Page 74 of Escape from the Green

"Begged?" I asked, brows drawing together.

"To be allowed to search for you," Kieran clarified, voice steel, firm, unyielding, cold. But not, I didn't think, toward me. Toward them, possibly? Toward his colleagues? But why? "They were voted down year in and year out," he added, gaze holding mine. And suddenly, it all made sense.

This man, this friend of mine who never wanted a grand position in life, had joined the council in order to have a vote. To try to sway others in my favor. To try to find me, save me.

"That is all the past," Foren said in that scratchy voice of his, like all the moisture was slowly being sucked out of his body, making his voice dry as aged paper.

Clearly, Foren had never voted in my favor.

And because they were of the old, fearful ways, I bet Borena hadn't either. Or Mevan who Kieran had clearly replaced, who had been the eldest of them all, likely long since passed.

But if there was still voting going on, it meant either Drayven or Aurelia - or both - had voted against my family's pleas as well since majority always ruled.

"Where have you been, my son?" Borena asked, pressing her weathered hand to her chest.

"Captive," I told them, cutting right to the chase. "Enslaved. Kept in chains. Made to work. Beaten to try to force the Change. Day in and day out. For however long I have been gone."

To my side, Kieran's jaw, already sharp, went even harder, a muscle ticking there, a telltale sign of barely-held aggression. He wanted to lash out, to yell, to tell these men and women how they had failed me, one of their own, how their fear and inaction had allowed me to suffer.

But he said nothing.

He had a place now.

A place he would have for the rest of his life.

And there were rules.

Of decorum.

Of procedure.

He couldn't unleash his rage because he had been right when no one else believed him.

That wasn't how it worked.

I'd have to find some time to get him alone, to let him know that I in no way blamed him, that I was sorry he had committed his life to something that would make him miserable all in the hopes of one day getting to see me again.

It was humbling, in that moment, to realize how loved I had been.

Over so much time, it had been easy to almost forget all the connections, all the bonds that had once been such a huge part of my life.

"Who had captured you?"

"The Winters family."

"Light?" Drayven growled

"Technically, yes. In practice, no."

"Forgive us for asking, but we must," Foren started, drawing my attention to him. "Are we at risk?"

"I would never give up my clan," I insisted, voice rough with a hint of anger.

"We aren't accusing you, son," Drayven insisted, holding up a hand. "But men can be made to do terrible things if exposed to the right motivations."

"Believe me, if there was a motivation they could think of, they used it on me. Repeatedly." There was no hint about it at that point. I was full anger. My voice boomed through the empty space, echoing back at us, likely able to be heard outside the walls. "And I never so much as insinuated there were more of me. That we flourished in seclusion. I would never betray my people. It is insulting to imply I was even capable of such a thing."

"Alright," Borena's voice chimed in, her hand raising in a calming gesture. "Let's not let this meeting become hostile."