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threads of her life humming on the far side of the city.
    “Everything,” I said, eyes focused on the road.
    “Be specific.”
    I grunted and my lips curled upward. This felt like the beginning, when Giselle would school me on everything and anything she could. Always the same. Be specific.
    “She knows I’m a Tracker, that I can trace her wherever she is. She knows I’m an Immune and that her magic won’t touch me unless presented in an indirect manner.” I thought for a minute, a niggling idea worming its way to the front of my brain. “Why do you think this is your responsibility? And don’t tell me because you helped train us both. Because it’s more than that, isn’t it?”
    Giselle shifted in her seat. “Milly has tasted of darkness each time I’ve read her. Even in the beginning it was there, but then only a seed. Always, I hoped that she would purge the darkness.”
    I caught her shake her head out the corner of my eye.
    “But I believe now that she was placed with us for a purpose. Perhaps for the very thing you are going to do now. This could be a trap.”
    Frowning, I forced myself to think of Milly no longer as Milly, but as one of those supernaturals who had to be put down for the betterment of the world. I swallowed the burning lump in my throat, fought the emotions that would be the death of me.
    “You mean,” I said, “that she was placed with us to gain my trust so she could kill me?”
    “You are going after her, aren’t you?”
    “Yes.”
    “And she is the most powerful witch the world has known in centuries.”
    Gooseflesh rose up over my body. “I didn’t know that. I knew she was strong, but . . .”
    The steady tap of Giselle’s fingernails on the middle console drummed in rhythm with some beat I couldn’t hear. “How could you not?”
    I shrugged, intensely embarrassed. “I knew she was good, knew that the Coven wanted her at all costs. But she never talked about the level of her skills. Neither did you, for that matter.”
    My mentor let out a sharp barking laugh. “Truly, I was blinded by my love for her, as were you. She was the perfect undercover agent.”
    “I guess the only question is, who is she working for?” My mind went to Faris, the vampire who’d sought my favors in his own perverted way. First, he tried to kiss me, then kill me, and then he, in a roundabout way, saved my life. But how would Milly fit in with him?
    Or was it someone else? Fuck, the last thing I needed was someone else gunning for me.
    We drove in silence for a few minutes before I blurted out what I was thinking. “Why did you use your abilities so much, if you knew that you would lose your mind?”
    Giselle turned to me, placing a hand over mine. “Pull off at the next Exit.”
    The off-ramp seemed to appear at her command, and I flicked on my blinker and took it without hesitation. With a few minor directions, Giselle guided us to a dirt road covered with a thin dusting of snow that led out to the badlands where we’d be able to talk uninterrupted.
    “Stop here.”
    I put the Jeep in park, but left it and the heat running, and then turned to face my mentor, the only person who’d had enough faith in me to believe I hadn’t killed my little sister. Giselle was the one who’d taught me to trust again, that it was okay to hold tight to those closest to you. She’d also taught me to fight, kill, and do what was right, no matter the cost. And a part of me felt betrayed by the fact that she would willingly give up her mind, she would willingly leave me behind. I was once more feeling abandoned by someone who should have stood by me.
    She turned to me, her hazel eyes so clear and free of the madness that for a moment, I forgot it had ever happened.
    “We are each called to this world, Rylee, for a purpose. Some of us find it, like you. Others are not so lucky. Not until I met you and Milly did I find my purpose, and it was shortly after that when the madness began.”
    I sucked in a sharp