I awoke with a start in the middle of the night. There was a scratching sound coming from the fireplace of my room. Something or someone was coming down the chimney. I grabbed my wand from my nightstand, but I remained still as I watched a figure covered in soot land in the hearth.
With my other hand I grasped my pouch, but it was too late for Hecate to return to it. The ashes rose and flowed out the window. I was sure without looking that Hecate would be hovering just outside, ready to protect me.
Before me, the figure from the hearth shook itself, revealing a girl. Pale flesh and piercing blue eyes blinked out at me through the gray soot. By the startled look on her face, she had clearly not expected to be caught.
“Give me a reason not to scream,” I demanded.
“I can give you thousands,” she boasted. She opened a pouch of her own, reached in, and produced a sparkling diamond earring.
“You’re a thief? Are you here to rob the house? Because I promise you, you chose the wrong one.”
“I’m not here to rob the house. The house is mine. I’m Ella . . . Cinderella.”
“You’re the stepdaughter,” I said, remembering what Bari said about her the day before.
“I am. Who the hells are you?”
“The niece. I’m Farrow. I am here for a visit.”
Cinderella took a step back from me, eyes widening. “You’re one of them.”
Her tone told a story all its own. She knew what I was. What my sisters were. And she was afraid of us. But then why had she stayed with them?
“I don’t understand. So you’re a thief? Aren’t you a member of a highborn family?”
“No. I don’t steal, and I’m not rich. Not anymore. It’s not what it looks like. I mean, it is what it looks like, but I didn’t do it.”
“Then who did?”
“I . . . We . . . were just . . . I wanted to see my friends. But it turns out they’re stealing. I haven’t seen them in months. They’ve changed.”
“Changed how?”
“They take things . . . I was going to return this to its owner, but the guards raided the tavern and . . . Don’t tell your aunt about this. Promise me. Please . . .”
I knew that the Hinter was changing for the worse—that people were growing more desperate every day. But I had never heard of the rich stealing from the rich before. I could see this was upsetting her conscience. I could see that she was telling the truth.
Suddenly Galatea rapped loudly on the door.
Cinderella flinched.
“Are you okay in there?” she asked.
“I’m fine, Auntie Gray. Just knocked something over,” I said through the door.
When Galatea’s footsteps died down, Cinderella whispered to me, “Thank you for not tattling on me.”
“How did your friend even get that?” I asked, indicating the pouch.
“She helped a wonderful old lady across the street. And then another. Apparently, my friends have developed some new hobbies while I have been spending more time at home. I really am going to return it. Or you can have it if you want,” she said, proffering the diamond to me.
“I won’t tell your secret. But I have no use for that,” I said, closing her palm on the diamond.
“I guess you don’t need diamonds any more than your family does. Than any Entente does.” She whispered the last, almost daring me.
Galatea had intimated that Ella knew what we were. But they hadn’t mentioned her disdain for them. Her fear of them. She was not a fan of the Entente and yet she stayed with them. Had they spelled her to stay but not bothered to spell her to like them? It was strange.
“I’m not like them. Not in the way you think. I don’t have any power.”
She looked at me a long beat, as if she were trying to make up her mind about me.
“Good night, Farrow.”
She shut the door quietly, and I could hear her bare feet tiptoeing through the hall and up the stairs to the attic.
I let the girl go. Because I believed her. And because I saw something in her eyes that was so sad and so desperate that it felt familiar. I only hoped I wouldn’t regret my moment of charity.
I tried to fall asleep, but it did not work, and after a few hours of watching the moon through the window, I slipped out of the house and into the barn. There, I found Hecate watching over South.
“I’m sorry about Iolanta,” I whispered to her.
Her ashes dissipated and then re-formed by my side.