Alcina Dimitrescu loves all of her daughters—but oh, how she’s yearned for another little one. So, when a small maid catches her eye, it becomes a matter of acquiring her and shaping her into the perfect daughter.

Although she typically spent her time in the kitchen, she had been assigned by the Grand Chambermaid to cover a gap in the evening staff’s cleaning rotation. It wasn’t something she’d done in a while, but it was an easy enough job; polishing, dusting, sweeping, the work mostly mindless—as much as anyone in Castle Dimitrescu could afford to be.

Her night had gone downhill in the daughters’ wing, her last stop for the night. It was also the maid’s least favorite place, a place where the most staff were lost due to mistakes or meddling.

The daughter’s wing was not as lavishly decorated as the Lady’s—mostly due to the girls’ inclinations to occasional bouts of property damage. Though, there were still numerous paintings, vases and other decor that required the maid’s attention. The piece that doomed her was a white vase, covered in delicately molded flowers and streaks of gold.

The only tasks left for her were to dust the vase and replace the flowers, ten minutes at most before she could crawl into bed and relax, celebrate another night of safety in the lion’s den. Six months of work at the Castle, and she had been lucky enough to fly largely under the radar.

Her luck was not due to hold, however.

She had failed to notice the buzzing or the low giggling, head in the clouds as she dusted. It was almost midnight, close to curfew. All she could think of was her bed and some rest. So, when an unfamiliar pair of arms draped over her shoulders, she startled—badly.

“Oh,” Cassandra purred, peering over her shoulder at the shattered vase. “Well, Mother’s going to be very upset about that.”

Despite how reserved the eldest sister usually was, she couldn’t hide the excitement in her voice. Dallas’s stomach sank at the sheer joy in Bela’s tone, as the girl dispersed into flies and spirited away to parts unknown. She had never heard her like that. The thought of it made her sick.

Dallas stared, heart racing and stomach sinking to her feet.

An expensive, priceless ceramic shattered by her hand.

Her arms still wound around her shoulders, face tucked into the crook of Dallas’s neck, Cassandra cackled like it was all a cruel joke. It grew in volume, menacing in the quiet of the hallway. Growing louder still as Dallas yanked free from her, scrambling to her knees to pluck the shards from the floor in a panic, as if she could try to fit them back.

Beside her, Cassandra sunk to a crouch, head tilted to watch. Her grin was vicious. “I’ve been waiting for you to slip up, little one.”

“I’m sorry,” Dallas whispered, sniffling.

She had gone numb, not even yelping as the sharp edges nipped at her fingertips. Just kept grasping at the pieces, frantic, her heart racing like that of a rabbit trapped in a snare.

“This is going to be so much fun,” Cassandra chortled, reaching out as if to touch her hair. “Oh, we’ve waited so long—”

*A sharp reprimand cut her off. “Cassandra!”

“Ugh, Bela’s here,” the brunette groaned, theatrical, but her smile never wavered. “Look, big sister—” she stressed the title, eyes flaring brighter somehow. “The little one finally slipped up. Isn’t this great?”

Bela yanked her sister up by her hood, shooing her away from the trembling maid’s side. “She’s bleeding, Cassandra. Mother will—”

The rest of the words slipped over her head, as Dallas stared down at her hands, cradling shattered, blood-stained ceramic. The price of a life weighed up against a few shards of a vase and she knew which way the scale fell. The thought made her sob, soft, then growing louder.

She hardly noticed when Bela approached her, only standing when the blonde made her, sweeping the shards from her hands back to the floor. The largest shattering into a few more fragments, loud as a gunshot. And Dallas stared mutely at them, frozen as Bela wiped pinpricks of blood away from her fingers.