Jaren and Stepan tidied up and sat down on their little couch, which easily fit all three girls but was a tight squeeze for two grown men.

“I’m so sorry,” Jaren started, at the same time his father said, “We missed you terribly.”

“It was foolish,” Jaren went on. “I kept going back to Lake Luma after that first night, when I camped near it. I thought it was just curiosity at first, but it was something more than that that made me go back. Something more powerful than me.”

His father stroked his beard like it was a new nervous habit, and his brow was creased with worry. “What happened out there, son?”

“I got lost. And then I found Leelo,” Jaren said. And then, in a softer voice, “I found home.”

Stepan turned his head so Jaren wouldn’t see his face begin to crumple.

“It’s true, isn’t it? I was born on Endla?”

Stepan swallowed and wiped his palms on his thighs. Jaren had never seen him so discomfited. “Jaren, you are my child as much as your sisters are. I have loved you since the day you came to us as a tiny wee babe.”

Jaren knew his father believed what he was saying, but the fact was that he was different from the rest of them. He always had been. “And Story?”

“She is not your twin, no.”

Jaren had suspected as much, but hearing his father say the words out loud hit him like a blow to the chest. She was his twin. They had shared a womb. They had grown up in lockstep, sometimes leapfrogging each other in height but going through all their milestones together. They lost their first tooth on the same day. Of all his siblings, Jaren felt a connection with Story that was special. And it wasn’t because he was the only boy. It was in spite of it.

“Don’t cry,” Stepan said, gently wiping a tear away from Jaren’s cheek with the calloused edge of his thumb.

He wasn’t sure why he was so sad. He didn’t love Story or any of his other family members any less because of this revelation. But he felt a loss just the same.

“How?” Jaren managed finally.

Stepan sat back a little. “Klaus’s wife found you, near the lake. It was wintertime. At first she thought you were just another stone by the water’s edge. But then she heard a cry. You were wrapped in a beautiful knit blanket, but it was covered by the snow. She wasn’t sure how long you’d been out there. You were so small and barely breathing. She could tell that you were just a few days old, at most.”