The threat passed nearly as soon as it had arrived. In under thirty minutes, the strange, jewel-toned woman was in the foyer once more with two young women in tow, exchanging a purse full of coins with Matron Agnes. The tightness in Nox’s chest relaxed slightly as the danger began to pass. The girls she led out of the orphanage shifted their weight uncomfortably behind her, clutching their own arms in sorrowful attempts to self-soothe. Nox and Amaris may have avoided whatever misery the woman held, but for the other two, the dread was just beginning.

Cici, nearly seventeen, had short-cropped hair and a waifish build. Beside her stood Emily. Perhaps their names would no longer matter in Farleigh and would become as forgotten as the stones beneath them. Once they left, who would remember them?

Emily’s face twisted anxiously as she scanned the balcony. She was looking up the stairs at the vacant space beyond Nox and Amaris. Emily’s stress was both unmissable and tragic. Amaris’s eyes widened at Nox in a silent question, but Nox only shook her head. She had no answers. She knew nothing about the opulent woman on the landing or where Cici and Emily might be taken.

“Always a pleasure, Madame Millicent,” Agnes said, escorting the stranger out of the mill. The woman called Millicent said something indiscernible in a preening voice that was appropriate for her birdlike features. She angled her body toward the door, ushering the silhouettes of the two girls into the salmons and yellows of the setting sun of the courtyard. Emily resisted the push to depart, continuing to look up the stairs.

Millicent reached as if to physically pull her to the carriage when a voice broke the moment’s tension.

“Em!” called a distressed voice from somewhere down the hall. Ana bounded down the corridor toward the front doors to the manor.

The younger sister pushed past Nox and Amaris and ran down the stairs to hug her only family in this world. She crashed into Emily with an intensity that nearly knocked the older sister off her feet. The child’s thin, dotted arms wrapped around her sister’s hips as she cried. Hot tears spilled over her face, clinging to her jaw and smudging against Emily’s dress.

“Please,” Ana begged. “You can’t leave me!”

Emily scooped her up, shushing her. She wiped at the tears spilling over. She played the reassuring role of comfort and confidence despite the turmoil that had been painted on her face only moments prior. Nox’s heart cracked as she watched the pair, knowing precisely what Emily was doing. She didn’t want her sister to see her afraid.