Page 30 of Alan

“He did not,” Alan assured him. “I’m sorry. He kept this from all of you, and so did I. I was certain that after so many years, it no longer mattered to the clan.”

“No longer mattered?” Selene bellowed, standing. “I have missed my daughter every single day since then. The entire clan has missed her presence!”

“You did not have to banish her,” Alan replied, also standing.

I thought he might be making a mistake.

No. I was sure of it.

“It was the law,” Selene hissed.

“It was still your decision whether or not to cast out your only daughter. That was not Gavin’s doing. It was not even the fault of the clan member responsible. You made that decision. You alone.”

Selene’s powerful hands clenched into fists.

I wanted to slide off my chair and under the table, just in case firebolts started flying.

“Unlike your so-called leader, I would not have been able to hide the pregnancy. My daughter was the one who would have to bear the brunt of the looks and whispers and questions. Your pathetic excuse for a man, whoever he was, could pretend to have nothing to do with her. I’m certain he must have known of her predicament, and he did not even have the courage to stand beside her. Instead, he ran like a frightened child and hid behind Gavin. And Gavin could feign ignorance. I had no such luxury.”

The clan members on my side of the table muttered to each other, grumbling and shaking their heads. I felt sorry for Alan all over again. He only did what he thought was right, keeping the secret for the better of the entire clan.

It hadn’t been his decision to shield the baby’s father. Why couldn’t any of them see it?

I gasped when the truth hit me. None of them had announced it—they were too busy arguing and throwing accusations around, reliving old pain and hurt. I knew how that went, and I knew how easy it could be to forget what was right in front of me when I was in that state of mind.

“It’s you.” I caught Keira’s eye from behind Alan’s back. “You’re the baby.”

She went deadly pale, frozen solid. “No. It can’t be.”

“It has to be. She called you the heiress, remember? You’re her granddaughter.”

Tamhas overheard, turning to me before taking Keira’s shoulders. “Selene referred to you as their heiress? Your father was one of us?”

“No,” Keira whispered, shaking her head. “I can’t be.”

“You are,” he insisted, as the rest of the clan and the coven broke out into even louder arguing. Only the three of us hadn’t joined in. “Keira, you’re half-dragon.”

I never understood before then what people meant when they said something made their jaw hit the floor. I’d heard it so many times, and it had always seemed like a stupid thing to say. A jaw couldn’t hit the floor. Everybody knew it.

And yet, mine did just then. Hey, I had never believed in real witches before then, either.

Keira let out a choked sound, looking at me over Tamhas’s shoulder. “I didn’t tell her. She doesn’t know about that.”

“You’re… you’re all…” I couldn’t breathe. The force of the blood rushing in my ears muffled everything else around me as I looked from one of them to the other. Dragons? No! Impossible! There was no such thing!

But Keira hadn’t denied it.

And if witches existed, dragons might, too.

I had to get out of there. Away from them, away from all of it. I pushed my chair back hard enough to knock it backward and staggered to the tunnel. I was running blind, heading for the darkness, but it didn’t matter.

I would almost rather impale myself on a jagged piece of rock than exist in a world where nothing made sense anymore.

A voice roared out behind me, breaking through the rushing and pounding in my ears.

“Do not touch her!”

I didn’t know who it was. I only knew they kept the witches from stopping me as I fled down the tunnel, stumbling my way to the light and away from a nightmare I refused to be part of.

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