Stephen

"Where are you going?" A girl's voice asked.

Stephen whipped around from his perch on the castle wall he was planning to scale down, and hissed at the 10-year-old, "Elisa go back." Ever since she had learned to "sneak," she'd been insufferable, following them around and getting into places she wasn't supposed to. She'd even learned to sneak out of her etiquette lessons to join them in sword or archery lessons, not that she was very good. Now for her to be following him as he snuck out of the castle….

"You're going to see Zellandine again, aren't you?" She hissed back at him, a knowing expression on her childish face.

He flushed slightly. "No."

She pouted, folding her arms across her chest, "Every time you leave to see Zellandine, father yells at George in his office, you know. And then Jack threatens to run all the way to the Northern country just to prove he can go farther than you, and Morrigan gets father to lock him in his room."

A hand covered the little girl's mouth before she could say more. Their entire brood of twelve had gathered at the castle wall and here he'd thought he'd been doing such a good job. George lifted his chin at him, "Go on."

"It's not fair." Elisa complained, peeling George's hand away from her mouth. "Why does Stephen get to go on adventures while everyone else has to get yelled at?"

"Elisa, he hasn't been sneaking out to see Zellandine. He only did that once." Liam explained, crouching in front of her.

"Liam." George scolded, but the younger boy just stared up at him defiantly. He was shorter and more slender than the well-built George, but the two of them had butt heads enough for neither of them to back down.

"She has a right to know, George. If we catch Morrigan practicing witchcraft, it affects all of us, even her."

Elisa frowned at Liam. "Morrigan wouldn't practice witchcraft! Morrigan is mean, but she's not really bad at heart. She tells me stories about mama."

Stephen grunted and hopped down from the wall lithely, irritated at having to watch this conversation. "So you've noticed, too?" He asked his brothers, ignoring Elisa. She threw a punch at his stomach, but he dodged.

Liam cast George and Harry a look, "Jack noticed first when she locked him in the West Tower that one time. You know how good he is at sneaking out of places, but every time he tried to leave, he found himself back in the room. Then there was that servant who got executed for trying to poison her. George had told her to report if she found anything strange in Morrigan's room. A week before she got executed, she brought him a weird chest she'd never seen in the castle before. It took a while for Harry and I to figure out how to crack it open, but… there was a heart in it. I think it was a human heart." He and Stephen scrunched up their faces in identical expressions of disgust, Liam from remembering, Stephen from imagining.

Christopher just sighed and brushed his hands off, even though there was nothing on them. "It's not really much of a surprise. She's told me herself that her mother was a witch."

They all turned to stare at him. "When did she tell you that?" Jack asked first, a mischievous half-smile on his face.

Christopher shrugged, "A few years ago. What does it matter? You all were too busy with all your… complicated stuff, and we all knew she was a hag anyways."

"She's not a hag!" Elisa protested. "And she's not a witch. Maybe her mom was one and left her that gross box, that doesn't mean she is one, herself. She's always been nice to me."

Jack made an impatient noise at her, flapping his hand dismissively, "That's cause she liked mom. Y'know how she is, going 'Elena, Elena.'" He mimicked in a rude falsetto.

"I know that!" Elisa almost shouted, causing several people to shush her. "But she can be a really nice person. She cares about the country, and about us."

Jack scoffed at her outright, but it was Stephen who spoke up, pulling his fingers thoughtfully through his almost golden brown hair. "Well, maybe about the country, but whatever she's planning, it's probably not going to be good for us. She had pieces of paper with our names on it in a cottage in the woods, along with twelve dead, plucked birds." His face scrunched up in that disgusted expression again, "She's making shirts out of the feathers. I've been messing with them, but last time I was there, she was almost done with them."

"You don't know that cottage is hers." Elisa continued to protest, although her brothers were mostly talking over her.

"Oh yes we do." Stephen retorted. "I've seen her coming in and out right around dawn. I was planning to go burn it down today before she gets there. If you don't believe me, see for yourself." He said, finally annoyed enough to issue a challenge.

"Okay, I will." She snapped back.

"You certainly will not." George said, sternly. "Not just the two of you."

"Well, I'm burning it today, so if any of you want to see it, then today's the day." Stephen said, and before anyone could stop him, he had made it over the wall. Jack was halfway over as well in a heartbeat, and Elisa wasn't far behind.