He rose and walked to the cedar chest in the corner, the one where they kept all of Sylvie’s good linens. Jaren waited for his father to rifle around in the chest for a few minutes before he came back and handed him a blanket he’d seen before but never thought much of. Now, though, he wondered how he hadn’t noticed it before.

The blanket was woven of soft wool in bright stripes that had been carefully hand dyed. It was quite clearly Endlan handiwork. There was even a chance that someone he knew had made it.

Stepan looked at his son. “Shall I go on?”

Jaren nodded.

“Understandably, Klaus and his wife, Ana, were distraught at the idea of an abandoned infant, but they didn’t know if you’d been left on purpose. There was a hole in the ice, a couple meters from the shore. It looked like someone had fallen in.”

“Leelo’s mother thinks my birth mother drowned trying to save me.”

“Ana believed as much. She was sure that the person had shoved you across the ice to safety when they went in.”

Jaren didn’t know why his birth mother had been leaving Endla, although after everything he’d witnessed, he could guess. And if it had happened once, maybe it had happened again. There could be others like him, Endlans living among outsiders with no idea who they really were.

“Ana and Klaus cared for you as best they could, but they already had five children of their own to look after. Klaus knew we had one daughter, Summer, and a brand-new baby girl, Story. Her delivery was a difficult one, and your mother wasn’t sure if she’d be able to have more children. But we had always wanted a son. So Klaus came to Tindervale with you and asked if we would adopt you. Your mother was nursing you alongside Story before I could even respond.”

Jaren smiled at that. They may not have shared a womb, but they were still twins. Nothing would change that.

“Did you know about Lake Luma, about the Endlans?” he asked. “Did you suspect that I could have magic?” For the first time, he didn’t trip over the word. How could he deny it anymore when he’d felt it? When he and Leelo sang together, they were no longer separate entities. They were one. He’d never felt so whole and right. He only wished his happiness hadn’t come at Leelo’s expense. He knew she wanted to be with him, but she had never planned to leave her mother behind.

“We assumed you were one of their voiceless children, the incantu. Why else would your parents be taking you away?”