Page 18 of Consort of the Crime Queen

"I've got it," Lyssa says, after conferring with the driver, and he gets out of the car and follows her into the house. The front door shuts with a solid thud. And Aurora and I are alone now in the driveway.

I look up at her, wonderstruck. "You came back," I whisper.

Aurora's luminous gaze doesn't waver, though her eyes are a little watery. "I'll always come back to you."

The simple promise undoes me. I surge to my feet and capture her lips fiercely, trying to convey everything I lack the words for—my fears, my longing, my desires, and this all-encompassing tsunami of feeling that threatens to engulf me. She responds in kind, twining her arms around my neck.

We cling together as the kisses turn salty with her tears. And I am stripped raw and vulnerable in her arms, terrifying and freeing all at once.

At last Aurora draws back, scrubbing at her face and sniffling.

"Are you alright?" I ask, suddenly realizing where she has been and what might have happened to her. "Are you hurt, did they?—"

"I'm okay," she says, grabbing my hands as I start running them all over her, looking for injuries. "I'm just cold. And my knees hurt." We look down together and I see the bloody scrapes on them.

I put my arm around her and pull her close, helping her walk gingerly over the stones and up to the steps of the house. "Come with me," I tell her, rubbing her arm as I hug her tight. "I'll look after you."

Lyssa, no doubt, has spread the word for everyone to make themselves scarce, because the house appears completely devoid of any life but our own as I lead Aurora upstairs to my bedroom and close the door behind us. The click of the lock echoes in the sudden quiet. I'm almost shy as I turn back to her, not knowing where to start—but Aurora wastes no time, her fingers threading through my hair as she pulls me into another searing kiss. I try to match her passion but my roiling emotions won't be tempered, relief and guilt warring within me.

Sensing my turmoil, Aurora draws back, concern in her eyes. "What's wrong?"

I take a shaky breath. "I thought I'd lost you. That you were gone forever." The words catch in my throat. "I failed you."

Aurora cups my cheek with a sad smile. "You saved me. I used what you and Lyssa have taught me here to get out, get away. Thanks to you, I was strong enough to escape."

Her words only deepen the twisting in my gut. She's endured so much because of me, was forced to use skills she never should have learned, just to gain her freedom. Freedom I have stolen from her in the past.

I turn away, shame burning through me. "You never should have had to learn those things in the first place. The things I've put you through…" I shake my head.

Aurora's arms slip around my waist, her forehead coming to rest on the back of my shoulder. "My whole life, I've let other people tell me where to go. What to do. How to behave. And I still didn't realize how…how passive I was." She pulls away from me, anger in her voice, but when I pull her back, worried, I see she's only angry at herself. "You know how they got me? The man who took me? He played on the fact that I'm a-a people pleaser. I wanted to run across to you at the cafe—I knew you were there waiting for me—but he played me like a fool."

"You're no fool. And having a kind heart isn't a goddamn weakness." I hate hearing her speak like this. And the next thing she says makes me go cold all over.

"I could have killed Nero, you know. I had him at my mercy."

"Killed…Nero? You didn't, did you?"

Aurora drops her eyes, and the self-disgust is evident in her reply. "No. I was too weak."

My knees nearly buckle in relief. I crush her against me, bending to press my forehead against hers. "Thank God. Don't ever change, Aurora. Not for me, not for anyone." I take her face in my hands, holding her gaze fiercely. "You're my light, and I thought I'd lost you forever. Stay pure, stay—stay you. Promise me."

Aurora frowns, confusion clouding her eyes. "But I wanted to make you proud. I used my training, I fought?—"

"You fought to survive, not to kill," I interject. "When I asked Lyssa to train you, all I meant was for you to be able to defend yourself. I don't want to destroy that light inside you, Sunshine." I smooth back her hair, heart aching. "I never wanted this darkness to stain you like it has. Protecting you, Aurora, that's all I care about now."

If only she knew how much. But now that she's back with me, I won't have to honor my promises to my father. That's the cherry on top of Aurora's sudden reappearance.

"We can discuss that later," Aurora says, in a way that makes me think I haven't heard the last about her so-called weakness. "There are more important things I need tell you." Her face sets in that stubborn way I know so well. "I need to tell you everything that happened while I was with the Imperiolis. I think your father?—"

"My father can go to hell right now," I tell her. "And so can the whole world. All we need to do right now is get you patched up." I brush my thumb over the shadows under her eyes. "You need to recover your strength."

A smile spreads across her face, a smile that I have been torturing myself with the whole time she's been gone. "A bath would be nice. But I don't need to rest, not yet." Her voice drops, warm and throaty. "I've missed you, Hadria." She winds her arms around my neck again, her eyes sincere but seductive. "I've missed the way you make me feel…"

A sharp need stabs through me at the suggestion in her words, the fire in her gaze. This captivating, maddening, miraculous woman who somehow sees light even in the endless shadows I've cast over her.

"Come on," she says. "Come with me."

And she takes me by the hand and leads me to my own bathroom.

---