Ronan didn’t speak again until we were back inside the estate walls, Priya safely returned and shaking quietly in Garrick’s careful, steadying grip, the rest of the house gathering in the kitchen with the particular tense stillness that had become our default state over the last several weeks.
“Say it again,” Odile said gently, once Ronan had repeated what the figure told us. “Slowly. I want to be certain I understood you correctly.”
“He said I’m not fully what I’ve always assumed I was.” Ronan’s hands had curled into fists on the table, the closest thing to visible fear I’d ever watched from him. “Odile, my father died before I could walk. My mother never spoke of him except that one name, murmured in her sleep like something she was afraid of remembering while awake. I always assumed g
