Athena's Jewel (Aya Harris Collection 2)

“Let’s go,” my mother barked. She raised her eyebrows at me. “We’re leaving.”

I nearly took a step toward the door, when she reached forward and clasped a hand tightly around my wrist. Aaron smacked his lips and disappeared in a cloud of white smoke.

Blackness descended on my eyes, as if I’d been dropped into deep outer space. It was the loneliest moment of my life. The emptiness pressed in, like a parasite wanting to empty me of all my organs, all my thoughts, and all my memories. I would’ve gone mad if we hadn’t been dumped on a floor two seconds later.

The first thing I noticed was the plush carpet cradling my body. When I opened my eyes, I saw the plush maroon shag that perfectly accompanied the warm cream walls. Four antique winged armchairs sat around me, facing a large fireplace. A small fire burned in the hearth, throwing dancing shadows across my pale skin.

Tala lay on the carpet next to me. Above us, stood my mother with her impatient stare, and Aaron, his face a mask of amusement. He laughed and skipped around the nearest chair, singing a dirty rhyme as he went.

“Aaron, please knock that childish behavior off and take Tala into the orientation room,” my mother told him with a sharp edge in her voice. “I will follow shortly.”

He rolled his eyes, but offered Tala his hand and pulled her to her feet. She watched me the entire way out of the room, concern etched on her face. But there was nothing she could do except follow the young boy.

My mother trailed them to the door and closed it behind them, running her hand along the frame. With a sharp turn on her heels, she faced me and darted across the room, grabbing my shoulders before I could speak.

“What are you doing here, Aya?” She shook me so hard my vision blurred. “Why would you come here? I thought you were smarter than this.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She did recognize me. My mother, the pimp. I couldn’t find the words to explain the confusion in my head.

“Tell me. Tell me how you got yourself in this mess. You’re better than this.”

My head snapped back up and I pushed her hands away, backing into one of the chairs. “Better than this? What about you? I thought you were dead.”

She closed her mouth and frowned, the smallest hint of her dimple appearing in her right cheek. I used to love that dimple – the way it appeared whenever she smiled at me. It was one of the few things I didn’t inherit from my mother. As a child, I used to draw them on my cheeks with markers.

“You’ve been alive for fourteen years? And you never contacted me? Never talked to dad? How could you?”

She caught her breath and crossed her arms tightly over her stomach. “You wouldn’t understand, Aya. I had no choice. This was my only escape from that life. But that didn’t mean I forgot about you, my family. When you moved to Arcana, I even checked in on you occasionally.”

I tilted my head. All this time I’d been in Arcana, my mother had been only miles away. Maybe she’d been beaten and tortured by Robby Caro’s group, but that was no excuse for getting into the business of pimping innocent young women. I’d rather die.

“I don’t believe you.”

“Please, Aya.” She took a step forward, which made me take a step back. “I’m doing important work here. If you’d just listen…”

“No, you’re a monster!” I was practically sobbing now. “You left your family. I’ll bet you never even tried to escape. You have no idea what’s happened since you left. You have no idea what it did to our family.”

It really was time to abandon the mission. Mother or no mother, I wanted out of here. Back to Gideon, back to the museum, back to my old life. I completed the HQ’s mission. They could have my mother, and they could keep her.

“I wasn’t completely unaware, trust me.” She tried to grab my hands, but I pushed her away. “I’ve had visions of you and Nicky over the years. My powers have waned with very little use, but I still have them once in a while. I looked forward to them, in fact.”

As if her longing for a vision of her children could make everything all better. It didn’t.

“Did you know about Nicky? About what he’s become?”

Surely, if she knew what he’d done, she would’ve come out of hiding. Would’ve tried to talk him into giving up his bloody crimes.

Her tense jaw told me everything I needed to know. She knew about Nicky – about his fall into darkness. And she’d done nothing. She wasn’t a mother.

“Aya, listen to me…”

The door opened and Aaron stood in the stark light, his stupid grin plastered to his face. “She’s ready for you, Livy.”

Smoothing the hair around her head, the desperate frown on my mother’s face dissolved into a neutra

l expression. She nodded and grabbed my arm, holding tight when I tried to pull away.

“We’re coming.”