Page 267 of The Poison Daughter
I can feel the eyes of the crowd on me, the people around us shifting and noticing Harlow beside me. I take a step closer to her, feeling protective of my grieving wife.
Kellan clears his throat, and the crowd turns their attention back as he looks toward the other side of the stage, where Libby is standing. “I have two children with my lovely wife, and another on the way. I want them to grow up in a city where they aren’t used for their magic or lack thereof. Where they strive to improve the lives of this community. We know what it takes to survive in isolation, but I’d like to see us thrive.”
The shouts of approval grow even louder, and when I look toward the back of the crowd, I see that it’s grown since the start of his speech. People are pouring in from all sides to hear what he has to say.
“Finally, I know that many of you are wondering where my parents are,” Kellan says. “When the poison is in your own line, you have to cut it out yourself. My parents were a risk to everyone in this community. I don’t think we will ever unravel the entirety of the hurts they’ve caused. Even I’m not immune. They gave my sister Aidia to Rafe Mattingly, knowing he was abusive. They saw the marks on her body—many of you did, too. But they did nothing about it. As long as Rafe was handled, they didn’t care what it cost. They even covered it up when he killed her.”
Gasps go through the crowd, and Kellan looks directly at Harlow. His grief is completely unmasked and so familiar because I have seen that look on my own face so many times over the past ten years.
He straightens and looks out over the crowd. “But last night I ensured that they won’t have the chance to hurt anyone in or out of our house again. Harrick and Liza Carrenwell are dead.”
I expect complete chaos, but there are just hushed whispers and shock. Kellan waits, his body tense and braced for impact. Across the crowd, Carter catches my eye and shrugs, nodding at Kellan like he’simpressed. Without a doubt, my brother-in-law is a better speaker than Harrick ever was, and from the looks of the faces on the crowd, he already has their respect.
It feels too easy, but I think that’s because most of the suffering happened before we returned to Lunameade. These people, the blessed and those without magic, have been struggling here for a long time under the oppressive hands of Harrick and Liza. None of it was easy for them.
I look at Harlow. Her face is inscrutable, but I can feel her pride and grief mixing together as she watches Kellan take responsibility for her violence. His apology to the crowd is just as much an apology to her.
“I’m glad I didn’t kill him last night,” she whispers when she catches me looking.
“Was that a possibility?” I ask.
She shrugs a shoulder. “It was hard to believe he didn’t know what was going on, but I think my parents intentionally left him out of things they knew would make him angry. My father was always very careful with Kellan. He wanted a child blessed by Polm, but it’s a double-edged sword. He provides security, but he can also kill you. Kellan’s magic is strong. If he had publicly resisted them—” She shakes her head, trailing off as her brother begins to speak again.
“I wish it hadn’t come to this, and I would have avoided it if I could think of any other way,” Kellan says. “But my father had become too volatile and unpredictable in his old age. I know this won’t undo the harm they’ve caused, and it hasn’t undone the guilt I feel for not being able to do anything until now, but real change takes time. I wanted everyone to have a chance to see what Lunameade could be if we worked together. But, most of all, I wanted you all to know that I am willing to stand between you and danger, not because I want to be a leader, but because I have been blessed with the power to.”
Kellan waves to a bar on the edge of the center square. Spanning it is a mural of the discovery of the well. Beneath the painting, the rest of the Carrenwell siblings stand with their gatehouse banners raised. Each house has a color, and all are represented except the black banner of North Hold, since Rafe has been detained, and the blue of South Hold, which is held by Kellan’s son, who stands at the edge of the stage.
“The rest of the high magical houses have pledged their support tohis plan. Now I’m asking for yours,” Kellan says. “I’m not asking to be your leader for life. Just through this transition, so you can safely choose who you want governing Lunameade going forward. Thank you for hearing me out.”
The crowd erupts into cheering and clapping. The mood is more celebratory than I expected, but maybe I underestimated how it would feel for them to be out from under Harrick’s punitive rule.
Kellan crosses the stage and steps down beside us, his gaze fixed on Harlow.
“You were Rochelli this whole time, Kel?” she says breathlessly. “I know it’s only been intense this past year, but there were murmurs of him for a long time before that. I suppose you could keep it going by being both captain of the city guard and target of the guard’s investigation.”
He shrugs sheepishly. Gone is the confident leader who spoke to the crowd with poise. In his place is a worried older brother—who Harlow apparently almost killed last night.
“It was the only way,” Kellan says. “I couldn’t challenge them outright, but I could create a persona and see how they rose to meet him.”
Harlow shakes her head. “That’s a huge risk to take. How did you keep it a secret?”
Kellan swallows thickly. “You know my magic, Low. It’s not that hard to use it to direct suspicion elsewhere. That and Aidia gave me a glamoured cuff so I could change my appearance. I started rumors a few years back when I found out about the Vardek-blessed children, but I intensified it when I realized Rafe was beating Aidia. I just didn’t work fast enough.”
Harlow looks away for a moment, and when she looks back at him, her eyes are glassy. “Youset me up to kill Henry,” she says, her voice cutting through the crowd’s cheering.
Kellan leans in close. “I wasn’t about to let our parents ship you off, too, Low. I set you up to meet him, and I figured if he was the good guy I met years ago at the last Dark Star Festival before the fort fell, he wouldn’t take you upstairs. And if he wasn’t, then he would die, and you would be safe again.” He smiles sheepishly at me. “No offense.”
I hold up a hand. “None taken. I had a sister, too.”
Harlow glowers at him. “You could have told me.”
Kellan shakes his head and waves to the crowd. “No, I couldn’t have. But I’m happy I can now. We can catch up later.” He kisses her cheek and disappears into the crush of people.
I hardly know what to do with myself. This is a victory, albeit not in the way I expected. Harrick is dead, and while the people of Lunameade will never know the full extent of his crimes, that public apology was more than I was expecting to get out of this arrangement.
So was a wife I’m in love with.
It’s like Harlow can feel me thinking about her. She notices that she’s holding my hand and releases it. I’ve never been so bereft by the loss of such simple intimacy.
