SELECT

“Did Lilith know you were behind her son’s disappearance?”

“I assume so, since I never brought him back to her. And she never asked after him. Frankly, I think she was relieved to find him . . . gone.”

Jerrett shook his head. “Oh, she knew. She knew you wouldn’t allow such behavior. You said it yourself. You saw her and you stopped her. Lilith didn’t take you along when she went after Reigna and Eden because she knew you wouldn’t stand for it and that you’d do whatever was necessary to stop her.”

Marshall looked away. Slowly, he nodded.

“Does Broden know all of this?”

“That Lilith tortured him?”

“Yes. Does he know this about his mother? About what happened? How old was he when Rowena took him away, anyway?”

“Just a few months old. And in answer to your question, no, he doesn’t know.”

“You sure?”

“He spent a lot of time with me over the years. I think he thought that being near me might somehow bring his mother closer to him, so I did my best to take him under my wing. He seemed to think I could somehow connect him with his past and . . .” Marshall shrugged. “Well, I’d like to think I served as a kind of father figure to him after I arrived at the compound. That was something he’d never had before.”

“How old was he then?”

“Oh, I guess,” Marshall paused, thinking, “about four. Five, maybe.”

“I see.” Jerrett swerved around a merchant’s cart. “You’ve been like a father to him, but in all the years, you’ve never told him any of this?”

“No.”

“Did he ever ask?”

“He complained more than once that Lucy wouldn’t tell him anything of his— Well, that Lucy never answered him when he asked why Lilith hadn’t raised him. Finally . . . I guess he was well into his teens, he asked me one day why he was brought up at the compound and why he hadn’t lived with Lilith.”

“Ooooh, that was a tough spot to be in. What did you tell him?”

“I told him that Lilith wanted to keep him safe, and that things were insecure and hazardous around the palace in those days. I told him it was all for his own safety.”

“So, you lied to him.”

Marshall’s head jerked his friend’s way. Seeing no judgment on his face, he looked away again. “Not the part about its being for his own safety. Besides, wouldn’t you have? Lied to him, I mean?”

“Yes, I suppose you were right not to tell him. Who knows what that knowledge might have done to him? Children may believe unsavory things about their own parents, but they never want to hear others speak negatively of them. A child’s sense of self is closely aligned with his knowledge of what others think of his parents. Who knows? If Broden knew of his mother’s past, might he have believed himself also somehow . . . evil? Unworthy? Such a belief can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”