Page 78 of Bones

That I didn’t rent it out because something said not to…

“Wait, what?” Juno sat forward. “Lilith said you felt far away when she poofed to you. Have you been this close the whole time?”

So close, but so far at one time.

I shook my head. “I’m in Maine now. About forty minutes outside of Portland.”

“But you’re from Georgia,” Denny said to Aurora. “Where were you when you met? What happened?”

Aurora looked at me, but I didn’t answer for her. I wanted to know her version as badly as everyone else did.

She slowly raised the pen and then hesitated before writing.

Maine. I went by some woods and… I’d… There’d… And…

“Shit, is the pen glitching out?” Juno asked.

She shook her head.

And something just told me to go into them. Then a moose directed me down a path.

She stopped writing again and chugged some of the drink as her cheeks flushed and her gaze darted around. But no one blinked at her confession.

“I’ve heard moose are giant.” Juno’s lips curved down as she tilted her head. “Mooses? Meese? Meeses? I’ve been around forever. I should know this.”

They are. But I kept going, and eventually, Deke found me.

Minus the moose—continuing the animal trend we would need to look into later—her story was what I’d assumed.

Happiness at our shared bond went through me, but it was a shiver that went through her. I tried to take the icy drink, but she pulled it back and drank more before setting it on the table.

“Why were you in Maine?” Denny asked.

Aurora’s hesitation lasted longer that time. A helluva lot longer. Her free hand moved, and for a second, I thought she’d pinch me.

After all she’d heard and seen, that question seemed to rattle her most.

But she just dropped her hand and wrote with the other one.

Something said I should go there.

“The powers-that-be aren’t usually so heavy-handed,” Juno noted.

“That’s what I was just thinking,” Nate agreed before looking at me. “Did you know she was there?”

“I’d just gotten home from work when I felt her,” I shared. “Took off into the woods till I found her.”

Tackled her.

Fighting a hard-on, I shifted uncomfortably at the reminder of Aurora’s body under mine.

“Hmm.” Nate tapped his pen against the paper. Actually, everyone shifted restlessly, wanting to talk but unsure where to begin.

It was like the adrenaline and chaos of our reunion were beginning to fade, leaving the daunting task of how much there was to say to sit heavily in the room.

“There is a lot to discuss, but we should start at the most pressing.” Nate’s expression was tense, his face gauntereven though he wasn’t starved—not physicallyoremotionally. “Absolve is here. In this time. In this town. Stronger than even before.”

“The soulless assholes you mentioned who broke in?” I asked to confirm my suspicions.

---