“Susannah met her husband today.”

Sasha narrowed her eyes and fought down an immediate burst of rage. “She ‘met’ him? Or did he see her and claim her, like Anne’s suitor?”

Helen did not like that. She almost growled her next words. “Be very careful with what you insinuate, Miss Sasha. I know this isn’t what any of you dreamed of, but you did come here to help further the Kingdom. This is how that looks.”

Sasha knew in that moment that there was nothing else she could say to Helen. What would be the point? So she nodded, meekly, and she apologized. And then she ate her dinner like a robot and cleaned up for bed. Throughout all that, Marigold’s words rang louder in her memory.

“You got suckered in to a fucking nightmare. It’s time to wake up.”

Sasha went to bed around nine. She’d had a long and exhausting day. Tomorrow was sure to be more of the same. But she couldn’t sleep. Now that she was safely in bed, hidden from the world, the tears refused to stay hidden behind her eyes. It was all Sasha could do to avoid audible sobs. She lay awake for an hour, maybe more, until she heard a thwack, followed by a thump.

She opened her eyes and rolled over to face the door. In the time it took to complete that motion, she heard the door whoosh open and then a series of thumps so rapid they sounded like one long drumroll. Sasha felt a rush of air, and sensed the presence of a new person the instant before she completed her roll. She looked up to see a man at the side of her bed. He was big, broad, and clad in a torn and bloodied Martyr’s uniform.

He had a heavy metal pipe in his hand. Sasha raised her hands up in an instinctive gesture of self defense the moment before she saw the hulking man’s face and realized who he was.

“Aaron?”

The man blinked. He looked confused for a moment, and then he laughed.

“Oh, right. Yeah, that’s not my name, hon. You can call me Roland.”

“What do you– what’s happening? Are we under attack?”

“Yes, sort of. By me. I knocked out the old lady.” He gestured his head back toward the other girls, sleeping in their beds, “I knocked them out too. Just minor concussions. But they’re out cold.”

“I am very confused,” Sasha said in a flat voice. “And very frightened.”

“You’re not frightened.”