Nasty hands carried me out of my cell, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open for long. I was tired. I was hungry. I was thirsty, and I was in pain.

I was thrown on the same hard chaise I had been on … yesterday? Two days ago? Last week? I had completely lost track of time.

“Nadine, I have something to show you,” someone said.

Nothing they had to show me could possibly interest me.

Hands clasped my shoulders and held me up.

“Open your eyes,” Imha said. Against my will, my eyes fluttered opened. Imha flashed her evil smile. “Good girl.” The bright symbols danced on the map behind her, but before I could pay attention to them, she gestured to the pillars to her right. “Bring them in.”

Them?

The air fled from every cell of my body when demons brought my father, my mother, Teddie, Tommy, and Nicole in the room.

The floor—the world—was pulled from under my feet.

“No,” I muttered. My throat felt raw, but I didn’t care. “No, no!”

“Nadine!” my parents shouted as demons dragged them to stand before me by the shackles on their wrists.

“Nad!” Nicole cried, coming to me. The chains held her back, and she tripped.

Their clothes looked like mine, in tatters, and they appeared weak, too thin, too pale, and hurt. Oh God, they were hurt. My father and my mother had purple bruises on their faces and arms. I wondered how many more bruises their ripped clothes hid. The kids had bruises around their shackles and on their bare feet.

The demons tugged on their chains, making the kids cry more.

Oh, God.

My chest burned as the tears made their way out.

I stood and Omi pushed me back down. “Nu-uh. You play by our rules.”

My parents looked at me. The dull shine in their eyes was relieved, as if they were happy to see me, but it was also sorrowful.

“How … How—?”

“She speaks!” Imha laughed. The evil tone in her voice made my skin crawl.

“How …?” I couldn’t speak.

“How did I find them?” she asked. “Simple. I learned of your hometown and that your family still lived there. So after we got you, I sent a search party back to retrieve them.”

No, no, no … this couldn’t be happening.

“Please, let them go.” My voice broke.

Imha walked behind my family. “I will let them go once you tell me everything about Ceris and her plans.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know anything.”

Imha raised her scepter and pointed it at my family. “I thought we were done with games.”

“I don’t know where she is. I swear; I’m not lying. I met with her briefly in the middle of nowhere before going to my parents’ place, and I hadn’t even seen her for three months before that.”

“Her plans,” Imha urged. “I know she has been up to something for quite some time now, and you’re going to tell me everything.”

Oh, God. How could I give her what she wanted without telling her the truth?

My eyes swept over my family. How could I not tell Imha the truth? This was my family, my blood, the reason I lived, breathed, and went on everyday trying to do my best. Who cared about the fate of the world? Who cared if Imha found Ceris, or if she found out Levi and Mitrus were alive? Who cared if the world plunged into more darkness, war overtook every corner, and demons ate every living person?

I should care.

The saying to sacrifice one life, or five, to save millions was true, but I didn’t really care about it when it came to my family.

But I should care.

How could I think of keeping my family alive when there wouldn’t be a world to live in?

My head hurt, and my thoughts zoomed by too fast. I couldn’t make sense of anything.

New tears sprouted in my eyes.

“Tell me!” Imha’s voice boomed, shaking the walls.

I cringed, the kids cried, and my parents whimpered.

“I … I …” I shook my head, willing the words to come out. “I …”

Omi’s grunt became a battle cry, and he pointed his scepter at me.

“No!” Imha pushed his arm away, and the red bright light shot across the room, blinding me for a second. I tried focusing past it, my heart racing.

The light receded, and I blinked. My family was on the ground.

My blood turned into ice, and I couldn’t process what was right in front of me.

I watched them. Quiet and too still. Bright red blood seeping from under them.

My heart tightened. “No!” I cried, dashing to them. I knelt on the floor and poked at their shoulders, not sure whom to check first. I turned to Mom, then to Nicole, then to Tommy. They were too far away, and they weren’t moving. “No, please, no, no.” I turned Nicole around and screamed. Blood trickled out of her ears and her eyes. I pressed a hand to her chest and willed her heart to beat. It didn’t. “No,” I whispered. I pressed harder. Nothing. “Oh, God.” I punched her chest.

It couldn’t be. This wasn’t happening. I grabbed Teddie’s arm and pulled him to me. I reached for Tommy’s sweater and dragged him over my legs. As much as I could, I scooted closer to Mom and Dad. We had to be together. I would take care of them. They would be okay. We would find a way out of this.

Their blood covered me, and I wished I could drown in it.

I brushed Nicole’s hair from her beautiful face. A sob raked through me, bringing reality with it.

Tipping my head back, I screamed my rage and my pain away until I passed out.

* * *

There was a moment during my high school senior year when I thought I wouldn’t make it. I thought I wouldn’t be accepted into any good university; I wouldn’t get a scholarship, and without it I wouldn’t be able to pay for my studies. There was a moment I believed I would end up like my parents, working my butt off on the farm and barely getting through a day without any aches and pains, or complaining about not making enough money to buy food for my siblings.

When the NYU letter arrived with one of the best scholarship options they offered, it was like a rich person’s Christmas. After that, I just needed to get a well-paying job, and I would be able to lessen my parents’ burden.

The week before I moved to New York, Nicole had been in a crazy mood because she was upset with me. I didn’t blame her. I was sad about leaving them too.

I was packing what little I had when she stormed into my room and threw Pinky at me.

“I don’t want it!” she yelled. “You gave it to me because you said you loved me. You’re leaving, so you don’t love me anymore, and I don’t want anything from you!”

I stared at her.

Was she really just five years old? Sometimes I believed she was closer to ten than the boys were.

With a loud huff, she marched out of my bedroom.

I picked up Pinky from the floor and gave a step toward the door but stopped myself. Going after her now would only cause her to yell at me more. She needed to calm down, and then I would try to talk to her, try to explain to her why I had to go. I just hoped she would listen to me with the maturity of a ten-year-old girl.

“She’s going to be all right,” my mom said, appearing at the door.

I offered her a small smile. “I know. It’s just hard. This is hard for me too, and she’s making it harder.”

“If it’s hard, why are you going?”

“Mom, I already told you why, and you agreed.”

“The logical part of my brain agreed, not the emotional one.” With a sad grin, she sat on my bed. “You’re the one she looks up to, and I think she can’t imagine not seeing you everyday.”

Tears burned behind my eyes. “The truth is, I can’t imagine not seeing all of you everyday either.”

Mom patted the bed beside her. “Don’t break down now.” I sat beside her, and she put an arm around my shoulder. “You’re strong, determined, and I’m proud of you. Even if you tell me you don’t want to go anymore because you’ll miss us, I’ll kick you out of here and ship you to New York”—I chuckled—“because I won’t let you waste this opportunity. Something like this won’t come knocking at your door again. You must grab it with both hands and feet and teeth, and you can’t let go.” She kissed my cheek. “I know you’re going to make me even prouder of you, if that’s possible.”

Only a mom would know exactly what to say and what a daughter needed to hear. I wiped a tear away and turned to her, winding my arms around her.

Something heavy fell on us, and then Nicole’s small arms embraced Mom and me.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, burying her head on my shoulder. “I don’t want you to go because I love you.”

I pulled her close to me. “I love you too, Nikkie.”

I hugged her tight, wishing I could protect her and care for her—for them—forever.

A tug on my arms suddenly erased the memory from my mind, and I opened my eyes.

I was back in my cell, but I wasn’t hanging from my wrists anymore. I was lying on the cold floor, metal shackles around my arms, linked by a chain screwed to the wall in front of me.

Another tug jerked me forward, and I groaned as my arms scratched the rough floor.

Omi knelt before me.

Omi … the red explosion … my family …

Panic swept through me, and a dull pain squeezed my heart. It had all been a dream, right? Oh, God, it had to be a nightmare. I looked at my clothes and arms. I was covered in blood—not only my blood.

A sob shook me, and I closed my eyes willing the pain, the hurt, the mourning to consume me, to destroy me, to kill me.

If I had any strength left, if each of my nerves and muscles and senses didn’t protest in pain, both physically and mentally, I would have jumped at Omi’s throat. I didn’t care that he was a god and couldn’t die, not without a Black Thorn. All I cared about was hurting him, hurting him as much as he and Imha had hurt me.

Omi shook the chains, trying to lift me up.

“She is as good as dead now,” Imha said from somewhere. “After what you did, she really won’t talk.”

Omi shot up and turned to where I thought Imha was. “What? Now the fault is mine? She wasn’t talking before, and we would have killed them either way.”

Oh God, I felt sick.

“But she didn’t know that!” Imha said, her tone chilling the cell, chilling me.

“What will you do with her now?”

Imha didn’t answer right away. “Use her to lure Ceris to us.”