A huge stone crashed outside. The front door shook. “That one hit the porch,” Quinn said. He blinked at the next rock that came through. “Does he have a trebuchet?”

“He’s laying siege,” Solange said. “So he might. At heart he’s still a knight. He’ll wait us out or burn us out.”

“We have supplies,” Connor pointed out. “And come sunrise he has to give up his ground.”

“Only if he doesn’t have humans fighting for him,” Duncan added as he and Marcus came back up the stairs.

“We could take them” Quinn scoffed. “Hell, Lucy could take them.”

I grabbed a bow from Marcus and a quiver of arrows. “Can I start now?”

“Stay away from the windows, Lucy,” Helena said, automatically. Another Chandramaa arrow came through the broken glass, skimming the bottom of the chandelier and slamming into the stair railing. There was a note wrapped around the painted shaft. Liam reached up to snap it loose.

“Give us the queen,” he read out just as the phone rang.

Helena plucked it out of the cradle. I could see the deadly glint in her eye reflected in the mirror hanging over the table. I reached back to hold Nicholas’s hand. That look never boded well. “We don’t deal with cowards and terrorists,” she spat in the phone. “So you can take your—”

Liam grabbed the phone. Helena hissed at him and they had a mini tug-of-war over the receiver. Liam finally wrested it free but only after she broke his little finger. He set it with a crack and a telling glance that had her shrugging sheepishly.

“I can stop this,” Solange said as her dad spoke evenly and calmly into the phone. When no one answered her, she stepped toward the front door. Suddenly everyone leaped forward, crowding in front of her. She sighed. “This is ridiculous.”

“What else do you suggest, young lady?” Helena asked. “That we just let you waltz out there unprotected?”

“Just let me go out there and call off the Chandramaa and revoke your banishment. They have to listen to me, I’m their freaking queen, remember?” She grimaced slightly when she said the word ‘queen’ as if she couldn’t help herself. I wondered if she remembered lounging in the tent wearing a crown on her head.

“Constantine has other men,” Isabeau interjected. “It would be a mistake to assume it is only Chandramaa out there.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Solange argued. “They don’t want to hurt me.”

“No,” Helena said, but she was frowning thoughtfully.

“At least listen to me,” Solange retorted quietly. I could tell by the way she curled her fingers that she was trying not to nervously wipe her palms on her jeans. She occupied herself with fitting the dark-painted shield over her heart. “I know Viola well enough by now that I should be able to fool Constantine just long enough to get back inside the camp, especially if you put up a token fight so he doesn’t suspect anything.”

“It’s a good plan,” Liam agreed slowly, after hanging up. “There’s only one problem with it.”

“Which is?”

“Sending my baby girl out alone to that bloody lot of degenerates,” he replied acidly.

“Daddy, it’s the best way and you know it. I’m as safe with them as I am with you. They’re the only other ones left who don’t want to kill me, apparently.”

“Not precisely a winning argument,” Liam said, but he was half smiling. It made him look younger and just like Nicholas.

“You can follow us. That way, as soon as I get in there to call off the banishment, you’ll be right there already.”

“I hate every part of this plan,” Helena said darkly as I coughed on the smoke lingering in the hall. “Especially the part where you might just be right.”

“London died because of this stupid prophecy and these stupid politics,” Solange said. “If I can stop it but instead I sit here and let everyone else risk their lives then she died for nothing. And one of you might be next. What would that make me?”

I blinked. “London died?” I might not have liked her, but she didn’t deserve to be really dead.

Something that sounded like a small bomb went off somewhere at the end of the driveway.

“And the longer we wait here, the more danger Sebastian and Bruno are in,” Solange added as Byron hid under the library table. Boudicca went to the solarium and growled viciously through the glass. Helena swore.

“Okay,” she said finally, after she and Liam looked at each other. “We’ll go out first and clear a path. Solange, you go next. Quinn, Connor, Duncan, you take the rear guard in case anyone breaks through. Logan, Marcus, go around back. Isabeau?”

“I will fight,” she said.

“Thank you. Geoffrey and Hyacinth will stay with Christabel. Nicholas, you take Lucy home. Take the secret tunnel.” It was the one reserved for family emergencies. I wasn’t even sure my mom knew how to get to it.

“I can go alone,” I said. “They’re not after me.”

“No.” It was a Drake chorus, each voice with the same sharp tone. Even Isabeau chimed in.

“We are having a hell of a slumber party when this is over,” I said, hugging Solange hard.

“Chocolate death,” she agreed, hugging me back.

“You’ll kick ass,” I whispered. “And kick his once for me too. And call me when you can.”