Chapter 53 AURORA

My heart felt like it was drying out, crumbling to pieces in my chest.

Here I was, trying to prove to Dane I was a victim…but I had said those things, done those things. As the shadows performed them, it was like a curtain being pulled back on my memory.

I’d been that hateful girl, brainwashed into thinking Dane had to be taken down. His bloodline were killers, rogues. They had no right to the things they’d taken from us.

I wanted him dead. His bloodline would end with me.

“No!” I screamed.

Even though the shadows had been performing their play of the past as if I wasn’t there, the one that looked like Esther Reed slowly turned to me. She had a wide, terrifying smile on her face.

“Yes, Ann,” she hissed. “Just like we planned.”

“No!” I screamed. “NO!”

In a rush of despair and terror, I rushed at the shadows.

I had to erase them. I had to make this not true.

I sprinted forward, my arms swinging. Some old part of me tried to make my claws grow, my fangs. I tried to call on my wolf.

But of course, she wasn’t there.

Still, I ran at the shadows, swinging my arms.

When my fist impacted Esther’s smug smile, she burst into sharp needles of darkness. They exploded into me, each one like a razor of ice, thousands of them biting into me, slicing me open.

“NO!”

“Aurora!”

The call was faint, but somehow close. Warm hands were on me, shaking me.

For one heartbeat, the room was filled with the horrible shadows.

The next, it was dark and cold, and Dane was there. He held me, shook me, told me to wake up.

Then back to the shadows as they laughed. As Esther’s voice echoed, No matter how long it takes…you will destroy him.

“Aurora! Wake the fuck up!”

Alpha magic wrapped around me, pulling me out of the dream and back into reality. The strength went out of my muscles, and I collapsed, sobs tearing from my chest.

But I didn’t hit the floor. Dane held me against his chest, his strong arms around me. “One second you were fine. The next you fell to the ground and started shaking. What happened?”

I tried to push away from him, but he held onto me. He pulled me closer, so my face was buried against him. Then he wrapped both arms around me like a lover might, for comfort.

“It’s all right,” he said. “Shh.”

But that made me weep harder.

Had I finally convinced Dane Montague that I had always been loyal to him, only to find out in the same moment that I’d been lying the whole time?

That I really was a product of the Reeds? Just as desperate and evil as they always insisted I was?

Goddess. I had sworn to destroy him. I’d sworn on something called the Nameless. The title struck something in my memory, but when I reached for it, it faded.

I didn’t even know what it was, let alone why I might be swearing on it.

No matter how long it takes…

That evil was still inside me. Now that I had that memory back, I could feel it, festering and blackened and rotten.

Dane put his hands on either side of my face and forced me to look at him. “Tell me what happened.”

I swallowed and gripped his hands with mine. He was still using Alpha magic. Though he couldn’t outright control me, since I wasn’t a member of his pack, he could still brush his mind against mine, influence me with calm, and draw my attention like a magnet to a lodestone.

“I…I…”

“Take a breath, Aurora.” His thumbs stroked up and down my cheeks. My body leaned against his, and I could feel how strong and warm he was in this bleak, dark place.

He was like light, like fire. After a lifetime spent in the dark, it was no wonder I was so drawn to him.

But would his fire warm me, or was I a moth pulled to flame, about to be burned alive?

His chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm, and I found my breathing slowing to match his. “I saw some kind of vision,” I choked out at last. “Shadows…of the past.”

His eyes were deadly serious. “Did you see yourself?”

“Yes, I-“ I broke off. I couldn’t tell him what I’d said, how utterly greedy I’d sounded for his blood. “I saw myself and Esther and Waylon. Only Esther talked, as usual. She told me to get ready to destroy you. It was the day they beat me, the day they…”

Dane took his hands away from my face and ran them through his thick, dark hair. He turned and paced away from me, then he came back. Cursing, he said, “I never told you. I got the recording Esther gave me analyzed.”

He met my gaze. “I know you weren’t behind the Night’s Truth. I know Esther lied about everything.”

He took my hands in his. “Aurora…you were the victim.”