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My father’s voice dropped to a low rumble that reverberated through my bones.Do we have a choice?
Great goddess, no! My knees weakened, and I nearly fell onto my backside.
No. I don’t want them in the middle of this.
Neither do I, especially when we’re not sure of Shirina’s powers.
I broke the mind connection and stumbled to my feet, my chest aching so badly, I could scarcely draw breath. Tari was alive, though my parents had let me mourn my twin’s death for the past two years. Even worse than severing our special twin bond, they’d separated a mother from her children. Now my parents were going to steal my memories, Aurora’s and Ember’s, too. They were evil!
When I heard the shed door rattle, I ran into the house like the hounds of hell were chasing at my heels. I snatched a knife and rag from the kitchen table and raced up the ladder.
Aurora and Ember were sitting up in bed, looking at me with wide eyes.
“Do you have the poultice?” Aurora asked as she held onto her arm, her eyes misting with tears.
“No, Aurora.” I grabbed her arm, examining the wound. It was bleeding, and I could make out the gray Tau stone just beneath the surface of her skin. One cut, and it would be loose. Then Aurora could teleport again.
Aurora gasped, trying to pull away when I tapped her wound with the tip of the blade. “What’s wrong, Auntie?”
I looked at them through a sheen of tears. I hadn’t even realized I’d been crying. “Girls,” I pleaded, “do you trust me?”
They both nodded.
“Then listen to me carefully.” My voice cracked with each word. How could my parents do this to us? “We’re in danger.”
Aurora gasped. “What danger?”
I swallowed back my emotion. It felt as if a giant was sitting on my chest. “A bad man is coming to take our memories and take us to the bad faeries.”
“It’s three bad men, Auntie,” Ember said. “They’re going to set our house on fire.”
“Ember,” I scolded, “we don’t have time for your make-believe.” I gasped when I heard my parents’ sibilant whispers outside. We were out of time. “Aurora, that Tau stone has to come out.” I squeezed my niece’s arm. “Then you have to transport us far from the hut. Can you do that?”
Her eyes shone with fear. “I only know the edge of the meadow.”
The meadow was just beyond our forest home and took us several minutes to walk there. That would give us a good head start. I tensed when the back door rattled. “Then take us there.”
“Okay,” she said, holding her arm out to me while squeezing her eyes shut.
I could weep at this child’s trust in me. It was at that moment I made a vow to myself I’d never betray them as my parents had done to us.
“This is going to hurt, baby,” I whispered through a watery voice as tears spilled over my eyelids. “I need you to be a brave girl.”
She stiffened, clenching her fist. “It’s okay.”
The door opened, and the chill night air filled the inside of our small cabin. I sliced open Aurora’s wound and squeezed out the stone as well as a prodigious amount of blood and puss.
“Ewee,” Ember squealed while looking over her sister’s shoulder.
“Shh,” I warned Ember, then swore when more blood pooled out of the wound. Curse my parents for putting us through this and bless Aurora for being so brave. “You okay, darling?” I whispered.
Aurora opened one watery eye. “Yes, Auntie.”
“That’s my good girl,” I said as I wrapped the rag around her arm. “I’m so sorry.”
She turned up her chin, her lower lip trembling. “It’s okay.”
“Shiri, you girls awake?” my father called from below.
