Shit, that was really what was on her arm. I moved into her view and she lowered her head. “Can I come sit by you? Hug you again?”
She hesitated but then nodded. “I found it comforting to lean against you unlike the others. They made my skin crawl.”
“Others?” Theresa asked.
“No judgment,” I warned. “No comments. No questions. This is whatever Aurora will say or can handle. You will not bring it up later or throw shade about it or so fucking help me…” I moved by Aurora and was glad when she held my hand, leaning against my shoulder. “Can I see what’s on your arm? I have ink too. I want to get rid of it.”
“It’s a brand,” she rasped. “I was magically branded as a child. All Graves women are. We’re mares to be sold. We need to be branded and tracked. That’s why Icouldn’trun with Ellie or Theresa. Father could always track me with the map tied to my brand.”
“I’m so sorry you suffered that, beauty,” I murmured against her hair as Ellie and Theresa both swore under their breath. “I really am.” It broke my heart when she nodded and sniffled. “Sayyou didn’t have the brand. In another life you didn’t have it, or a nice witch broke it. What happened then?”
Her head whipped up and she beamed at me; her eyes glazed over a bit from the brownie hitting her. “I’ve dreamed of it so many times, Creed. One of the elder’s mates offered to sneak me out many times and bring me to her home coven. She was pure but too scared to run alone. That bastard cut her off from them, but she swore they were good people.
“It was a small coven, but they were very close with the local cheetah pack. She had several friends there from childhood that were the Alpha’s children. The journey was far and dangerous though—through a lot of human lands that were dangerous back then. But with three adult women, we could make it. We could take the girls and go be safe, protected.”
“Three?” Theresa asked.
“My mother,” Ellie whispered. “She was going to bring my mother.”
Aurora blinked at Ellie. “Of course I would. Nothing I ever did was to hurt you. I did everything to protect you and give you all the education and training I never had. That way you could always protect Theresa when you ran the coven. All of it was to protect you both. If things ever went too far, I always had the…”
“Emergency brake,” Alexis surmised. “Outing that Ellie was a bastard and letting her mom run off with her. You would never have that emergency brake with your biological child.”
“No, and I thought this way I could be more detached and never be sentimental in my decisions while protecting all of us,” Aurora admitted but then snorted. “That went out the window the first time I nursed Ellie. They were always both my daughters no matter which came from my womb. They were both perfect and a gift from the gods I would gladly die for.”
And she truly meant it. That was why Aurora was so good at her core. She nevermeantto be evil no matter how bad she’dbeen or how far off the rails she’d gone. She’d tried to do the best she could while traumatized and navigating such a fucked-up world.
“They need to know—not the specifics, but they need to know what you told me so you can decide if you want to proceed with the court cases, Aurora,” Alexis said gently.
“No, forget it all,” Aurora muttered, immediately shutting down.
“Our careers and positions are stable and solid, Aurora,” Theresa said firmly. “I don’t understand this talk of falling on your sword so you didn’t embarrass us, but I’m very sure if people found out you committedsuicidewhile in our care—under our protection that—”
“Shut the fuck up,” I growled, giving her a look of death.
She turned away and let out a slow breath. “I’m trying to understand. I’m sorry, that was too far. I honestly don’t know what could possibly be worse than what we already know. You wanted me to talk to you about the past. I’m here, ready to listen to you about the past, and now you won’t tell me.”
Aurora just hung her head.
“Can I lead them to what they’re missing?” I asked her gently. “I understand why you can’t make yourself say it, but—they’re going to figure it out one day, Aurora. It’s right in front of their faces. Once more of the pain of their pasts clears they’ll see it and—it’s better to just calmly discuss it.”
“I trust you. It’s so stupid that I do after a few weeks, but I do,” she mumbled. “I wish I had gone to your kind of prison instead back to the one I did.”
I kissed her hair again. I wished she had too. I focused on Theresa. “How do you think where you live and everything you had likefoodwas paid for? She had no money. She was sold.”
“Right, but she would have looked bad if she’d come destitute or—Kenneth gave her…” Ellie started to say. “I actuallydon’t remember him ever giving you anything. He always said he did or would but—he was a braggart. He would have made you wear the jewels or anything you got all the time. But I saw you wear jewels. You had them.”
“Not from my family or Kenneth,” Aurora whispered.
“Don’t,” I warned Theresa when she opened her mouth. “You’re about to make the wrong assumption. I can smell your judgment.”
“I can’t stand this,” Alexis muttered. “Ellie, you’ve heard this before from other victims. You saw it, but you didn’t understand you saw it because you were a child and Aurora shielded you from it. Why else did she always attend your tutoring? Who picked the tutors? Were there ones that she wasn’t there for?”
“Yes, training,” she immediately answered. “The elder with the most power who hated Kenneth most was the one who fought for me to be trained. His son was my trainer and…” She swallowed loudly, finally putting it together. “You were never there. What price did you pay for my training sessions, Aurora?”
“Don’t make me say it,” she begged.
“What did he do to you so I learned to fight?” Ellie asked, her voice cracking.
