Page 130 of Bones

“Even if it’s unpleasant?”

“Nothing can be as unpleasant as not knowing.Nothing.”

“You were in an accident,” Levi started.

Aurora’s body deflated. “I already knew that.”

“Not the hiking one. A car accident fourteen years before that. On your sixteenth birthday.”

“Math has never been my best subject, but this definitely isn’t mathing.”

“You’re originally from New Hampshire. You were heading home after a birthday dinner with your parents. Your car was hit, and all three of you were killed instantly.”

“Absolve?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Death isn’t always nefarious. Sometimes it’s just stupid and reckless and pointless. Unfortunately, the plan for The Four and their mates was created long ago. Noone knew to take into consideration how destructively stupid humans would become.”

Panic seized my heart. “I thought she was immortal.”

“She is. Now.” He tipped his head. “At least, we think. But that builds due to the mate bond. At the time, she was just human.”

She threw her arms out. “The two things I confidently knew were my name and age. And it turns out half of that was wrong.” She sighed. “Though I guess this explains why I never felt my age. So how did I end up in the middle of Arkansasfourteenyearslater?”

“When your soul reached the intake desks, the angels knew there was something special about it, but not what. They brought you into Purgatory. It was actually how they found Juno’s soul hanging around. Anyway, you were placed there for safekeeping. Once the universe said it was time, you were brought to Arkansas.” He gestured to me. “To the same spot you were blasted to after the battle in the church.”

“A few centuries apart.”

He lifted a shoulder. “It’s not a perfect science.”

“My parents… Are they with you?” When Levi just looked around, she clarified. “In Hell. Are my parents in Hell?”

“Oh. No. They’re lovely people. Lilith’s father has been teaching the angels about history from a human’s point of view. They join in some days. Denny’s lovely grandmother runs a raucous book club that your mother frequents. Reading is a shared love between the four of you.”

Aurora grinned. But it fell as quickly as it’d formed. She looked like she was battling between crying and anger. She landed on both, tears streaming down her cheeks as rage made her voice tremble. “Why did they have to wipe my memories of them, though? Couldn’t I have kept something? A blurry image. Their laugh.Something.”

“That wasn’t us. That was the accident.” She opened her mouth, but he beat her to it. “I wish I could give them back to you, but unfortunately, some things are so severely damaged, no one can fix them. Not even me.”

“Is that it?” At Levi’s chin lift, I wrapped an arm around Aurora and tried to take her home.

Nothing happened.

“Wards,” Levi explained. “Before I send you back, why did you think you were my creation?”

Aurora told him about the exorcism, the foster fuckhead’s words, and the scar on her chest.

“How I got linked to an upside down cross, I’ll never know. I’m not one for jewelry to begin with, but especially not something so tacky. I am, however, one for righting wrongs where I can. Do you want to keep the scar?”

“What?”

“Is it a badge of honor? A reminder of what you’ve overcome?”

“I have that reminder just by being here,” she said. “By being alive.”

He waved a hand over her chest. “Then another wrong is righted by yours truly. Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a matter in Arkansas that needs my full attention. The apartment or Nate and Denny’s?”

Since our meeting had been cut short, it would be smart to return.

But Aurora answered for me. “Apartment.”

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