Chapter 76

He noticed another familiar face in the crowd. Bran, his brother, staring at him with something that might be anger. Did Bran hate him still, then? Did he resent how far Oisin had risen above him? Oisin, looking at the face he’d once feared, felt almost nothing. That too was melancholy. He’d lost his family, by becoming what he was now. Yet in truth he’d lost them the night of his father’s death, the night that Bran had thrown him out of the house. It had been Bran’s choice to cut the bonds of family between them. Oisin considered reaching out to his siblings. Perhaps he could speak to some of the younger ones, the ones who hadn’t known their mother enough to hate Oisin for taking her from them. But perhaps not. Bran and his father both had called him a murderer often enough that the rest might never believe otherwise. He should probably try at some point, but tonight, beneath Bran’s hateful eye, was not the time.