“No!” I interrupt. “Tell Auntie O she’s wrong.” It goes against everything I know about myself to make a scene, especially in front of the entire congregation. But this can’t wait. After all, how hard could it be to say the words You are not a Horangi?

Eomma winces. She starts to talk, but it’s so quiet I have to lean in to hear her. “I’m so sorry, aegi-ya, but I’m afraid what your auntie says is true. Your birth parents were scholars from the Horangi clan. You’re not a saram. You’re just as gifted as the rest of us.”

I guess she wasn’t as quiet as I thought she was, because another wave of appalled gasps ricochets through the congregation. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the other elders gathering and whispering conspiratorially to one another.

“No, that’s not right,” I mutter. “I can’t be…It’s not possible!” My legs give out under me and I crumple to the ground. Hattie squats down to hold me, and I bury my head in her shoulder. This must be as much of a shock for her as it is for me.

Eomma and Appa approach to pull me into their arms, too, but I cower away. Everything I have ever known about me, about my identity, about my heritage…it was all just a made-up story. And of all the clans to be a part of, why did it have to be that one? They are power-hungry heretics who were banished from our community. They were cursed to never wield the power of the goddesses again. They killed Emmett’s mom. Being a Horangi is a thousand million gazillion times worse than being a saram.

“Were you ever going to tell me?” I dare to ask.

Eomma drops her head into her hands, and Appa takes over, his voice all shaky. “We never meant to hurt you, Riley. We were just protecting you—”

“Protecting me, or yourselves?” I blurt out. “Admit it. You were just ashamed of your cursed daughter and what people would say if they knew. That’s why you kept it from me.”

“We could never be ashamed of you,” Appa assures me.

“We love you more than anything,” Eomma says.

“I wish I’d never been adopted!”

A flash of pain marks their faces, and my chest momentarily wrenches. “I didn’t mean…” I trail off, feeling my face get damp. “But you lied to me. You knew how much I wanted to be gifted, and you made me believe I was a saram.” Just thinking about it makes the anger return to the surface. “Were Hattie and I the only ones who didn’t know?!”