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Keres extended her hand, and Estelle took it. Keres closed her eyes and ran down through energy bonds until she found the match. “He’s out and adapting to the outside world with others of the Others.”
Estelle gasped and ran a hand through her short hair. “So, he’s not at the Stronghold?”
“No. He’s out, and over a dozen of the other Others are out, including my two. They are in Ford’s place. One is arguing contract law, and the other is fending off a horny omega.” Keres grinned. “They look a little different out in the world but are still themselves.”
Estelle swallowed. “Oh. Right.” She stared. “How are you? When did you get out?”
“They took me when I was fifteen, and I broke out eight weeks later, bringing a group of others with me. I spent years in therapy and was legally banned from being taken back to the Stronghold. It was a complicated case, but I got out and eventually found myself.”
Estelle blinked. “You saw them in court?”
“Yeah. And I will again. They aren’t getting me or any of mine. They are no longer going to come for me in the shadows. They have to do it in court.” She smiled. “I have a pretty good team of lawyers.”
Estelle swallowed. “If they come for me, can I call you?”
“Oh, yes. You are a tax-paying individual with a business?”
“Yeah.”
“You employ those who the Elite hasn’t taken?”
“Um, yes.”
“Fabulous. You have safe and strong keepers for Tobin while you are at court? Sexual treatment is usually very interesting for the record. They are pervs, but the idea of being handed around after being raised to be a whore jolts them.”
Estelle flinched.
“Did your parents accept a payout?”
Estelle blinked. “Yes.”
“How old were you?”
“Eleven or twelve.”
“Cool.”
“I don’t want them to get in trouble.”
“They won’t. Elite have a reputation for threatening folks. It just pinpoints that they were not in a position to run with you.”
“Oh. Wow. Right. What was your situation?”
Keres smiled sadly. “We ran, and they ran our car off the road and hauled me and my sister out of the car by the hair, bloody and screaming. We were transported to the Stronghold while my family fought for air, and after four nights, one of the trackers came to my room and attacked me. He decided to have fun, so he dragged me to the gateway to the Others, where they summon them, and that is where he assaulted me for the next few weeks. He made a mistake and caused me to miscarry. His second mistake was when he kicked me into the pit where the Others were. They caught me but whispered what they were going to do, and everything on me made the perfect storm to escape. We blasted a portal into the pit, and a dozen of us fell through.”
“What happened to your sister?”
“Oh, I sent her home the morning after I was first attacked. I didn’t want her facing that. She doesn’t have concubine colouring, but I did, and we were twins.”
“How did you send her home?”
“I shoved her through a portal and hoped to send her to our parents. At that point, I didn’t know that the accident had been fatal, so she was put into custody. I didn’t know about my parents for a few months. They had already scrambled her identity, so I couldn’t contact her again when I escaped.”
“No, buthowdid you send her home?” Estelle was staring at her.
“Oh. Like this.” She wove her fingers around, and a brilliant blue gateway appeared. “Tah-dah!”
She stepped forward, stuck her arm through the portal, scooped up a handful of snow, and packed it into a snowball. She closed the portal and looked at Tobin. “You know Ford?”
