For the first time in her life, Aria saw her stepmother at a loss.

Lilith stood frozen in the middle of the throne room. Her proud shoulders trembled beneath the weight of the emotions she had never felt before. Fear. Disgust. Anger. And something else, something Aria couldn’t quite place, something she hadn’t seen before, something both raw and jagged that seemed to cut through Lilith’s heart before she quickly pushed it back out of her face.

Standing in front of Aria was the woman ...