Chapter 25

The castle was in disarray when Lilith arrived with Aaden. Upon spotting them, the guards began to shout at each other, chaos erupting in the courtyard before they had even managed to ride through the gates. The moment they stepped inside, the shouts around them grew in volume, several people swarming them at once, some with weapons drawn, pointed at Aaden.

Lilith looked around her, eyes wide with shock. She had known that her family would be concerned by her sudden departure, but she didn't think the entire castle would be thrown into a frenzy because she was gone for a few hours. Everyone had seen her leave. Everyone had seen Aaden following close behind.

Did they think he would hurt me?

Lilith was loath to think what would have happened had her father's soldiers found them in that abandoned keep. Surely, they wouldn't have waited to see if Aaden was a real threat before attacking. They could have killed him without a second thought, believing that he was keeping Lilith there against her will.

"Please! Stand down!" Lilith yelled, but no one heard her over the commotion. She glanced at Aaden, gaze filled with panic, but he sat calmly on the saddle of his horse, making no effort to move or speak. Perhaps it was wiser that way; if he made one wrong move, he could end up impaled on a sword.

A rush of new activity caught Lilith's attention. She turned to see her father there, along with Freya and Cameron, rushing out of the castle doors towards her. Evander was trailing after them, his features arranged in a deep frown, looking anything but pleased.

So, Freya has told them the truth. Or at least as much o' it as she kens.

Though her father almost crumpled with relief at the sight of Lilith safe, his eyes glinted with a fury she had rarely ever seen in him. He was always such a gentle man, slow to anger, especially when it came to his daughters, but now Lilith braced herself for the harsh berating that was sure to come.

It had only happened a few times before, when she was much younger. There had been the time she had snuck out in the middle of the night as a child and climbed up the roof of the stables to see the stars, catching a terrible cold in the process. Then there had been the time she had dared Freya to climb up a towering oak tree just to see who had the courage to go the farthest.

And now there was this.

But first, Lilith had to get all those men away from Aaden, and so as her father approached, enraged, she called to him.

"Tell them tae stand down!" she said. "Aaden hasnae done anythin'. Ye ken he only followed me, I was the one who left without tellin' ye where I was goin'!"

Her father didn't stop his furious approach, but when he was close enough, he waved the guards away. The men stepped back, lowering their weapons, but Lilith didn't miss the way they still lingered, remaining close as if expecting Aaden to lash out.

"Where have ye been?" her father demanded as Lilith finally dismounted her horse. From the corner of her eye, she could see Aaden do the same, though much more carefully, his movements slow and deliberate, so as not to give the guards any reason to suspect him. "Dae ye ken how concerned we all were about ye? Dae ye ken how many men I sent out in that storm tae look fer ye? Most o' them are still out there, Lilith. Dae ye understand the danger in which I put them fer ye? Dae ye ken how dangerous it was fer ye tae leave like that?—"

"I understand," Lilith said, interrupting him simply because she knew that if she didn't, her father could go on forever. "I understand, faither, an' I am sorry. I can only ask fer yer forgiveness. I didnae mean tae upset ye like this or tae put the men in danger."

Her apology seemed to make her father's anger lose some of its steam, his shoulders falling, his chest deflating as he let go of the breath he had been holding. It wouldn't be enough, Lilith knew, but it was a start, at least.

"Where were ye?" her father demanded. So far, he hadn't acknowledged Aaden at all, but Lilith tried to brace herself for that, too, dreading the moment when he would direct his ire towards him. Sooner or later, her father would forgive her for disappearing like this, but she wouldn't be surprised if that forgiveness wouldn't extend to Aaden as well.

"I was… upset," Lilith said. She looked at Freya, Cameron, and Evander, trying to see if she could tell how much of the truth had been revealed, but save for Evander—who would not even meet her gaze—their expressions showed nothing but concern. "Somethin' happened an'—"

"Och aye," said her father, interrupting her. "I ken everythin' about what happened."

"Ye dae?"

Freya did tell him, after all.

"Did ye think I wouldnae find out?" This time, her father's words were not directed at Lilith herself, but rather at Aaden, who stood a few steps behind her, waiting for his judgment. "How long did ye think ye could fool me?"

"If I had a choice, I wouldnae have tried," Aaden said, calmly yet firmly, with all his conviction. "Ye must believe me, I never?—"

"Silence!" her father roared, his face painted a deep shade of red. Everyone around him went silent. It was such a strange, unfamiliar sound, hearing him shout like that, and it brought everyone to a complete stop, including himself. For a moment, he turned around, pacing in a small circle as he pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers, taking a few deep, calming breaths.

They seemed to do little to actually calm him.

When he stopped in front of Aaden once more, he pointed an accusatory finger at him. "If ye touched me daughter, I will have Cameron castrate ye, dae ye hear?"

Aaden raised his hands up as if in surrender, but there was little he could say to that, considering all the times he and Lilith had already been together. The last thing Lilith wanted was to give herself away, so she quickly tried to change the subject, laying a gentle hand on her father's arm.

"I was only at the keep," she said. "The one near the loch. I… it wasnae our intention tae go there, but there was the storm an' Aaden feared I would be in danger if we didnae find shelter, so I took us there. If we could have come back, faither, we would have, I swear it. But ye'd rather I were safe, right? Is it nae better that we stayed there through the night?"

Her father could hardly argue with that. It was a little manipulative, appealing to his love for her and his desire to keep her safe to make him forget that she was the one who had put herself in danger in the first place, but it seemed to work. He nodded slowly and pulled Lilith into an embrace, holding her close. Lilith wrapped her arms tightly around him, and she could feel him trembling now that he wasn't trying to hold himself together.

"I feared somethin' happened tae ye," he said, pulling back just enough to grab her face gently, his gaze still searching for any signs of injury. "After everythin' Freya told me…"

Lilith looked at Freya over her father's shoulder, but she could hardly be angry with her for telling the truth. Lilith would have done the same had she been in her shoes. Their father had to know what Ruadh had been planning all this time before one of his daughters could be swayed into a marriage.

"I had tae tell him, Lilith," Freya said, taking a halting step towards her. "I had nae choice."

"I ken," Lilith assured her, nodding. "Ye did the right thing."

"I dinnae ken what it is ye have told yer faither, Freya, but I can assure ye that nae o' what ye heard me say is true," said Evander. It was the first time he had spoken, and his sudden entry into their conversation drew all the attention on him. "It was naething but a lie I invented in a moment o' anger. I only wished tae anger ye, too, Lilith, an' fer that, I apologize."

It struck her, how sincere Evander managed to sound as he was lying straight to her face. It was a talent of sorts, she supposed, one that perhaps had served him well up to that point in his life, making people believe everything he said. Lilith might have believed him, too, had she not known the truth from Aaden, convincing as Evander sounded.

Her father, though, knew better than to trust him. He turned to face Evander slowly, fury etched in his features. His lips curled back into a snarl, that same accusatory finger that had been pointing at Aaden up until then now turning to him.

"Quiet," he hissed. "Dae ye take me fer a fool? Why should I believe ye? An' even if I did, what does that say about ye, that ye would lie like this simply tae hurt me daughter? What kind o' man does it make ye?"

"A terrible one," Evander said. "But nae one who?—"

"That's enough."

It was Aaden who spoke, cutting Evander off before he could embarrass them both any further than he already had. With a sigh, he ran a hand over his hair, his entire body tense with agitation.

Evander looked between Lilith and Aaden, quickly coming to the realization that she, too, knew the truth. He had the common sense to stay quiet, though his demeanor changed. It was as though a mask suddenly slipped, revealing his true self, even though there was barely more than a shifting of his shoulders, a tiny change in the way he held himself.

"Very well," Evander said. "Then I suppose it is time fer everyone tae find out the whole truth. There is nae point in hidin' it anymore, is there?"

Everyone was stunned by the sudden change in Evander, but it was Aaden, more than anyone else, who stared at his cousin in shock, as though he could hardly recognize him. As Lilith watched him, though, Aaden's shock slowly morphed into fury and hatred, a small vein in his forehead jumping with his heartbeat as the blood rushed to his head.

"The whole truth is it, cousin?" he asked. Suddenly, he, too, was different; so different from the man Lilith knew. The change was jarring. It was as though she was looking at an oncoming storm, violent and merciless. "So ye ken. Ye've kent all this time."

He thinks Evander kens about their maither.

Could he know about her, Lilith wondered? Could it be that Aaden had been wrong, after all, in his assumption that Evander was innocent in all this, nothing more than a misguided young man whose father had been feeding him lies to keep him in line?

Could it be that he knew they were more than cousins?

Around them, no one spoke. No one even moved.