“He’s under guard in my office,” Rose said. “Refuses to talk. Evidently, the only one to speak with either of them was Grace.” She cast me a suspicious glance.

“I didn’t speak with the boy,” I said. “Only with my father.”

“I would hardly say he is our father,” Jamie said from the corner. The room stilled for a long moment.

Rose broke the silence. “What did Ben say to you, Grace?”

Eli is the gift I bring you. Hear him. Keep him safe. He knows the way.

Should I tell them? If I did, Rose would immediately see the boy as a threat. I couldn’t bear the thought of putting him in greater danger. I had to find out more. Evil would or had come to Haven Valley, but I didn’t yet know who was good and who was evil masquerading as good.

Then again, who was I to declare any such thing?

“Why did he come here?” Rose asked impatiently.

“I don’t know why he came.”

“You must know something. People saw the two of you interacting before he collapsed.”

I searched through my muddled mind and pulled his words from the corners. “He said it was okay to be afraid. Something about a great deception.”

I saw Jamie shift. He pushed himself off the wall and stepped forward. “He said that?”

“And that the boy is our brother.”

Jamie’s eyes flashed curiously, then darkened. “This is precisely the kind of trickery a monster would use. It’s obvious. He’s dangerous. So is the boy.”

“He didn’t seem dangerous,” I said.

“Then you’re blind. He’s a stranger among us, for heaven’s sake. Isn’t this exactly what Rose foretold?”

“The same could be said of any of us,” I dared to say. “What if the boy is our brother?”

Jamie considered this for a moment, but the cold expression on his face didn’t change. “I want nothing to do with either of them. They should both be thrown out.”

Rose and Harrison exchanged a knowing look, and the room fell quiet again. My mother still said nothing as she continued to stare at her husband.

Rose wasn’t done with me yet. “Please, Grace. Try to remember. Did Ben say anything else? Anything at all?”

What if Jamie was right? What if Eli was the wolf in sheep’s clothing? What if Ben had been infected by the Fury and sent to deceive us all? But I just couldn’t bring myself to condemn the boy. He reminded me too much of Lukas. And of what my own child might one day be.

“No,” I said. “I only spoke with him for a moment.”

Rose didn’t seem convinced, and I suddenly wanted to be anywhere but here. I felt sick.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m not feeling well.”