“Ketty used to chide me at every festival. ‘Sing, or you’ll get ill again. Sing, or you’re going to die.’ But the more I refused, the angrier she got. And then I took a turn for the worse.”

“Did you know she was making you sick?” Leelo asked, her fury rising.

“No. Not at first. I believed her when she said it was because I wouldn’t sing. But then one day I saw her making my tea. And I knew then she was using too much of the extract of lily. Enough to cross the line from medicine to poison.”

Mama was the one who had warned Leelo of that very thing. Every time she prepared a tea or a tincture, Leelo had to check her calculations three times. “Then why did you keep drinking it?” Leelo demanded. “How could you do that to yourself? To Tate, and to me?”

“Because she threatened to tell you what I’d done. She threatened to tell everyone. And I suppose it was because some part of me believed I deserved it. I thought it was the punishment I had earned by betraying my family, and Endla.”

Hot tears pricked at the corners of Leelo’s eyes. “That’s nonsense. Not helping Nigel would have been the true betrayal, because you would have been betraying yourself.” There had never been a choice, for either of them, because when it came down to it, they were good people. They wouldn’t willingly allow anyone to suffer. Unlike Ketty, who for years had been killing her only sister.

“I know that now,” Fiona said softly. “I’m sorry. I should have fought harder, for your sake.”

Leelo shook her head and rose. “I forgive you, Mama. But I have a choice. I have to fight for Jaren.”

Her mother tried to grab her arm as she walked to the door. “You can’t! Sage is out there!”

But Leelo was already standing in the open doorway, and there was no sign of her cousin. “She must have gone to join the Hunt,” she murmured, feeling more betrayed than ever. Like her mother, Sage was loyal to the island even more than her own family. Like Ketty, Sage probably thought she was doing Leelo a favor.

“Maybe he’s safe,” she said. “If the singing didn’t work before, perhaps it won’t now, either.”

“What did you say?” Fiona asked.

Leelo glanced at her mother over her shoulder. “I said maybe the magic won’t work on him.”

Fiona took a step forward and stumbled, clutching her head in her hands. “Saints,” she breathed as Leelo rushed to her side.

“Mama? Are you all right?”

Fiona shook her head, trying to clear it. “I don’t know how I didn’t see it before.”

“See what? What’s wrong?”

“I knew he looked familiar, but I couldn’t believe... I should have known.”