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Baer had told me to go home, but I’d stood in this alley before and made the mistake of letting him walk away from me. I wouldn’t do it now. He would listen. And, as it turned out, so would the two clans.

I followed him into the assembly. Shouldering my way to the front, I listened as they began their talks, a thin man from Runehall’s clan laying down the terms they wished our elders to agree to.

“We do not accept,” I said aloud, cutting him off in the middle of his bit on what they expected to be sent along with her. “Toke’s clan respectfully declines. Fenli stays with us.”

The man’s eyes narrowed on me as a murmur ran through the hall. He scowled and turned his head to Baer.

“Is this the boy?” he asked.

My father nodded once, and my attention shifted to him. I had disobeyed him. He’d dismissed me like I was still a child, and he was still towering over me.

But I wasn’t a child any longer, and I hadn’t had to tip my head back to meet his gaze in years.

I tightened my jaw and looked my old man dead in his face.

“We don’t accept,” I said again.

Everyone watched silently as the two of us stared each other down. The moment was heavy with tension. I was no fool. I knew the hell I was tempting.

And it was about damn time I tempted it.

I raised my voice louder. “The elders have done enough damage in Fenli’s life, and yet here you all are, sitting around discussing her future as if it were yours to decide. And where is she? She wasn’t even invited. The problem has never been that she won’t speak. It has always been that we don’t listen.”

Someone said, “She was just a child when—”

“She is not a child any longer.” I spun a full circle, meeting as many eyes as I could. “She is not. Whatever reasons you had in the past are obsolete now. You’re lying to yourselves if you think this is about helping her, about finding the best option for her amongst yourselves. This is aboutcontrol. It’s about a hut full of old men refusing to give a young woman what’s hers. It’s about puffing yourselves up and keeping her small. Are we so insecure, brothers? What exactly is it we’re afraid of?

“I know what it is. We’re afraid of her strength. I’ve seen it. Been leveled by it a time or two. Fen would cut my throat soon as kiss me, and she has me so wrapped around her finger I wouldn’t know which one I was in for until I was good and kissed or dead.

“That’s why we’re afraid. Of Fen. Of Esska. Of Helva! Of any woman who tries to make space for herself in our clans. We want the space for ourselves. It’s our weakness under the guise of strength.”

There was a hum at the mention of Helva’s name, hushed explanations being given by those who were old enough to know to those who were not. Then the room fell quiet, and I stood alone in the middle of the silence. No one spoke up with excuses. No one moved to agree ordisagree. It was what I’d been afraid of for so long. And it was—fine. I found I didn’t care. I was finally telling the clan what I thought. No amount of backlash could undermine what I was gaining in getting the truth out in the open.

I turned towards the elder from Runehall’s clan. “You won’t take her if she doesn’t want to go.” I turned toward my father and the other elders from our clan. “And you’ll let her out of this marriage.”

“It’s not that simple,” one of them started.

“Then it will cause you a lot of grief until it’s done. I don’t care. But she doesn’t suffer any more for the sake of your comfort and ease. She can get some peace of mind for once, while you all wrestle with the problems you’ve made.”

I turned back to Baer. “I’m going to find her, and I’m going to tell her all of this. Do I have your blessing, or is this going to be a battle of wills? Because I’m willing to go to war for her.”

He ground his teeth and considered his reply.

“I see that you are,” he finally said. “Strange, because it’s obvious you love her. I thought you’d want her to remain your wife.”

“If that’s what you think, then you don’t know what love is.”

His eyes narrowed on me. There was a cool silence between us for many moments.

“He’s right,” I heard Jory say from behind me. I turned back, as did most of the men gathered, to find him standing near the back. “Everything he said. Our clans have mucked this situation up from the beginning, and it’s time we all step back and give Fenli the choices she should have had from the start. We are not better than this, and we never have been.” He looked at those around him, then up to where the elders sat. “But we could be. We could be better. I think it’s time we start.”

“Aye,” said another, and soon there was a small chorus of them, a few brothers of mine who agreed and stood behind me. I didn’t want to show it, but inside a wave of relief was sweeping over me. I’d have been hard pressed to sway the elders in Fenli’s favor if I had no supporters, despite my boldness.

“Well, I disagree.”

I knew who it was before I’d even turned to face him.

When we were eye to eye, he said, “Nice to see you finally acting like a man, Faasval.”