Page 10 of Ellie 3

“I feel like I would disappoint you if I don’t,” she whispered and looked away from me.

The Aurora I’d known never did that except to appease Kenneth. What had my asshole father and her monstrous family done in the hundreds of years since I’d last seen her?

“If you need to let it go so you can move on, that’s your choice,” I said quietly, trying to accept that for her. “But at least make thempay, Aurora. They sold you. Fine, it was done back then, but they held you captive long after it was made illegal. Don’t let them think you accept that asacceptable. There’s a precedence for damages.”

She slowly nodded. “I would like to learn more about that then. That is where I would like to start. Please. I would like—two days ago I was just living as I have for centuries in limbo of being locked away and watching the world pass by. Too much has changed too fast. I would like to not commit to anything at this time.”

“Okay, that’s a valid answer,” I accepted. Yeah, more than fair and smart even. I told her that much. I glanced at my watch and realized I had to get moving.

I asked Ha-joon to speak with Alexis to get Aurora that information before taking Aurora shopping. I gave him a kiss in thanks and promised I’d be heading home after the interview.

Which actually went better than I’d expected.

The interviewer was treating it more as a fluff piece, but the station’s staff and prep people had done their due diligence and the questions were pretty good. It allowed me to get out good information and act as if it was more natural instead of wanting me happy since ASH bought airtime for commercials.

And they probably wanted to hit me up for more.

The guy then went off script, frowning at his index cards. “Aren’t people just going to use this as a chance to have access to a free portal to Atlanta and North America for whatever they want? There’s no way to control that.”

Wow. What a fucking moron.

I chuckled dryly, trying to hide that I wanted to call him several names. “There is, actually, just like any other time a portal is opened from one continent to another. Especially since the witches and warlocks in ASH’s employment will be facilitating things. It’s all being done legally and through the proper channels.

“Our government has been informed, and one of the law enforcement agents who is at ASH’s airport will be assigned to the portal. People can only come through with proof of appointments or are sent right back. They will be given wristbands—everything like normal. We have ample security and cameras. We do this all of the time and we’re simply expanding.”

“Of course, of course,” he agreed awkwardly. “I was playing devil’s advocate so your answer was on the record for anyone thinking to cause trouble.”

Sure it was. Yeah, nice try, buddy.

Still, I played along and thanked him for being diligent and giving me the opportunity to prove we were ready.

I made it through the rest and thanked him when we were done. He was polite but didn’t even shake my hand, mumbling and immediately pulling out his phone.

One of the assistants apologized and said he was like that with pretty much everyone he interviewed, so it wasn’t a reflection of me. There was more the guy clearly wanted to say, but it would be professional suicide given where we were and all the ears around us.

However, I appreciated him making it clear it wasn’t me and he was being honest. I still put in a call to the executives who hired such a dipshit interviewer on the way back to the portal. I’d traveled all the way to New York, having had one of the hospital’s witches open a portal for this interview at our expense when others wanted to get this exclusive.

And they’d treated it like a fluff piece with some idiot who didn’t understand the severity of the information? How this could realistically help their viewers?

I was glad when my concerns were received, and after a bit of back and forth, we decided to have another segment featuring ASH but their weekly medical one. It was late notice for that week, but they were going to juggle some things and get us in next week. I asked the executive email me what they were looking for and I’d get one of my department heads.

One who would be dynamic on camera.

Done and done.

She was chomping at the bit for it to be a reoccurring thing and I was open to it with different attendings even… The ones who played nicely and I would want to speak for ASH. Ha-joon immediately came to mind even. But a lot depended on how well we were treated on this second chance.

I thanked the witch when I came back through the portal and checked she was okay and nothing else popped into her day. She was fine and gave me a look not to doubt her. She was vastly powerful and this was child’s play for her.

Actually, it was because of her child that she took the job. We had great benefits and didn’t treat our witches and warlocks like doormen. She could be doing a lot more, but… Some people just wanted calm lives and regular nine-to-fives. Her especially after her rough divorce. So she normally picked up an extra shift when her ex-husband had her child.

Good for her.

I handled a few other things at the office and headed home, texting Ha-joon asking how things went and if he was hungry. His response made me frown because he said he’d eaten with Aurora but asked me not to be angry.

But to hurry.

Ummm, okay then.

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