more harm than good.

And if I don't make it out of this and don't come back this time? What then?

"I'll be right back." Phoenix picked up her sword. "I need to make sure Mav's all right."

Eric nodded, but she knew by his expression that he suspected all was not well. If he asked her out right, she couldn't lie.

But she wouldn't tell either.

She found Maverick sitting on the steps leading up to the inner parts of the castle. He was bent double, elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. Anxiety and determination rolled off of him in waves.

"Mav? I need to tell you something--something you can't tell anyone else."

He looked up, his mouth set as he nodded.

"It's about Eric. I-I'd forgotten, but...I think Eric has a son."

#

Noelle woke before the sun, her mind racing almost at once. After the meeting, she'd not had a chance to catch Roman alone--not that she ever had before, but she'd never cared then. She caught his gaze several times during dinner, sensing a silent communication she couldn't quite grasp.

"There hasn't been anything for the last few nights," Mygel said. "Maybe they've given up. After all, what's two against two-thousand?"

"Maybe." Helena glared at her plate. "But maybe not."

"What does the Ancient say?" Mygel pressed. Noelle knew it as well as everyone else that Mygel wanted to know who the Ancient was, but nothing she said or did ever got the information out of Helena--not even when Aundreya demanded it.

"The Ancient is worried," Helena confessed. "There's something in the air."

Noelle had been locked in her room as she always was, but this morning, she had a plan. Creeping across her room, she peeked through the keyhole of her door and found it blocked. They'd left the key in place. Good--then no one could see in.

Moving to her window, Noelle opened it and peered out, down several stories to the ground. She couldn't climb out, but she didn't want to. She only wanted to send a message. Grabbing her bed sheet, Noelle laid it out on her bedroom floor. A piece of charcoal from her extinguished fire acted as her quill.

Half an hour later, Noelle has her sign. She pulled the tassels from her canopy bed, tying them through holes she'd made in the corners of her sheet. If she hung it out her window, they'd know where it came from, which meant she needed a bit of creativity.

Leaning out of her window with her feet hooked on the sill inside, Noelle was once again thankful that her first gift was physical flexibility. She hung from the window vertically, only her feet keeping her from falling to her doom, and used her hands to crawl along the stone facade until her body formed a C.

Supporting herself with her left arm, Noelle used her right to lasso her sign on one of the poles sticking out of the castle for flags. Helena had had the flags removed in order to make new ones  with Roman's insignia. Pulling the rope tight dropped her down a bit, but Noelle still managed to loop the second rope so her homemade flag hung for all to see.

With tremendous effort, Noelle wriggled backwards up the castle and into her window, her stomach and feet aching with the force she'd put on them. Closing the pane, she wondered if she was doing the right thing.

She wasn't even sure what "right" was anymore.

#

"There's something you should see," the real Lieutenant Port told Castor, standing in the doorway of the hovel they'd taken up with their band of soldiers. They'd put the three hundred Army soldiers into groups of ten and spread them throughout the city.

Castor followed without a word, the sun not yet creeping up on the horizon, but hints of light turning the sky an orangey-pink. It wasn't the skyline Port wanted Castor to see, instead pointing up to the castle.

A crude sign hung from the left side of the castle, billowing in the morning breeze.

MAVERICK TREMAINE LIVES--FIGHT FOR YOUR KING

The faintest smirk tugged at Castor's lips. "Looks like we aren't alone."

#

Aundreya sat at her vanity, staring at her reflection. She could feel her hold on the castle slipping through her fingers, her reign as queen coming to an end before it even began. Roman required both her and Noelle working together to stay under her power, and even Helena seemed to have grown immune.

She felt their stares wherever she went--the servants, the soldiers, the generals. All of them wanted what she had. They would try to take it. Even now, they plotted against her.

Helena. Noelle. Mygel. None of them could be trusted. Helena wanted power as much as Aundreya, although she didn't seem to want it directly, happy to place others in the path of royalty. Mygel, as Helena's lapdog, would never turn against her leader. As for Noelle, well, Aundreya knew it would always come down to only one of them surviving.

It was time to take her place in charge. She couldn't wait any longer. Not while they whispered, plotting to keep her from sleeping, pretending no one had been in her room when she knew someone had been there.

#

The Ancient stared out at the dominion of Osha, feeling the change in the air. Soon. It would happen soon--and they would be ready when it did. They wouldn't fail. Not again.

Not like before.

This time, everything would fall into place. This time, the Ancient would win triumphant.

#

Audra watched Trey's little hands tie his shoes, her heart breaking all over again, the voices in her head working overtime.

The key will turn the lock. The key will turn the lock. The key will--

"I'm going to be fine," Trey said, smiling up at her. "They'll protect me."

"What if they don't? What if they can't?"

"They will. I believe in them."

"We've had such a short time together, and after so long--"

"I'm coming home, mama." Trey threw his arms around her neck, snuggling into her lap. "I'm going to come home."

#

"It's time." Eric stood at the place in the wall they'd entered a week before. He wore a cloak up around him, just as Phoenix and Maverick did. Something heavy sat in his stomach, and he knew this battle wouldn't be like the others. This one was all or nothing.

"Let's go." Maverick gestured for Eric to lead the way. They'd been strange, the two of them, ever since that morning. Eric knew it had to do with him, but he also knew asking might take him down a path he wasn't ready for.

Pushing open the secret wall gave them their exit. Quilla waited for them, her deep, wise eyes crinkling at the sight of him. She said nothing, keeping any sound they made from being heard as they stepped out onto castle grounds. With a shove, Eric closed the passage again and turned to Quilla.

"Thank you," he said, holding out a hand. She clasped his forearm and nodded.

"Go. Do what needs to be done. I'll be back here when the tide turns."

Sneaking back out onto the streets wasn't nearly as difficult as sneaking in, and they found themselves in the middle of Osha as the sun made its climb.

"I guess it's now or never," Phoenix said, pulling her hood up tighter. Eric spotted Trey standing with Audra by a shop right across from the castle.

"It's time."

IT'S TIME IT'S TIME IT'S TIME IT'S TIME!

Predictions. Go.