The Crimson Brand by Brian Knight

when Penny’s mother and all of her friends had called Aurora Hollow their place and had done amazing things which Penny couldn’t begin to imagine. 
    “You know, I’m not surprised you figured it out,” he said.  “I’m not disappointed, either.  You’re inquisitive, persistent and intelligent ... your mother would have been pleased.”
    “Why didn’t you just tell me?”  Penny felt her familiar frustration with Ronan rise, and squelched it.  She had learned to trust him in the past year. His advice had never led her wrong, so he must have good reasons for withholding.  “Why hasn’t Susan said anything?  She has to know what we’re up to.”
    “It’s … complicated,” he said.  “And not all of it is nice.”
    “Well,” Penny said, feeling nettled again.  “Maybe if you use small words and talk … real … slow … I’ll be able to follow it.”
    Ronan made a small barking sound — she couldn’t tell if it was a sound of amusement or frustration.  “There’s not much to tell, honestly.”
    Penny could sense another dodge coming and determined to prevent it.
    “I already know my house used to be an orphanage for girls, and that my great-grandmother grew up there.”  She paused to enjoy the effect of her words on Ronan.  “I don’t know when she bought the place, but I do know my grandmother grew up there, too.  Were they all …?”
    “Yes,” Ronan said.  “They were.  That’s as far back as my knowledge goes, but you’re right.  I suspect what you’re interested in is a little more recent, though.”
    Penny nodded, waited.
    “Your mother and aunt, Susan, Kat’s aunt, and their friend Janet … they were the last, and your grandmother was their teacher.”  He rose, stretched, jumped to the ground, and began to pace.  “Your grandparents were both dead when I entered the picture, but I’ve gleaned that much from … other sources.”
    “And on the night I was born?”
    “On the night you were born,” he paused, as if considering his next words carefully.  “That was the night everything went horribly wrong for them.”
    “What happened?”
    Ronan stopped pacing and fixed her with a stare.  “You must know by now you girls aren’t the only ones who can do what you do.”
    “Like Tovar?”
    “Yes,” Ronan nodded.  “Like him.  The others are from another place, far away, but they come here from time to time; and when they discovered your mother’s circle of friends, these others determined to stop them.”
    Penny felt herself grow cold and wasn’t sure if she wanted him to answer her next question.
    “What did the others do?”
    “They sent representatives here to watch and to learn and, when the time was right, to sabotage.”
    “How?”
    Ronan took a deep breath, exhaled slowly.  “They befriended your mother and the rest of them and destroyed them from within.”
    Penny waited, arms crossed.
    “Only hours after your birth, one of your mother’s friends betrayed the rest, and when the circle broke, she stole something from them.”
    Penny was beginning to feel the chill from her dunk in the creek.  That was what she told herself, at least.  She had begun to shake slightly.  “What did she take from them?”
    “Their memories,” Ronan said.  “Of everything to do with Aurora Hollow.”
    Penny’s arms dropped into her lap and she sagged against the ash.
    “Mom would never talk about her past with me,” she said.  “And the one time Susan did … it was like there was nothing in the world she wouldn’t rather do.”
    “It can be painful,” Ronan said, “when you have to think past holes in your memory.  It can also be dangerous.  They will never know what they’re missing, but for them the past is a book they never want to open again.”
    “Which one was it?”  Penny leaned closer to him, one hand on her knee, the other gripping her wand.  “Which one of them was it?”
    “No,” Ronan said, and shook his head, twice,