Chapter 100 AURORA I followed his gaze and looked at the scar on my chest .


    It had looked like a circle with faded ck veins branching off of it .


    Now , some of those veins had turned ck again , but they were interspersed with patches of silver .


    Like whatever was in me had tried to reawaken and was still alive in me .


    But it was blocked , somehow .


    The dream .


    The iridescent light .


    I looked at my palm .


    Had that second voice Id heard somehow healed me just as the shadows were about to take me back ? I touched the scar .


    The ckened parts of it burned to the touch , but it was all contained , somehow , by the patches of silver .


    I swallowed .


    I was trembling all over again .


    Dane touched the scar , as well .


    I wanted to stop him , remembering how the evil light had reached for him .


    But when I lifted my hand , he met my gaze , determined .


    Were in this together .


    Blue Ridge and High Alpine , and you and me .


    I nodded and dropped my hand so he could press his fingers Chapter 100 lightly against the spot .


    When nothing happened , I sighed in relief .


    2/5 Well figure this out , he said , fingers still gently pressed to the spot just below my corbone where the scar sat .


    But first , we have to find our children .


    It was barely dawn when Id woken from the dream , but Dane and I both knew there wouldnt be any more sleep for us .


    We got up , dressed , and joined the search .


    Dane tried to get me to eat , but I couldnt .


    So much was happening , and it all went back to the search for the relic .


    Part of me begged to give it up .


    If wed never gotten into this in the first ce , Tristan and Seraphina would be safe .


    But another , deeper part of me knew , whether or not I had chosen toe back to Georgia on my own or not , I couldnt escape this .


    Those dreamlike memories of my life in Broken Forest proved that .


    Dane and I had gone into this thinking we were in control , but we were just pawns on a gameboard that forces beyond us had been moving since we were born .


    Maybe even before then .


    Chapter 100 3/5 It was time to stop reacting .


    We had to figure all of this out , Only then could we take control of the game and win .


    Ann Reed might have cried about how hard it all was .


    She might have given up .


    But Aurora DeVere would not .


    Aurora didnt lose .


    With my children at stake , and Dane who my feelings were growing dangerously strong for once again , I couldnt afford to lose .


    Trajan had been heading up the search , and Dane and I took his report .


    Theyd found the childrens scent and Mrs.


    Jamisons .


    It led them to the western edge of pack territory , to a rest stop on a busy highway .


    Then it disappeared .


    Thats not the direction we thought theyd go , I said .


    After all , Broken Forest was cast of us , not west .


    But it could be that whoever took them is trying to throw us off .


    In a car it would be easy enough to double back .


    Trajan nodded .


    What concerns me is that there was no other scent .


    Only Mary Jamison and the children .


    Dane frowned .


    The nanny was new , wasnt she ? Anger surged in me .


    No.


    She was my nanny .


    She raised me for as long as I could remember until the Reeds dismissed her when Chapter 100 4/5 I was … I shook my head .


    The exact memories were fuzzy .


    I only knew shed been there when I was a child and then wasnt there anymore when I was a teen .


    Your memories arent always clear , Dane said carefully .


    Im not questioning you , but I am asking , are you certain this is the same woman ? Yes , I said .


    Then are you certain she wouldnt have betrayed you ? Dane asked .


    This time , his voice was gentle .


    I bared my teeth .


    Are you certain your grandfather wouldnt have betrayed you ? I shot back .


    He raised you the same way she raised me .


    Yes , but he wasnt an employee of someone we knew for certain was evil .


    Whoever Mrs.


    Jamison is , she willingly worked for the Reeds .


    She watched what they put you through all those years .


    Did she ever once try to save you ? Ever try to get you away ? Ever stop a punishment from happening ? I … I froze .


    I hadnt thought about it that way .


    My feelings for her were still the feelings of a child .


    She hadnt ever hurt me like all the other adults ; therefore she had been kind and good .


    As a child , it had never urred to me that she should have Chapter 100 5/5 tried to stop it .


    That there was any option for either of us that might include her taking me away .


    The realization made it feel like the world was falling out from under me .


    No , I whispered .


    She didnt .