Page 8 of Reflections of Peonies
My heart thundered in my chest as the horrifying truth hit me. I’d sensed something was wrong from the beginning. While I knew she’d been hurt, I had desperately hoped her trauma wasn’t severe.
But now the reality was clear: Bianca’s adoptive mother,Abigail Grier, specialized in investigating child sex trafficking rings. This wasn’t just a case of abuse—Bianca had been systematically victimized and terrorized for years.
The realization made me physically ill.
“Where, exactly, was she?” Damen’s voice sounded odd, almost detached, and his shoulders were tight with strain.
“The address is available, but you won’t find much,” Hanah answered. “There’s nothing left there. When the team returned, the ring had already relocated. They wanted to investigate more, but then a junior detective went behind my mother’s back and interviewed Bianca himself. The whole thing ended in a disaster.”
“He had no right to do that!” Miles said, and his tone held a note of power rarely felt from the witch. “What in the world did he say?”
“We’re not sure. He didn’t follow procedure, and it wasn’t recorded. He ended up being fired over it,” Hanah touched her head. “After that, Bianca completely shut down.”
“Is that how my mother got involved?” I asked. It made sense; she and Abigail were in the same quintet. “What about Do Yun? Has he made any progress?”
“She won’t acknowledge what happened.” Hanah sighed as she rubbed her elbow. “She also won’t talk to Do Yun. She’ll only communicate with Trinity, and even then, it’s the bare minimum. Outside of that, she refuses medical care, and there’s only so much that my parents can do without retraumatizing her. Trinity is doing the best she can within the parameters that Bianca has set, but she is a danger to herself.”
“What, exactly, was the plan here?” Damen interjected. “To keep her a secret? Let this continue until she dies? She didn’t even know we existed! She knew next to nothing about this world.”
“Well…” Hanah’s voice wavered, and her shoulders set. “Since the medication was supposed to suppress the bulk of her abilities, the plan was to optimize on that and help her learn to live normally; then they would reintroduce the paranormal and her role back into her life.”
“You didn’t agree?” Miles had also picked up on her sneer.
“No, I didn’t agree. A number of us did not,” she answered. “They are waiting for her to achieve a state that won’t happen. Bianca isnevergoing to be normal. There is no way to fix what happened. Plus, it doesn’t help that Finn…” her words trailed off, and her anger died as she touched her mouth.
My eyes snapped to the blonde man. His head rested in his hands, his elbows braced on the table.
Damen began to shake—he was about to lose it, and Miles and Titus still hadn’t moved. This did not bode well.
“Finn, what?” I asked, almost not wanting the answer.
“He’s overprotective,” Hanah said, looking away. “Nobody knows how to approach her, but he’s too much—”
“Someoneneeds to stop her!” Finn cut her off. “And since nobody else will do it, I have to. You never know what might trigger her. Sometimes, it’s fighting and shouting; other times, it’s herresearch. Especially when she uses the internet.”
“Are you still blocking her searches?” Hanah covered her mouth. “You told Kayla you would stop!”
“You have no idea what it’s like! She wouldn’t talk for an entire day because she came across some cheesy erotica!” Finn narrowed his eyes. “Thankfully, it was just some boy romance crap, so she wasn’t traumatized.”
“You’re underestimating her.” Hanah crossed her arms. “Are you sure she was upset? Jiayi says she’s quiet when she’s daydreaming.”
“She’s not daydreaming, she’s escaping into a fantasy world.” Finn waved his hand in the air. “She lives inside her head. Itdoesn’t help that she’s paranoid. She jumps to the worst possible conclusion and thinks everything is trying to kill her.”
“Shielding her from reality doesn’t solve anything.” Hanah frowned. “You’re only making it worse.”
“Surely you knew that she’d find out,” Miles interjected, and the two looked at him. “We’re in a supernatural school!We’rehere!”
Finn crossed his arms and looked away. “It’s not like we could have sent her anywhere else. This was the safest place, considering.”
“I imagine that no one expected Bianca to stop her medication—or interact with any of you,” Hanah added, looking at Finn, who nodded.
“But it was Bryce who set her off.” Finn glared at the table. “No one planned for him to come back this semester.”
Bryce?
The fae had barely moved the entire conversation and remained stone-faced at the sound of his name. He was looking down at the table—at his hands—but there was an air to him that indicated that he was paying very, very close attention. Meanwhile, Brayden was staring between his older brother and the rest of the room, looking distraught.
“What did Bryce do?” I asked.
