“Someone had to! I heard how uncertain you were when he tried to coerce you into leaving. I knew there was still a chance you would fall under his spell. Someone had to be strong. You’re too soft, Leelo. You always have been.”

Leelo wanted to scream at the way Sage repeated everything her mother said, like a starling. Instead, she made a final, desperate appeal to whatever loyalty she still felt for Leelo. “I told him no, Sage. I wasn’t leaving with him.”

“We couldn’t take that chance,” Ketty said. “Not with Endla at stake.”

Through the trees, Leelo could see the glow of torchlight moving toward them. Ketty must have alerted the council. “Just don’t hurt him,” she pleaded. “He hasn’t done anything wrong. He’s leaving now. He doesn’t know anything. Just let him go.”

“You know we can’t do that,” Ketty said. “Give him to me. The council will decide his fate.”

“No!” Leelo pulled her knife out of her waistband. The tiny blade glinted in the moonlight, and as Leelo bared her teeth, one arm still held out protectively toward Jaren, Sage actually took a step back.

But Ketty was not easily cowed. She strode forward and knocked the knife from Leelo’s hand, shoving her aside as she reached for Jaren.

He backed up toward the lake, his heels only feet from where the water lapped against the shore. Isola was crying great, heaving sobs, clearly traumatized from what she’d gone through with Pieter.

Fiona was trying to console her, but she, too, was crying. “Let the boy go, Ketty. He hasn’t done anything.”

“How could you be so foolish, sister?”

“I only just learned of his existence.”

“And then what?” Ketty spat. “Decided to let him take your only daughter?”

Jaren shook his head. “I would never do that. It was always Leelo’s choice. And she chose you!”

Ketty ignored him. “You already let one outsider tear our family apart,” she said to Fiona. “Do you really want to do it again?”

“You tore our family apart,” Fiona growled, the anger in her voice startling Leelo. “You could have let things be. You could have let me have one thing of my own.”

“You had responsibilities,” Ketty spat. “And you abandoned them for some stranger!”

“I didn’t abandon anyone. Kellan knew. He knew, and he forgave me. If it hadn’t been for your involvement, if Hugo had never found out...”

Leelo was more confused than ever. She was torn between pushing Jaren into the boat to save him before it was too late and trying to find some way out of this nightmare they hadn’t considered yet.

“Mother,” Sage warned. The other council members were nearly upon them.