Eulalia pressed her back against the wall, as far as she could, trying to escape the watery moonlight streaming through the nearest window, as if the moon wanted to give them away.

Nothing moved in the cabin, not even the air, thickened by its old stench. Garlic wouldn't be enough to keep away Liliana, though it did make it hard to breathe in the small space. Eulalia pressed her fingers over her nose and tried to recall where all the children were. Lena and Fallon were beneath the window, on the other side of the twin bed, holding each other as tight as lovers in a storm. And Gabriel and Cosmin were near the fireplace, close enough to the door to hear someone coming. Eulalia caught the gold gleam of Gabriel's glasses, pity in her heart for him and the other children to have this happen.

A wolf howled.

Her skin prickled. She'd been in the woods too many times to not know its secrets. There were no wolves in Hills Hallow. Liliana's story of Mondegreen must have been true. She had come out of nowhere to wreak havoc on their lives. For so long, there'd been nothing to fear at Hampstead House except Madam's temper and Tut's unpleasant nature. She might have stumbled across the occasional garden snake in the woods once or twice, but they'd always been more afraid of her than her of them.

The wolf's howl was filled with yearning. It was no coincidence. Wolves never hunted alone.

Eulalia pressed closer to Rowan, wanting him to tell her in his honeyed voice it would be all right. Liliana would be gone as soon as the sun blanketed the moors in its first rays of sunlight. He said nothing. Harlow might have been asleep cradled in his lap. They were both so still. She hadn't gotten a single night with him and hated to think that Liliana might succeed. At any moment, the door would come crashing down, and the spring would never come again for either of them.

No. Don't think it.

She shook her head. The spring would always come, no matter how terrible it got.

The howling continued, rolling down the land, louder and louder every minute. Someone whimpered. Harlow. Sweet, summer girl. Her beauty would thaw hearts someday. Eulalia reached for her, smoothing the fine hairs on her head. Harlow untucked her heart shaped face from Rowan's arm.

"It's all right," said Eulalia, but Harlow's chubby cheeks were dry beneath her touch.

"You don't have to cry," Fallon said to Lena. "We're all together."

"Not for long. They're going to find us. I know they are." All her crying had thickened her voice. She sniffled.

We must stay strong.

Eulalia couldn't bring herself to say those words. What good were they? Magic was what they needed to disappear from this room to anywhere else. What magic they possessed wasn't even enough to leave a bruise much less stop Liliana. Eulalia hugged Perrie as tight as she could as the howling got closer, until it was right on their doorstep.

Then it stopped.

This is it.

Fear made her blood run cold.

"I smell them in there," said a raucous, disembodied voice. Boots crunched on the wet grass outside the door. He waggled the doorknob. "Children, what are you so afraid of? We just want to talk. We promise."

The children were trying their hardest not to breathe. They hadn't locked the door, Eulalia remembered. All of this was to scare them.

He knocked. "Come on. Come out. We know you're in there, and I'm losing my patience." He struck the door hard, making Harlow whimper. "I'm giving you five seconds to come out okay. And if you don't, I'm sorry but it won't be pretty for you. One..." The doorknob rattled. "Two... Come on, you're making it harder for yourself. No? Okay. Three..." He laughed. "Four... Five." The door burst open, slamming against the wall, its hinges broken. The children scrambled into the shadows, away from the dark, looming figure.

Eulalia's heart thumped her chest. She was the sparrow caught in a cage. She had no power that could keep the six-foot tall man in the door away. She couldn't protect the children. Was there anything in the room they could use to fight? Whatever she could grab, anything that would hurt him and might buy them some time. But paralysis had taken over her limbs and she couldn't breathe. Shock had finally won.

"Rowan." She gripped his shirt. "Don't let them take the children." She couldn't stand for harm to touch them.

"What kind of introduction is this?" He stomped into the house, disturbing the old floorboards to a groan. None of them could see his features. He was shrouded in shadow. "Look at you. You're like frightened rats." He laughed, all too pleased by his joke.

"We're not going anywhere with you." Rowan broke free of Eulalia's grip. She grasped thin air to get to him as he left Harlow nestled against her.

"Oh, no? I think we have a difference of opinion." The man stepped closer, looking around the room at them. He tsked. "Not the best hiding spot I would say. It stinks."

"You better not put a hand on any of us," Rowan said. His tense frame blocked Eulalia from seeing Liliana's henchman.

"And what are you going to do about it?"

"Anything I have to."

"That's what you say, but we'll see about that."

"I won't let you have any of us!" Rowan barked.

"Calm down. The easier you make this the less painful it'll be. Trust me."

"You're not hearing me," said Rowan, inching forward. "Touch any of us and it will be the last thing you do!"

"Buddy, no one ever told you about personal space. Back up." He shoved Rowan into Tut's bed.

Rowan caught himself and lunged at him, hands around his neck. "None of us are going anywhere with you!"

They crashed into Tut's furniture, wrestling to get the better hand of each other. Lena screamed. Eulalia scrambled to her feet, grabbing the lamp on the night table.

Which one is Rowan?

She couldn't make out who was on top of whom and held the lamp in an embrace so tense it had become useless. "Rowan, be careful," she shrieked.

Fallon ran to his aide, getting tangled in the scuffle, a ball of violence, thrown from one end of the room to the other. Gabriel war cried, running for Rowan's help with a poker, followed by Cosmin. The shack was in disarray. The cacophonies of the grueling fight made panic take residence in Eulalia's stomach. Fists were thrown, furniture jostled across the room. She didn't know which person was Rowan, the boys, or Liliana's henchman.

"Yeah, you're not so tough, are you?" their assailant said. "Doesn't feel so good, does it?"

Someone got the light. It swathed the room in a yellow haze. Eulalia blinked to adjust her eyes to the turmoil. Rowan sputtered for air, pinned on his knees by the assailant's arm around his neck. Cosmin, Gabriel, and Fallon were on the floor, moaning and clutching various body parts. Liliana's henchman didn't have a single scratch on his rosy-pale skin. He'd taken on four boys and had somehow managed to keep his vainglory.

"Let him go," said Eulalia.

"I could but I don't want to." Liliana's henchman squeezed tighter. Rowan clawed at him to free himself, but it was no use. "The more you struggle the worse it's going to get." Their assailant licked his lips, grinning. "I told you this would happen."

"All of this male testosterone is boring me." Liliana Bruma wafted into the room. "Tolan, I thought I gave you clear instructions." She lowered her hood, her delicate features set with aversion, gazing down at Rowan.

Tolan smirked, the dimple in his square chin deepening. "I'm just having fun."

"Your fun is wasting my time."

"Sorry, baby." He pouted, brows pulled low over silver eyes, his gaze smoldering.

"Down, boy." Liliana brushed his mid-length blond hair.

Tolan released Rowan and yanked him up to his feet by his collar. "There you go. You're not so bad." He patted Rowan's cheeks with big-knuckled hands. Rowan struggled against him. Tolan laughed. "Look at him. Even after getting his butt kicked, he still wants more. Calm down, kid." Tolan's brow creased. "Why don't you take a seat?" He tossed Rowan aside, and he crashed into a window, sinking into a slump alongside the other boys.

"Rowan." Eulalia had never seen him so defeated and could do nothing to soothe his brokenness where she stood. With Tolan and Liliana between them, she was more useless than Madam trying to be kind. Everything had been stolen from her in a single night.

The wolves had come to Hampstead House to eat up their flesh.

"I warned you," said Liliana. "This is what happens when you fight. Your cook is dead by the way. Maybe she wouldn't be if you hadn't resisted. Now you've left me no choice. I've had a sudden change of heart. Tolan, take the one holding the lamp. You know what to do with the others."

He lunged for her, and Eulalia swung the lamp at him but missed his head, striking his shoulder, which should have hurt.

He tsked. "I guess it's not your lucky day." Tolan slapped the lamp from her hand, shattering it against the wall. He wrapped his arm around her waist, squeezing the air from her lungs, and pitched her over his shoulder. "You need to eat your veggies," he said. "You're as light as honey, sweetie."

"Let me go. Let me go." Eulalia fought with all her strength, pounding her fists on his back but it had no effect. He carried her like a sack of flour out the door. She caught a pungent scent on Tut's garden. Gasoline. Lots of it. They'd bathed the spring flowers in it. They were going to set Tut's house on fire.

"We're lighting up the sky this morning. They'll be seeing it as far as Panoply," said another one of Liliana's henchmen, his mud crusted boot resting on top the jug of gasoline. "Why are you frowning, love? It'll be beautiful, brighter than the stars." He pointed at the early morning sky, still star dusted. "It'll be a sight you'll dream about." He lit a match, his grin stretching his hollow cheeks. The house burst into flames that licked its way in to the children.

"Rowan... Rowan. Get up," Eulalia squealed. "Let me go." She thrashed. "Put me down." She struck Tolan with all the rage she could muster. "Please, put me down."

"Eulalia," Rowan shouted for her through the flames that barred his way. "Eulalia. Where are you going with her?"

His anguish made her wild with hysteria and she thrashed like a bird caught in net. "Please, let me go," she said, watching the ignited house through teary eyes. "Please." She kicked her legs, tried to wiggle free, but Tolan held her tighter. "Rowan." Eulalia screamed until her voice cracked. "Row..." He wasn't at the door anymore and all her attempts to break free had tired her. The front door crumpled, charred already, and the daffodils were on fire too.

Liliana's henchman threw his head back and howled.

Smoke clouds thick enough to rival Hills Hallow's autumn fog retook the morning. In a daze, Eulalia watched it all burn, the smolder transporting her through time, eight years ago, on the night of her family's death. The second of April, she'd always remember that date. It'd been easier before to swallow the guilt that she'd caused the fire that killed them.

Its bright, red tongue was sticking out at her. Mocking her in a way. Sorrow burned like the flames in her gut, never to let her go. She sobbed against her captor.

The pouring rain had lightened to a drizzle that speckled her arms, hanging down Tolan's back. He carried her past Tut's shack for the woods. It hurt laying across his shoulder, but she stopped caring the farther away they moved from the house. The rain on her skin, tumbling down her fingers, was all she cared to feel.

What was there left?