“No,” said Leander, “it isn’t. It was childish, all these years, to keep on hoping, somehow, that you might one day forgive me for who I was born to be. It was childish to imagine that you both might secretly care despite everything you ever said or did to me; or that you might ever accept who I really am. But I’m not childish enough to hope for that any longer—because this time, you didn’t only put me into danger. You hurt my fiancée. You threatened our home and all of our friends. I will not allow that to stand.”

His mother let out a high-pitched peal of laughter. “If you think that we’ve made life difficult for you—”

“It is about to become a good deal more difficult,” Leander said evenly, “if you threaten even one more community with your hypocritical brand of manipulation.”

“And what do you propose to do about that?” His father raked him with a contemptuous look. “Even you wouldn’t threaten to murder your own parents.”

“Quite the opposite.” Leander smiled thinly as he flicked a piece of non-existent dust off one velvet cuff. “I’m going to un-revoke my membership in our family.”

Anne Forbes stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re the one who kept on calling me ‘Andrew.’ Remember?” He shrugged. “Perhaps it is time, after all, to change my name back to the one you gave me. Why would I want to hide our connection, if I no longer feel any obligations to you?”

Her mouth dropped open. “But you wouldn’t...”

“Of course I would. I have a new family to protect. And if that requires traveling around the country to publicly wax rhapsodic about exactly how your parenting made me who I am—not to mention explaining to every potential employer exactly how you’d secretly intended to make use of my unnatural powers while claiming allegiance to Purity in public...”

For once, Leander’s father didn’t say a word. But his face darkened with rage in the green half-light.

“You’re not content to have ruined our lives once already?” Anne pressed her lips together as she shook her head at him. “If you had any idea of how much damage you’d already done—”

I put my hand on Leander’s back in silent support as Dad and Uriah and so many others gathered around us.

But my fiancé’s voice didn’t falter as he looked into her eyes. “I was a frightened child, Mother. Now I am an adult, and I will not take responsibility for your disappointment any longer.”

“Quite right.” Eliza let out a loud snort, shockingly close behind us. “Better get out quickly and quietly, I’d say, unless you want to hear what the rest of us think about it!”