My Step-Daughters Are The Villainesses

In Airam’s room, the sound of crying carried softly through the closed door.

Esther sat curled in Airam’s lap.

Her small body shook with every breath. Airam held her securely with one arm while the other moved slowly through Esther’s tangled blond hair, smoothing it down again and again in an attempt to calm her.

"I..." Esther choked on the words. "I—It is my fault....it is all my fault...."

"It is not your fault, Esther," Airam said.

She hated seeing her little sister cry.

Usually, when someone hurt Esther, Airam knew exactly what to do. She would find the person responsible. She would make them regret it. She would not care how powerful they were, how high their status stood, or what consequences followed afterward.

But this time, she could not hate the person responsible.

Not anymore.

She could not hate Ulrich.

Esther shook her head against Airam’s chest.

Tears ran endlessly down her cheeks. Her face had become red and swollen from crying, and her blue eyes were puffy beneath wet lashes. Her blond hair, normally kept neat with ribbons and careful braids, had become a tangled mess around her shoulders.

The past day had been too much for her.

Airam had been taken.

Esther had cried until she could barely breathe.

Then Ulrich had prevented them from following.

In that moment, fear had turned into anger. Esther had shouted at him. She had said cruel things. She had said she hated him.

Afterward, when Hendrick brought them back toward the Estate and explained that Ulrich had gone alone to retrieve Airam, the guilt had begun.

It had only grown from there.

Then Airam had returned.

Alive and safe.

Esther had felt relief so intense that she thought it might break her apart. For a short while, there had been happiness again. She had her elder sister back. The nightmare was over.

But Ulrich had returned too, broken, bloodied, and missing an arm.

And before Esther could apologize, before she could say that she had never meant those words, Ulrich had looked at them with fevered eyes and said that he should have killed them that day.

The words would not leave her mind.

"L—Lord Ulrich hates me..." Esther whispered.

Her voice cracked.

"H—He hates me because of me, Eldest Sister..."

Airam’s expression softened.

She pulled Esther closer.

"No," she said. "He does not hate you."

"He does," Esther insisted.

Her hands clutched at the front of Airam’s coat.

"He hates me."

"He does not."

"H—He said he should have killed us."

Airam fell silent for a moment.

Esther’s tears soaked into the dark fabric of Ulrich’s coat around Airam’s shoulders. She still was wearing it.

"He did not mean it," Airam said at last.

"But he said it."

"He was not fully awake."

"He looked at us."

Airam’s fingers paused briefly in Esther’s hair.

Then she resumed stroking it.

"He was remembering something," she said. "Something from before. Something that hurt him."

Esther did not seem convinced.

Across the room, Hermione spoke.

"He does hate us."

Airam raised her gaze.

Hermione sat near the edge of the bed, hugging her knees against her chest. Her silver hair fell around her face in loose, disordered strands. The tears on her porcelain cheeks had dried, leaving faint tracks beneath her ruby eyes.

But her eyes remained red.

Her expression was empty in the way it became when she was trying desperately not to cry again.

"He hates us," Hermione repeated quietly. "We only bring him trouble."

Airam looked at her.

"He accepted us knowing trouble would come."

Hermione shook her head.

Her silver hair moved with the motion.

"I do not think he expected this," she said. "He did not know we were Valmorian royalty. He thought witches were the only danger."

Her hands tightened around her legs.

"He thought he was taking in three girls with dangerous magic. He did not know our father was the Emperor of Valmoria. He did not know Valdris would come after us. He did not know that simply protecting us could bring an Empire against him."

"Even after he learned it, he did not throw us away," Airam replied.

Hermione lowered her head.

"He will eventually."

Airam’s eyes narrowed.

"And he should."

"B—Big sister..." Esther whispered.

Hermione did not look up.

She pulled her knees closer and buried her face against them. Her toes curled against the mattress as her body began to shake.

"I...I did not know," she said.

Her voice was muffled.

"I did not know he was going after Airam."

Airam watched her silently.

"And I insulted him anyway," Hermione continued. "I screamed at him. I called him cruel. I said he did not care. I said he was abandoning you."

Her breath froze a bit.

"Then Hendrick told us what he did. He told us Ulrich went alone because he wanted to keep Esther and me safe."

Fresh tears slipped from Hermione’s eyes.

"I—I am the worst."

"You are not," Airam said.

Hermione shook her head harder.

"Even if he let you go, it was because he thought keeping us behind was safer. He has given us everything. He helped us when no one else would."

Her voice broke.

"And I hated him for one moment because I was afraid..."

She bit her lip.

"I cursed him. I hated him even though he protected us until now, and then he went alone to bring you back."

Hermione could not finish.

Airam looked down at Esther.

Esther had begun crying harder.

Though Esther had not shouted at Ulrich as much as Hermione, she had said it too.

She had told him she hated him.

Perhaps in that moment, when fear had taken over, part of her had believed it. She had thought Ulrich was letting Airam be taken away. She had thought he was abandoning her eldest sister.

But it had never been real hatred.

Not for Ulrich.

Not for the man Esther had admired so much.

Airam held Esther more tightly.

"You both reacted because of me," she said quietly.

"You were afraid."

Hermione slowly lifted her head.

Her eyes met Airam’s.

"You did not know what he was going to do," Airam continued. "You did not know he would go after me. You only knew that I had been taken away."

"But—"

"You thought you were losing your sister."

Hermione fell silent.

Esther sniffed against Airam’s chest.

Airam looked between them.

"You were not wrong to be afraid," she said. "And you were not wrong to want to save me."

"But we hurt him," Hermione whispered.

"Yes," Airam replied.

The honesty of the answer made both girls go still.

Airam’s gaze softened.

"You hurt him," she said. "And he hurt you too."

Esther’s lips trembled.

"But that does not mean he hates you."

Hermione stared at her.

"How can you be sure?"

Airam looked down at the dark coat wrapped around her shoulders.

For a moment, she remembered the road home.

Ulrich’s hand around the reins.

His body barely holding itself upright behind her.

The way he had continued forward even while his body begged him to stop.

The way he had come for her.

After everything that had happened, from the moment Ulrich fought to take her back from Valdris, through the battle at the harbor, the inn, and the long journey home, Airam believed she finally understood him.

Not entirely but Airam understood enough.

She knew that his words did not always reflect what he felt.

No matter what Ulrich said when he woke, Airam would know what he truly felt toward her.

He had crossed death for her.

That was enough.

"I... I cannot," Hermione whispered, shaking her head.

Airam turned toward her.

She stared down at the blanket beneath her feet, refusing to meet Airam’s eyes.

"I said those hateful things," Hermione continued.

Her voice trembled.

"How can I ever look at him again?"

She swallowed hard.

"He hates us. We only bring him trouble."

Esther let out another broken sound from Airam’s lap.

"I—I said mean things too," she whispered.

Tears filled her blue eyes again.

"Lord Ulrich will never forgive me. He... he will not look at me the same anymore..."

That was what frightened Esther most.

Not that Ulrich would punish her.

Not that he would raise his voice.

Not even that he would be angry.

She feared that he would become distant.

That the small kindnesses he gave her, not necessarily in words but in simple gazes.

Ulrich had always been cold in his own way, but he had been softer with Esther than with anyone else.

He had never said it aloud, but Esther knew.

She had felt it.

Now she feared she had ruined it.

She had shown him that when Airam was taken, none of the things he had done for them mattered. Not the home. Not the food. Not the lessons. Not the protection. Not the two years he had spent raising them and keeping them safe.

When fear took hold, Hermione and Esther had only seen one thing.

Airam was gone.

And Ulrich had stopped them from following.

To them, it must have looked as though he had handed Airam over.

They had not known that he was buying time.

They had not known he was making the most difficult choice alone so that he could have the best chance of bringing her back.

He had fought for Airam.

His knights had died.

He had been forced to retreat, to plan, to choose the safer path for Hermione and Esther even when they hated him for it.

And afterward, he had gone alone.

The realization made Hermione’s guilt feel unbearable.

"We should leave," she said.

Airam’s head snapped toward her.

Esther raised her tear-filled eyes.

Hermione’s expression had twisted into something painful.

"We caused him enough trouble," she said. "We insulted him. We hurt him. And now he will never see us the same way again."

Her hands tightened around her knees.

"There will be a difference."

Airam said nothing.

"He will treat us differently," Hermione continued. "He will look at us differently. He will remember what we said. He will remember that the moment Airam was taken, w...we thought he had abandoned her...."

Her voice grew quieter.

"And perhaps he should."

Esther’s lips trembled.

"Big sister..."

Hermione looked toward Airam.

Tears had begun falling again, though she wiped them away clumsily with the sleeve of her dress.

"We have made his life worse since the day he took us in," she said. "First the witches. Then Libra. Then the capital. Now Valmoria."

She took a shaking breath.

"Maybe we should not stay here anymore."

The room went silent.

Airam stared at her.

Hermione lowered her gaze.

"We should leave tonight," she whispered. "Before anyone else comes here because of us."