There is no arguing with the woman. Aurora only moves when I round the bar and press my fingers to her back. I gently lead her through the crowd back to the break room.
“Hey,” I say when we are finally alone.
Aurora won’t look at me.
“You don’t have to tell them anything.”
Her throat bobs. She blinks. “But they know now.”
“Not everything, and it doesn’t matter. They knowyou,” I say. “They’ve watched you work as hard as any of them.”
And they don’t know about the curse, which is important. We can't afford for that secret to leak.
Even the emotionally stable Rosari people who live in a calm symbiosis with each other would not tolerate a Succubus in their land, much less as their princess. The Common World would likely react even less favorably.
They’d treat her as a dangerous entity. She would be scrutinized, and the razor-sharp point of fear could lead them to the trail of bodies I worked so hard to incinerate.
Aurora finally looks at me. There’s panic in her gaze, but no fear. Humiliation. Guilt. The echo of a thousand things she’s been forced to swallow. “I couldn’t even defend myself. I couldn’t say that his sister ruinedmylife.” Anger spikes in her voice.
“I know it’s not fair, but you did good, Aura.”
“It’s not fair,” she adds with a sweep of her arms. “I didn’t do anything, yet I’m the living embodiment of a drama that I had nothing to do with. Mal had me pay the price, but it’s my dad’sfault.Heshould pay.” Aurora clapped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide with shock at her own words.
“You’re not wrong,” I reassure her. My hands itch to touch her, but I keep them at my sides.
Hand still covering her mouth, she shakes her head as her eyes turn glassy with unshed tears. “I shouldn’t say that. I love my father.”
“You can love him and hold him responsible for what happened.”
Aurora digsher palms into her eyes as she groans in frustration. “It’s so complicated. I hate how messy everything is. I hate Mal. I hate my parents for what they did, and I hate myself.” Her arms open wide. “And Mal’s brother hates me too. It’s only fitting,” she says with a dry laugh.
“He doesn’t know you.” I want to pull her hands away from her face and into mine, but I clench them into tight fists to keep from doing so.
She folds her arms over her body, shaking her head. “It doesn’t matter. It’s never mattered. I’m still judged forwhatI am, not who I am. I’m a princess, a Succubus, a daughter to someone who hurt his family.”
“Aura.” I get her attention enough that her chin lifts toward me, defiant despite the tremor in her mouth. “King Charming was not a good man. The previous one,” I clarify. “He was a cruel dictator, and he’s responsible for hurting his own family. He didn’t have to forsake his own daughter. That’s not on you. That’s not even on your parents.”
“Yeah well, I still get blamed,” she grumbles, rubbing at her face.
“Aura, I?—”
“Break’s over,” she interrupts, whipping the door open and disappearing into the fray.
I take a breath before following her. I watch from the door as I go back to checking IDs. She keeps grabbing the wrong bottles, she breaks two glasses, and her confidence is a muted shadow of what she had.
She’s right, it’s not fair. Life isn’t fair. But I would pay any price to give her what she really deserves.
I all but abandon my duties of policing Poison Apple, in favor of keeping near Aurora. Rap can cut my paycheck. I don’t care. But the bar owner doesn’t give me any flack.
Aurora is a flurry of movement as if nothing can touch her if she keeps going at a breakneck speed. But the second she slows down, the girls approach.
Snow leans in next to her, voice sharp enough that I can hear. “Kai was out of line, and he’s lucky I didn’t stab him with a straw.”
Aurora huffs a single shaky laugh.
“I don’t care what your last name is,” Ariel says softly, rubbing Aurora’s arm. “You’re ours now.”
Behind the bar, Aurora steadies. The next drink she attempts to make comes out right on the first try, but her hands still shake.
