"I'm going to hurry the afternoon along," murmured Lady Varali. With a dancer's grace, she waved her free hand in a rowing motion and pulled Esmera through time with her.

Esmera watched numbly as the scene in front of her changed. The blue bled out of the midday sky, and sunset flooded in to take its place. The warm, soft shades of the darkening sky would've been beautiful on any other day, but it was nothing but tragic as it dominated the heavens behind the halved family sitting on the couch.

Lady Varali's arms fell back to her sides. With dread pooling in her stomach, Esmera followed her gaze to Givan as he turned to his mother.

"Why is this happening, Omm?"

Yandriya rested her cheek against his curly head. "I don't know, Givan. I don't know who these people are and what they want from us."

She lowered her gaze to baby Esmera, who had fallen asleep in her arms with her tiny hand in her mouth. Tears brightened her eyes, and she squeezed them shut to hide them from the yaoguai who would enjoy her dismay, from the son who looked to her for guidance.

"What should I choose?" It was nearing sundown, and Givan's voice buckled beneath the weight of his decision.

Yandriya's words were crusted with tears when she answered. "Whatever you feel is right, my son. Trust your judgment."

Givan frowned up at her. "What do you feel is right, Omm?"

Yandriya sighed. "Your baba is gone." She snubbed a sob with her hand the same way Esmera swiped at her eyes at the memory of her father's cruel, quick, senseless death. "Your brothers are lost too, and there's nothing that can be done about that. However, this man is giving you a chance to save yourself and your sister. I would want you to take it, but it is your choice." She looked at her son as he leaned on her shoulder, such an earnest look on his childish face.

It broke Esmera's heart as it must've broken her mother's before her because fresh tears rose into her eyes.

Maybe the Finnaazes had been blessed with power, the favour of a god, and a wedding agreement with the Milatanuran Royal Family, but they had also been cursed.

Such a dilemma as what Givan faced should never be for a child to endure.

"You are the one with Finnaaz blood." Yandriya croaked, her voice betraying the tears she held back. "Only you can destroy the army, and possibly your sister if she was older."

Givan traced a finger over Esmera's tiny knuckles where her fist was clenched against her chest. He pinched her round cheek lightly before touching a gentle kiss to it. She stirred in sleep but didn't wake.

It was a peace she hadn't known since and would never again, not after everything she had seen today in search of an answer she wasn't even sure she'd be receiving.

Esmera could see where Yandriya was coming from. She would probably prefer to see half of her children survive this ordeal rather than none of them, but she couldn't shake the unsettling fear that this didn't end the way her mother had hoped it would.

That was why her heart sank when Givan said, "The. I'll do it. For you and me and Esmera, Omm."

Yandriya squeezed her eyes closed as she pressed a fierce kiss against Givan's head, and Esmera wondered whether she had the same sense of unease that she did.

As if someone had been eavesdropping on the other side of the door, a knock sounded on it as Givan pulled his shoulders up in determination, just a moment after he had made his decision.

One of the yao guards opened it. Ruagu stood in the doorway, beaming like a rescuer instead of a murderer, a captor. Esmera has never seen his face in this light, or else she might've noticed the fine scars carved into his skin, discordant lines over his face that was otherwise harmonious despite its cruelty.

"So, what have you decided?" The smile that played on Ruagu's lips when he looked at Givan suggested that he had known the answer to his question before he even asked it.

Esmera didn't think she could hate him more than she did at that moment, but he would go on to do even worse things than she had already seen him do, she knew.

"If I destroy the army, you will let us go?" asked Givan, still pressed against his mother's side.

Yandriya's eyes were also on Ruagu, equally wide with fear, equally gleaming with hope.

Ruagu nodded, still smiling like he'd just had a joke whispered into his ear. Esmera didn't trust him one bit, but that didn't matter when her brother had no choice but to do so.

"I made you a promise, son, and I keep my word."

Esmera fumed. He hadn't kept his word, and she knew that because she was the only Finnaaz who had survived that day. Ruagu did nothing but lie, even about the act of lying itself. He was despicable.

"Then I will destroy the army." Givan's voice quavered at the beginning, but by the time he had reached the end of his sentence, it had steadied into that of the new head of the Finnaaz household for however much longer he had to bear the title.

Even though the thought was inevitable, it sent a pang through Esmera that something had gone wrong despite this little boy's noble intentions.

"Excellent." Ruagu gestured to the yaoguai guards dressed in the skin and livery of the Finnaaz estate's servants. "Lead the way." He tilted his head, listening intently as one of them spoke in his mind. "Ah, yes, that's a good question." He turned to Givan. "Where are we headed?"

"Back to the vault." The boy rose to his feet, his face defiant even as his legs quivered.

He reminded Esmera painfully of Hudion moments before he had met his end, and that was only made worse by her knowledge of his future, knowledge Givan hadn't had.

Yandriya stood beside him, maintaining a steady face and bearing even as she held the baby that hadn't left her arms in hours.

"To the vault." Ruagu gestured at his yaoguai. Two of them led the way, opening the door without waiting for Givan and Yandriya to follow them, while two more flanked them and another pair took up the rear.

The lightheaded sense of déjà vu came over Esmera as she and Lady Varali followed them down the stairs. It was exactly what had happened earlier, but now, Givan was with them, his hand shaking as it closed around Yandriya's, while Faheena slinked along at his ankles.

With a trembling voice, Givan uttered the command to unlock the vault. The doors swung open, an unnerving welcome to the deepest, darkest part of the house. Once he was inside, the doors closed behind him, what remained of his family, and Ruagu, sealing the yaoguai outside.

But the real danger was still very close at hand.

"Go ahead." Ruagu gestured at the terracotta army who stood firm, having accepted their fates as honourable soldiers should. "Don't try anything stupid, or you'll meet the same end as your father."

Givan's mouth quivered at the memory. Yandriya squeezed his hand, still cradling the precious bundle in her other arm.

"You are strong, my son," she whispered, so softly Ruagu probably couldn't hear her but Givan would've as a fellow bearer of Esmera's powerful auditory ability. "You can end this."

That seemed to give Givan the strength he needed to do something his father wouldn't have wanted him to do. "The time for vengeance has passed." Givan's voice rang across the vault, higher pitched than it had been before.

In perfect synchrony, the soldiers came to life. They tossed their weapons aside, and as the swords and spears crumbled away, the warriors tore themselves to pieces. Soon, each of them was nothing more than a pile of earth on the tiles.

"Very good." Ruagu smiled, but there was something sinister in it, something that froze Esmera's blood in her veins even all these years after he had given her family that look.

Esmera had expected that some of the tension in the room would lift now that Givan had given Ruagu what he wanted, but her brother's hands wrapped together nervously as he and Yandriya raised their expectant, frightened eyes to Ruagu.

Givan opened his mouth, but no words came out.

His mother stepped up for him, putting her arm around him as if to protect him the way she hadn't been able to do for his brothers. "Givan has done his part. Now you must fulfil your vow of releasing us."

Ruagu smiled that wicked smile that told Esmera he had won in an even greater way than she had expected, that sent her stomach down a steep roller coaster drop. "I promised to release three of you. I didn't say which three."

Givan and Yandriya's eyes widened in horror. The lady looked down at the golden cat that hadn't left her son's feet and the butterfly that rested on her hand. Together with their familiars, there were five of them.

Ruagu waved his taloned, ancient hand. "You are free to go, Lady Yandriya. You may take your familiar and your son's with you, but I'm afraid I cannot let your children live."

"You bastard." Esmera hissed, but nobody heard her, of course.

Yandriya simply froze in panic, staring at Ruagu in disbelief. Givan blinked, unable to conceptualise the trap he had fallen into, and Esmera didn't blame him. She only felt for him, because a child could never hope to win a game with a man like Ruagu.

"Please..." Yandriya shook her head. Her mouth quivered as she clutched Esmera tighter and held Givan closer to her. "Not my children. We have given you what you wanted."

Ruagu's mouth quirked, and Esmera couldn't read the look. It was either pity or a very sick and twisted amusement. "I'm only looking out for my safety, my lady. Your children are the only two people alive who can use this weapon against me."

"There is no weapon. Givan destroyed it! What more do you want from us?" Yandriya wailed, retreating as her family's vile murderer advanced on her.

There was a manic paranoia in Ruagu's eyes now as they slid away from Givan and rested on Esmera, who had somehow remained asleep through the whole commotion. "As long as they are alive, they can rebuild it, and I will never be safe."

By now, Ruagu had slithered across the room like the serpent he was, faster than an honest mortal could move. He reached out to Givan.

Knowing what those hands did, the boy tore himself away from his mother to avoid them. As he took another step back, Ruagu's viper tangled himself in his legs, and he fell backwards.

It was a particularly repulsive sort of villain who could look at a child who had fallen on the floor with murder in his eyes, who could advance on him and touch his remorseless hands to full, childish cheeks.

Givan watched Ruagu with wide eyes, frozen with fear until he was frozen with death.

Yandriya screamed, and that was enough to rouse baby Esmera. She awakened with a piercing shriek. Yandriya said nothing as she wailed, just clutched her last, precious child closer to her.

Ruagu turned to Yandriya with the same murder in his eyes, but it wasn't for her. It was for the baby in her arms.

Having just watched her sorcerer's unjust, merciless slaughter, Faheena had nobody to restrain her. She sprang at Ruagu, her tawny claws aimed for his eyes, but his viper swiped her away in a grey-brown flash. They landed on the floor in a hissing bundle of scales and fur.

That moment was all Yandriya needed to compose herself.

She faced Ruagu, defiant even as tears ran down her cheeks, fearless in the face of the fatal hand he held out to her.

Yandriya touched her hand to the ground, and it rippled, throwing Ruagu backwards with no yaoguai to catch him this time. She sprinted deeper into the vault while Ruagu tumbled over the writhing floor, Esmera's blankets fluttering out behind her while the baby's cries endured.

Esmera and Lady Varali hurried after her, knowing that wherever she was going, it was safer for them than it was for her. This, Esmera suspected, was the twist in the tale everyone thought they knew the ending to.

Breathless and swiping her free hand over her wet cheeks, Yandriya stopped in a little side vault, facing the wall. Baby Esmera had by now exhausted herself, and her cries had dampened to little splutters.

"Sh, sh, my darling," Lady Yandriya murmured, kissing her daughter's forehead. "We're going to be fine." Her voice broke as she said that, and Esmera wondered whether she had intended for her promise to be a lie.

When baby Esmera cooed and put a hand in her mouth to console herself, her mother's eyes sought out her familiar.

"Where to, Pazir?"

Yandriya's butterfly hovered over her shoulder, fluttering a question Esmera couldn't understand.

Yandriya shook her head in answer. "No, I can't return to my parents' manor. This sorcerer and his demons will track me there. They'll know it's where I'd flee." Her eyes lit up behind her tears, a sight as lovely as it was poignant.

Her familiar rested on the blank wall in front of her, his beautiful black wings that were dusted in shimmering blue pigment folding close together.

"Arkōsāra. That's the only place Esmera and I will be safe."

Yandriya went silent again as her butterfly flapped his wings more ferociously. She rocked her daughter against her as she replied. "I've only been there once before, but I know Queen Shirisha has property and people there. She will look out for us for as long as we need her to."

The butterfly began to glow in approval of her answer. The sunny brightness spread outwards from his dark, petite form, creating a patch on the beige wall that grew bigger with every moment. Esmera blinked. She had never imagined she'd watch a portal take shape, but this was what this had to be.

Yandriya sent a hasty glance behind her. Seeing the doorway to the little room was empty, seeing the shadows being silent and bare of hissing scales and beautiful, wicked smiles, she climbed into the portal headfirst.

Esmera clenched her fists, hoping with every fibre of her being that Yandriya would reach Arkōsāra even though she knew that wasn't the way things had happened.

Yandriya was halfway through the portal when a knife struck her in her lower back, and she stopped. Maybe she screamed, but Esmera couldn't hear in the dimension. The sound must've echoed through Arkōsāra, however. It must've roused people from their beds, sent shivers through those who were awake.

Ruagu sauntered into the room, his mouth quirking in amusement as he beheld Yandriya where she stood, mid-escape. He yanked the knife out of her back and grabbed a handful of her hair in the same movement, pulling her out of the portal and back into the realm where she had watched her family being murdered.

As Ruagu forced Yandriya to face him, she swiped at her familiar with a quick, desperate hand. As Pazir broke contact with the wall, the portal shrunk to a coin-sized hole before it closed.

Ruagu's satisfied smile vanished when he saw that Yandriya's arms were empty.

Esmera's heart lurched when she saw the wound in Yandriya's stomach that was already bleeding through her dress, which had probably also leaked into the blanket of the child she had deposited and sealed away in Arkōsāra.

Ruagu flung Yandriya back against the wall. Any semblance of humour, of charm, of honour had left him. Now his face was as sharp as the knife in his hand, his eyes as cold as its blade. "Where is the child?"

"You won't find her." Yandriya slumped against the wall as Ruagu released her hair. Her curls had gleamed, falling down her shoulders in a perfect balance, but now they were in disarray from all the running she had done, all the wrinkled, taloned fingers that had wound themselves into it.

Ruagu grasped his blade so tightly that his knuckles turned white like the bones beneath his skin. "I will tear this kingdom apart until I do."

Yandriya laughed. She bundled her dress in her hand and pressed it into her wound even though she was so unsteady that she might have fallen to the floor if Ruagu didn't hold her up. "My Esmera has a greater destiny than whatever your twisted purpose is."

"You think so?" Now Ruagu smiled, but it was different from before.

It was the smile Death wore when he did someone the courtesy of advance notice of their impending fate.

"I know so." Yandriya's eyes were defiant as Ruagu leaned towards her.

"The prophecy will not save her from me." There was barely a finger's width between their noses as Ruagu asked, "How great do you think your daughter's destiny is if she is to be the queen with me ruling beside her as king?"

There it was now, that genuine humour dancing in Ruagu's eyes as Yandriya's widened in horror. Before she could retort or at least reply, Ruagu drove his dagger into her again, and again, and again, and this was the one death Esmera couldn't bear to watch.

The deadly touch was silent as it rotted flesh, but stabbing was loud.

The knife squelched into Yandriya's flesh, hissing as it retreated. Every thrust of Ruagu's wrist was unhinged with fury, drawing a sputtering breath of the few Yandriya still had remaining.

Esmera couldn't handle it, but there was no escaping it. Even when she fell to her knees, pressing her palms against her ears to block out the noise, the horrific sound of her mother dying echoed through her mind.