I say as much to Roy, hoping he’ll return to Ravenfall where it’s safe, but expecting him to just laugh me off. He does neither.

Instead, he sets his food aside and joins me on my bed. “Has anyone told you the story of why your parents left the trade?”

I shake my head, and he takes a deep breath, settling his hands in his lap where they spark nervously. “It was my fault.”

That gets my attention. I angle toward him to listen.

“I’m the youngest of our lot. Elaine’s nearly eight years older than me, same as your parents, and Nora about six,” he says. “Despite that, the five of us were pretty good friends, though I always felt a little like I was tagging along from behind.”

Now that’s a feeling I get. The last week has had me feeling left behind in the dust, as if all the world were in on a secret only I didn’t know, because no one thought I could handle it.

“I told you before that Elaine and I sometimes trained with your parents and some local Ravens who taught them, but what I didn’t say is how much I longed to be a real Raven. Your parents indulged me, especially Bridget.” Here, he smiles softly before continuing. “But they never actually let me go out on hunts with them.”

“Too dangerous,” I mutter, the same reason they never told me the truth.

He nods. “They were right, but I didn’t see that at the time. I was barely fifteen and desperate to prove I could do everything they could. So one night I went out into the woods with a bundle of bluebells intending to call some faeries. Just something harmless that I could capture and bring home.”

My stomach begins to sink as I see where his story is going.

“I got a redcap instead.” He shivers at the memory. “Nasty creatures. The only thing they care about is finding the next source of blood to wet their cap. I was in over my head and running for my life when Bridget found me. Nora’d had a vision of me in danger.”

I’m fully facing him now, enraptured by his story.

“Turns out the blood of a Raven is a mighty powerful thing to a redcap.” Roy’s hands wring in his lap, the sparks coming quicker. “One, Bridget could handle, but the redcap had friends. She fought three of them on her own until your father and Elaine got there. By the time the redcaps were dead, your mother could barely stand. We almost didn’t get her to the hospital in time.”

He swallows hard, looking at me for the first time. “I didn’t find out until later that she was pregnant with your brother, Liam. She almost lost him. When they found out what I’d done, Niall exploded.”