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Meryn looked from Amelia to Zoe and back before she pointed. “Is she an empath too? Is that why she’s always so chipper?”
Amelia’s eyes softened. “First of all, Meryn, someone being pleasant doesn’t necessarily make them an empath.”
“You’re like that.”
Amelia pinched the skin between her eyebrows. “You can’t equate all happy people to me.”
Meryn rolled her eyes.
“Secondly,” she hesitated. “I think her wanting everyone to be happy isn’t borne out of empathy. Her people-pleasing seems to be a survival mechanism.”
Gage and Kendrick leaned in. “What?” they asked in unison.
Amelia shook her head. “I won’t go into too much detail, Zoe deserves some privacy, but if she’s willing, I’d like to have a session or two with her.”
Zoe looked around. “Session? Are you a therapist?”
Amelia shook her head. “I’m a psychologist.”
Under the table, Gage took her hand.
“Amelia, you can divulge what you suspect. I don’t have any dark stories of abuse or trauma that would demand privacy.”
Amelia exhaled and took a moment before she continued. “I think you may be wrong about the trauma. You are exhibiting every key indicator of a long-term domestic abuse survivor.”
Zoe looked around the room. “But I was never beaten or anything like that.”
“No, but you were trapped,” Meryn said softly. “You were entirely dependent on someone else for your day-to-day needs.”
“You even used the term locked up before you corrected yourself,” Neil added.
“But that, that’s normal…” Zoe looked around, and it was the looks of pity that had her heart racing. “I’m fine!”
Through her body, heat raced. “I’m fine!” she repeated, clutching at her chest.
Amelia shook her head, tears in her eyes. “No, you’re not, but you will be.”
Under the table, Gage jerked his hand back as sparks flew between them.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” She had hurt her mate!
Before she knew what was happening, Meryn was on one side, and Amelia was on the other. They joined hands and held her. Unlike when Kendrick used a spell to calm her, the ease started in her mind, then spread.
“Meryn!”
“Amelia!”
Around the table, people were scooting away as flames licked up her body.
In her mind, she wasn’t alone. Meryn was there baring her teeth at the council in her memories. “Fucking douchebags.”
Amelia held her hand and pointed to a smaller version of herself. Scenes from her past flew by. One of her being sent to another room, running away from her home, and her parents crying in frustration. This time with Amelia at her side, she could see these memories as an adult.
As they fast-forwarded through her life, they soon came to the most recent years and being moved to the Fire Temple. Her heart shied away from the image of the building.
“I don’t want to go in there.”
“We have to.”
