Chapter 1

"Teddy."

I stared at the eldest boy and called out to him, my voice shaking. It was the name I had whispered to him day and night while he was still inside me.

The boy's brow furrowed. "Who are you? How do you know that name?"

Odette Devereaux shrank deeper into Alaric Montague's arms on cue, her narrow shoulders trembling.

I did not spare her a glance. I stumbled toward Mother, my eyes fixed on the bundle cradled in her arms.

That was my fifth child.

Two weeks ago, the midwife had held up a bruised, lifeless infant and told me the baby had not survived. I had not even gotten a single look at him before everything went black.

"Let me see him..." My eyes burned. I threw myself forward on my hands and knees.

Alaric stepped in front of them all, shielding Odette and the five children behind him. The little girl panicked at the commotion and flung the lantern she was holding.

The sharp frame sliced across the back of my hand, and bright drops of blood rolled down, spattering across the lantern's paper like a brand.

Something complicated flickered behind Alaric's eyes, but he quickly bent and gathered the frightened girl into his arms, patting her back.

"Someone stop her." He gave the order to keep me from reaching the children.

Two of his personal guards stepped directly into my path.

I was about to demand answers when Father's voice came crashing down overhead, barely restrained.

"What are you all standing around for? Drag this madwoman away before she hurts someone!"

The household servants rushed forward. They clamped a hand over my mouth, seized both my arms, and dragged me toward a back alley. I fought with everything I had to turn around. My knees struck the stone steps hard enough to split the skin, and my vision went black.

Behind me, Mother had already turned around and pulled the four children behind her. "Don't look, don't look. That crazy woman is covered in blood. She'll give you nightmares."

People nearby pointed and whispered.

"Where'd that crazy woman come from, charging at the Regent's family like that?"

"The Regent's too generous, just having her dragged off. Anyone else would've had her head."

The servants hauled me into a narrow, damp alley and threw me to the ground.

Footsteps drew closer.

Alaric stood a few paces away, looking down at me. There was none of the tenderness he usually showed me.

"Laurel, you shouldn't have come out. They've been raised by Odette since the day they were born. Showing up like this only frightens them. If you make a scene, all you'll do is make them hate you."

I lifted my head and looked up at the man who had knelt for three days in the snow on my behalf. It felt as if everything inside me had been torn apart.

"They're my children." I lay in the dirt, face tilted up toward him. "You took my babies and handed them to her so she'd have something to call her own... Alaric, why?"

"Because you owe her!" His voice turned to ice.

The words destroyed whatever I had been holding together. I doubled over and blood surged from my throat, staining the snow beneath me a violent red.

Alaric's expression shifted. He stepped forward on instinct, one hand half-raised toward me.

"My Lord..." Odette's faint voice drifted from the mouth of the alley. She leaned on her handmaid's arm, pale and coughing softly.

Alaric's hand froze midair. He turned, strode to Odette, and steadied her. "It's cold out here. Why did you follow me?"

My parents urged them along, the children gathered in their arms. "My Lord, Odette isn't well. Please, take her home."

The children called out in their small voices for their mommy and daddy.

Alaric swept Odette into his arms and, without looking back, gave his orders to the guards behind him.

"Put a black cloth over Her Grace's head and bring her in through the back gate. There will be no scandal from the Regent's household tonight."

I curled up in the filth and reached into my mind for the System.

"Departure confirmed."