Seventeen years old, blood drying on my face, and sitting inside a police station, I was asked who they should call to come get me.

The dark hallways of Fairhaven Manor felt like a labyrinth designed by nightmares. Rain pounded against the roof, and flashes of lightning periodically illuminated the portraits of long-dead Cavanaugh ancestors hanging along the walls.

I grabbed Toby, carrying him against my hip, while Marcus and Leo followed close behind as we moved silently toward the third-floor servant stairwell.

Down below, raised voices and the sound of kicking doors echoed up the grand staircase.

"Find the boys!" a harsh, raspy voice shouted in the darkness—a voice I recognized as Lieutenant Rossi himself. "Julian is trapped at the downtown docks! Clear the house and secure the drive! We take his sons, we take his kingdom!"

My heart hammered against my ribs. My father was caught in an ambush downtown, leaving his estate completely exposed.

Suddenly, a flashlight beam cut through the darkness at the end of the second-floor corridor.

"Hey!" a gruff voice called out. "I found 'em! Up here!"

"Run!" Marcus yelled, shoving Leo and me forward.

We sprinted up the narrow wooden steps leading to the third floor just as a gunshot cracked through the house, shattering a vase on the landing behind us. Toby hid his face in my neck, whimpering softly, but he didn't scream. He trusted us.

We reached the third-floor linen closet. I scrambled through the hanging sheets and towels, frantically feeling along the back wooden panel until my fingers caught the small iron latch my mother had described in her journal.

I pulled it hard. The back panel swung open with a soft creak, revealing a dark, narrow stone staircase spiraling down into the foundations of the house.

"In! Quickly!" I hissed.

Marcus pushed Leo inside first, then took Toby from my arms, helping him down the step.

"Lucas, come on!" Marcus whispered.

"I have to get Eleanor," I said, stepping back from the hidden doorway.

"Are you crazy?" Leo hissed from the darkness of the passage. "There are armed men down there!"

"She went to the ground floor to distract them!" I said, my voice resolute. "She stayed behind so we could reach this door! I am NOT leaving her behind!"

Marcus looked at me, his eyes full of fear, but then he slowly nodded. "Take my pocketknife. We'll wait in the carriage house for five minutes. If you aren't there... I'm coming back up."

"Five minutes," I agreed.

I pulled the hidden closet door almost shut, turned around, and crept back down the narrow servant stairwell into the darkness of the main house.

I navigated by the flashes of lightning through the high windows. As I reached the second-floor balcony overlooking the grand foyer, I heard a struggle happening near the main entrance below.

I pressed my back against the marble balustrade and looked down.

Eleanor was standing near the grand oak front door, her iron fireplace poker held high. Standing opposite her was Lieutenant Rossi, a greasy-haired man in a leather coat, holding a heavy handgun, flanked by three armed thugs.

"Where are Julian's boys, lady?" Rossi sneered, taking a step toward her. "Tell me, and I might let you walk out of here alive."

Eleanor didn't tremble. She stood taller, raising the iron poker, her eyes blazing with absolute defiance.

"You're standing in a house built on grief, Mr. Rossi," Eleanor said, her voice echoing clearly through the vaulted foyer. "And you won't take another step toward those children while I am breathing."

Rossi laughed—a dry, horrible sound. "You're a housekeeper. You're dying for a family that doesn't even care about you."

"You're wrong," I spoke up, stepping out onto the balcony above, holding a heavy marble statue I had pulled from a pedestal. "They do care."

Before Rossi could raise his gun, I hurled the heavy marble statue over the railing. It crashed directly onto the shoulders of the thug standing beside Rossi, sending the man crashing to the floor with a painful scream.