“I will,” he said, standing close enough that I could smell him. He smelled great. Fairies always do. “I know you met my father, Niall.”

I nodded, a very small movement. “Yes,” I said, to make sure.

“Did you love him?”

“Yes,” I said without hesitation. “I did. I do.”

“He’s easy to love; he’s charming,” Dermot said. “My mother, Einin, was beautiful, too. Not a fairy kind of beautiful, like Niall, but she was human-beautiful.”

“That’s what Niall told me,” I said. I was picking my way through a conversational minefield.

“Did he tell you the water fairies murdered my twin?”

“Did Niall tell me your brother was murdered? No, but I heard.”

“I saw parts of Fintan’s body. Neave and Lochlan had torn him limb from limb.”

“They helped drown my parents, too,” I said, holding my breath. What would he say?

“I . . .” He struggled to speak, his face desperate. “But I wasn’t there. I . . . Niall . . .” It was terrible to watch Dermot struggle to speak. I shouldn’t have had any mercy for him, since Niall had told me about Dermot’s part in my parents’ deaths. But I really couldn’t endure his pain.

“So how come you ended up siding with Breandan’s forces in the war?”

“He told me my father had killed my brother,” Dermot said bleakly. “And I believed him. I mistrusted my love for Niall. When I remembered my mother’s misery after Niall stopped coming to visit her, I thought Breandan must be right and we weren’t meant to mingle with humans. It never seems to turn out well for them. And I hated what I was, half-human. I was never at home anywhere.”

“So, are you feeling better now? About being a little bit human?”

“I’ve come to terms with it. I know my former actions were wrong, and I’m grieved that my father won’t let me into Faery.” The big blue eyes looked sad. I was too busy trying not to shake to get the full impact.

In a breath, out a breath. Calm, calm. “So now you’re thinking Jason and I are okay? You don’t want to hurt us anymore?”