Page 58 of A Courage of the Chosen

Lady Calder eyes me with a newfound respect. Lord Haddow seems to have thawed, too, and I think I see more flickers of approval in his gaze.

It’s clear Lady Navin and Lord Fettis don’t feel the same, and they outright glower when I speak directly to them. Lord Garside remains as indecipherable as ever, but given that he was the first to agree when I pushed, I figure he’s beginning to believe me as well. Or at the very least, believe the threat is as big as it’s ever been and we need to do something about it.

Reyne fits into her role as advisor naturally, as though it was made for her. She holds a command I’ve only ever seen in the training ring, when she sheds who she thinks she should be and lets her true self shine through.

Hector picks up on it too, and tears form in his eyes when she leads the conversation with grace and authority.

“I think we should allow Her Majesty to announce herself as queen tomorrow. It’s part of her story, and Elsie should be the one to tell her people that we follow the Darrow bloodline into war for our freedom.”

The significance of her words settles like bricks along my bones.

“Aye, we should.” The quick agreement from Lord Garside catches me off-guard for the second time this morning. Perhaps I’ve read him wrong, and he’s believed me all along.

Lady Navin and Lord Fettis whip their heads in his direction, their objections ready behind teeth sharp.

“We could be being deceived,” Lady Navin says. “If what she says about Raghnall and Tavish is true, and their claim to the throne was falsified as well, shouldn’t we be more cautious about accepting only her words as fact?”

As much as I don’t like the woman, she has a point.

“Are you implying that I’m also lying, Lady Navin?” Hector adds. “That the men and women who witnessed Tavish’s power have been deceived? What about her power?”

Lady Navin’s nostrils flare, her expression stern and ready to argue. This is how it’s gone since I arrived. Every word out of my mouth doubted and mistrusted. Only it’s obviously a personal issue when it comes to certain members of this council.

“Bring our guest in please, Brodie,” I say, cutting off the impending debate between Lady Navin and Hector.

Brodie rises without hesitation and opens the door, disappearing for a few moments. The room is stunned into silence again when Grandpa follows Brodie as he reenters. He’s been waiting patiently in the throne room until we needed him.

“It cannot be,” Lord Haddow gasps at the same time Lord Garside mutters, “General Gilday.”

“I’m no longer your general, but it is good to see you both after so long,” Grandpa says, with one side of his mouth ticked up.

“What happened to your accent?” Lord Garside asks, rising to clasp Grandpa’s forearm in greeting.

“I spent so long masking it that this is the new normal for me.” The same tale as Rach. They’ve lived so long in the human world, hiding who they were, that some parts of their mask have become the fabric of who they’ve become.

Grandpa joins me at the head of the table and takes my hand in his.

Lord Fettis focuses on the contact between us. “How are you alive? We were told you died in the attack.” The question is almost unwilling.

“Màiri helped us escape. I’m alive today because of her and her alone. As are a lot of Seelie hidden beyond the barrier.” Only I notice the way Grandpa’s voice quivers slightly at her name. His soul-bonded wife. His Anamara.

“We hid for over a century, moving from place to place so we couldn’t be found. Màiri came back as often as she could, searching for ways to bring the Dorche to an end. When she fell pregnant, she couldn’t risk our unborn baby. So she didn’t return, and we hid ourselves so our child could lead a normal life.”

“What of Elsie’s parents?” Lady Calder asks. “She claims they were Seelie, and no longer with us.”

“Elsie is correct. Our daughter never knew the truth of her heritage. She happened across someone who came over the barrier with us. He was found by the Dorche and killed after Elsie was conceived. He was Seelie.”

He tells the lie so smoothly.

My father was never found by Dorche—he was Dorche, and Granny and Grandpa were the ones to end him to protect us.

My chest freezes over, still unsure what that actually means. It could mean nothing at all. Or it could mean everything.

For a fraction, my eyes cloud over with darkness, as all the secrets I’m keeping emerge from their hiding spots at once. Shadows crowd out everything as the shackled beast roars for freedom, and the place it resides becomes a black hole, sucking me into orbit.

“Eventually, the past caught up to us.” The way Grandpa’s tone grows even softer pulls my focus away from the circling questions.

Everyone is focused on him. All except Callahan, who flits his attention between me and Grandpa as a muscle feathers along his jaw.