"No," Gabe said simply, "it wouldn't. Valkyrie, I understand that you want to protect your parents, but they're already involved. They're involved because you're their daughter and they love you."

He put a hand on her cheek to make her look at him and smiled sadly. "Your parents are living a lie. What's in their house isn't you, and they think it is. They're about to have another child. Is that a household into which you want her to be born? One where her sister is nothing but a changeling? Sometimes the greatest measure of trust and love is being willing to burden those whom we want to protect with those very secrets."

Because that was the only way this could go. The only way it would turn out even remotely okay. Valkyrie was lying to her parents--with good intent, but she had been perpetuating the lie for years. They didn't know her. They knew a reflection. They couldn't be there to hold her when she grieved for her friend. They couldn't be truly proud of her courage and tenacity. They couldn't restrain her recklessness with their care.

"Whether they choose to get properly involved, or trust that your friends can protect you," he said softly, holding her gaze, "don't you think they deserve the right to make that choice on their own? How can they make it if they don't know there's a choice to make at all?"