“Not quite as innocent as you thought,” he said, with a smile that was more grimace, like he was trying not to throw up. He pushed his chair back. “Okay, I…I’ll go…”

He got one step before I leapt up and took his arm.

“No. Please,” I said. “I knew…I’d already figured out…I just had to see…I’m sorry. I should have just asked, but I had to know.”

“You didn’t do it,” Gabriel said from his spot near the door. “I did.”

I shook my head. “I planned to. I would have. It was wrong, and I knew that before I did it, which only makes it worse.”

Todd returned to his chair. He lowered himself into it and rubbed his mouth.

“I’m really, really sorry,” I said, tears threatening again.

“No, you were right. And Gabriel was right to help when you couldn’t. You had to know the whole thing. See the whole thing. What I did. What I didn’t do. Couldn’t do. I should have…” He shook his head. “I think that makes it worse. That I started it and couldn’t finish. I didn’t have faith. Your mother did.”

“No, my mother was just willing to take the chance. It isn’t…” I sat again. “It wasn’t the same for her. It didn’t feel the same. Killing someone.”

“They all deserved it.”

He sat with his hands on the table, his gaze fixed on them.

“Can I ask…?” I couldn’t finish.

He lifted his gaze to mine and said, “Anything, Olivia. You’ve seen the worst. You can ask me anything.”

“Did you talk to Pamela after that? Did she go to that meeting instead of you? Or did you go and then talk to her?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t go. I never told her. She found out, somehow. They must have approached her. She once asked me…”

“What would you do to cure me,” I said. “Whether you’d kill someone who deserved to die. I saw it in a vision. That’s how I knew it was her, not you.”

“Which should have told me that she knew about the deal. I never even considered that. I thought…” He shook his head. “I thought maybe I was talking in my sleep or…I don’t even know. I didn’t want to think about it. I missed that meeting, but I was still considering doing it, working up the nerve. Before I did, you started getting better, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. It wasn’t until we were arrested that I realized Pam had done it in my place. It never occurred to me that the Cŵn Annwn would approach her.”

I snuck a look at the Huntsman guard, who shook his head.

“They didn’t,” I said. “Pamela went to them. She took that meeting in your place.”