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plans to join her life with that of a sadist.
    The contents of that data, even the little they did know, was terrifying. What had her father done? And what of her mother if she got caught?
    Her mother raised her to be strong even in the face of challenges. This was the biggest one of her life, and it was up to her to make something of it.
    She used the call to summon Claira as she began to pace.

Chapter 3
    C arina left her guards outside the door, retreating into her bedchamber and closing those doors as well. In the pale light she crossed to her wardrobe, pushing it aside so she could stuff herself through the small space behind it. Sucking her belly in, she pressed the depression in the floorboard, exposing a crawl space. Pulling the wardrobe back into place, she turned and moved down the narrow hall until she reached the hidden passageway just beyond.
    Here it was blessedly cool, the thickness of the stone around them deflecting the heat. There had been many times she’d come here just to enjoy a few minutes of total privacy. The silence and the solace embraced her, calmed her. Reminded her how rare such things were in her life.
    As children, she and Vincenz had used these secret spaces to move about the compound without notice of their parents or the guards. YaYa, their grandmother, had shown them the entrance in Vincenz’s rooms. Only later did they find the one in the rear of Carina’s bedchamber.
    It was impossible not to think fondly on those nights she and her brother had snuck down to the stables to give fruit to the animals and to play with the children of the staff. Oh, Vincenz, she sighed, missing him, wishing he were there to help make things right. She was really frightened of making a mistake. He’d know what to do.
    But he wasn’t there. There was no one else to do this but her, and she needed to buck up and do it. The Fardelle women were stronger than most knew. Her mother was taking great risks for Carina that very moment. YaYa had been the bravest person Carina knew. If they could do it, she could. She had to.
    It made a depressing sort of sense that the Fardelle women were always looking for a way to escape. YaYa, her paternal grandmother, had given birth to sixteen children and had insisted on raising them all herself. There were no wet nurses or nannies. But her grandfather had removed all his sons from her care when they’d been old enough to begin military training. Later, Esta was sent there as in infant, having been contracted to marry the oldest Fardelle when he reached the age of majority, and YaYa had become Esta’s mother, too.
    Women didn’t always fare well in their world. Her grandmother had disappeared shortly after Vincenz had escaped. One day she’d been there, running the household with her signature efficiency, and the next, she was gone.
    Carina had wandered the compound, asking where YaYa had been. No one would meet her eyes. No one would tell her anything, and her father had yelled at her and made her leave the room when she’d asked him. Her mother had counseled her in very strong terms to stop asking, telling her YaYa had gone and wouldn’t be back and there was nothing Carina could do about it but stay alive.
    That had been the year she realized there was no one to save her. No matter how much her mother loved her, it wasn’t in her mother’s power to save her, should her father decide Carina needed to disappear, too. Carina needed to remember that. Needed to remember no one was safe.
    There was no way she could help anyone if she stayed. If she got this information out, there were those, men who used to be part of her father’s inner circle, who had a decent chance of winning in a bid to run the Imperium. It might end up saving her little brother’s life.
    Scared or not, she had to act.
    The passageway continued to slope downward until she finally reached the crawl space in the drying lofts in the stables. Being full dark, the area was deserted, so no one saw her