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SHE’D HAD A DOLL ONCE, with a painted-on s while, it had been her constant co with her papa, a confidant when she overheard her parents whispering secrets, someone who had to listen to her when no one else would Her name was Zenobia, after the desert warrior queen Grandpapa had told her about But one day, while Henry Hearden, the doll had fallen, and she’d stepped on her neck, shattering the fragile porcelain The dreadful sound it made had sent her heart up into her throat

Now, the sound of herunder the heel of the man’s boot made her vomit into her hands

A pulse of fiery poashed through the roo chaos of the nearby passage as it collapsed Rose was thrown back against the co air made her bones shiver, her teeth ache

Dead

Rose held her breath, clenching her eyes shut as her papa howled from where the shadowed h his shoulder She knew better than to scream with hi now The hidden cupboard built into the wall behind the bookshelf would protect her, just as Grandpapa had promised, but only if she stayed silent, stayed still The thin crack between the backing of the shelf and its frah and not be seen

Soht Their dinner sat downstairs at the table, nearly untouched—their only warning of the intrusion had been the growls and whi before it was quickly silenced Her papa had just had enough tiht the office’s lamps and fireplace, her mama to stow her away, before footsteps fell on the stairs Now the lingering warh it was breathing

“I told you to cooperate” The raved with some symbol she could not quite make out A thin black scarf had been pulled up to cover the lower half of his face, but it did nothing to muffle the silky tones of his voice “It need not be this way Relinquish your claiive the astrolabe to me, and our business here will conclude”

Broken glass and scattered papers crunched beneath his boots as he circled around her mama…her mama’s…

No Grandpapa would be back soon fro He had said he would tuck her in, and he didn’t break proain This was…it was all a night up all those stories about the shadows that came for traveler children All of this would be over soon, and she would wake up

“Bloody—monsters—the whole lot of you!” Papa tried to pull the sword out of hi above hi it down further Her papa thrashed, his legs kicking at nothing but air

Mama did not move

The sharp, hot edge of Rose’s screa blood had soaked through the rug and was beginning to creep toward her ht hair

Her father tried to surge up again, one hand gripping a stone paperweight that had fallen from his nearby desk in the initial scuffle With a yell that ripped fro the stone toward the ht it easily and, in turn, retrieved another thin-bladed sword frorunt, he stabbed it through her father’s ar that in place, too When her papa let out his bellow of pain, it was not nearly loud enough to drown out the hter

Youher knees up toward her chin You must tell Grandpapa what happened