With Lady Jeffrey and her horrid daughters gone, life returned to a semblance of what it had once been. Not just how it was before the Great War, but before her invasion of our home. A time when I undertook honest labour for my wage and wasn't treated like servant scum.I had only been ten years old when I kissed my mother goodbye and went to work for Sir Jeffrey. Children like Henry and me were expected to go into service young and work our fingers to the bone for our masters. But Sir Jeffrey let us be children first and domestics second.Days exploring the forest and swimming by the old mill after chores cemented the friendship between me, Henry, and Ella. That dormant sense of family returned to the Jeffrey farm in Lady Jeffrey's wake. We pulled together to get the work done. While this would never truly be my home, it was the only family I had known for most of my life.When one is born a servant, that is all one can expect of life?to serve. Friendship with Ella opened my eyes t

I froze, my mind numb as though I had thrust it into frigid water during winter. I simply couldn't comprehend a world without Alice. She was my best friend. We had worked, slept, and played next to each other for nearly ten years. What would I do without her big amber eyes flashing as she cajoled me into a hare-brained scheme?Frank raged. He howled at the sky while he dug his fists into the dirt as though he could find Alice under the grass. I understood his need to find her; I had nearly torn the countryside apart in the dark looking, myself. Now I would forever wish I had. While my friend had crazy powers of persuasion, they only worked on the living. No matter how hard she may have batted her eyelashes, I hadn't seen anyone wheedle their way out of a vermin's clutches.I dropped to the ground, trying to comprehend that Alice was gone. We had all wanted her to return safe and sound, but we had to confront the evidence?scuff marks on the ground, a discharged rifle, and a finger.S

We planned all afternoon until the light faded at the window, and Warrens snuck in and turned on the new electric lights. We detailed what we would need for our expedition, then we said our goodnights and I rode home. At least I had good news to share this time?Alice was alive. Wasn't she?Dinner was lively; an undercurrent of expectation ran through every comment. Or every glance, in the case of Henry. I loved these people and their unshakable belief that I would rescue Alice. But I feared disappointing them. I struggled to imagine Elizabeth keeping Alice alive, and I steeled myself in case we found only a vermin version of my best friend. I still couldn't sleep, but this time energy bubbled through me as though I were a shaken bottle of champagne. Sleep came in snatches, creeping up on me unaware, but at last morning dawned.Magda forced me to eat breakfast, declaring I couldn't charge off on a rescue mission on an empty stomach. It did no good to tell her of the nausea that gripped

Louise's lips curled in a smirk. "At last, the tardy scullery maid reports for work. We do need someone to clean up around here. It's terribly dirty and I could just kill for a cup of tea."For the thousandth time, I cursed the tired action that turned Louise from a thorn in my side to an undead thorn shoved under my fingernail. Or was she? Garden variety vermin weren?t usually chatty.Ignoring her dangling insult, I narrowed my gaze. "What are you, exactly? You don't look like one of Elizabeth's mindless minions."Had she Turned from Elizabeth's bite, or had one of the vermin subsequently scratched her? It was hard to tell if her heart had stopped beating when I wasn't so sure she had one to being with. She seemed too ?well, alive.There were obvious changes from the Louise of old. This version was no longer groomed and coiffured. She wore a black shirt underneath the strange coat that looked like it once belonged to a man. Her legs were clad in trousers with stripes made of dirt

We walked back through the tangled maze and past the slug-like vermin sitting on its boulder. Once again, it waved short stubby arms at us and made a gurgling roar. If the creature thought it was scary, it was sadly mistaken. Alice shook the mallet in its direction, and it gave a startled cry and fell silent."You should dispose of it, Ella." Alice's fingers curled tight around the mallet."It doesn't feel sporting to clamber up there and hit it from behind. Let's keep moving." I briefly considered seeing if it could play catch by tossing it a grenade. But the idea of raining vermin splatter on us stilled my hand. Instead, I tugged Alice along, but the vermin's black eyes tracked our movements as we pushed past its rock.We ducked under the last skeletal tree barrier and emerged on the short strip of rock that ran from maze to water's edge. The opposite bank rippled, like ripe wheat moving with a faint breeze, but this was no quaint agricultural scene. We were confronted by a black