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breath. “I didn’t know that it started that long ago.”
    She clasped her hands in her lap. “Yes, I hid it well, but I knew it was only a matter of time before I lost control. So I chose to give you two girls all I had, and every ounce of my abilities I could share with you, I did. You were my purpose in this world. My job was to protect, train, and love you. All three of which I did without hesitation.”
    My jaw hurt from clenching it tight and I thought she was done, but she went on, and finally the tears slipped out of my control down my face.
    “You have the best of me in you, as if you were my daughter in truth.” She smiled somewhat ruefully as she reached out and swiped a tear off my cheek. “You also have some of my bad traits, but those I will let you discover on your own.”
    Her eyes softened even further. “But for me, I know I have done the world a great service by loving you, by teaching you what I could, and by setting you on the path of being a Tracker in truth; one that lets her heart lead her, and the world be damned.”
    “Giselle, I don’t want to be alone. Not again,” I whispered, ashamed at admitting the old deep-seated fear, even to her.
    “You aren’t alone, though, are you? The strength of your character, the drive in you—it draws those to you that will fight for you, with you, and perhaps sometimes even smack you upside the head when you get mouthy.”
    A teary laugh escaped me, and she laughed along with me. Scrubbing my face, I sniffed back my grief. I would lose her before this day was done, I could feel it in my bones, and it scared the shit out of me.
    “Now, we must go. Because if I’m right, Milly will be waiting for us,” Giselle said, her eyes darkening with anger.
    I put the Jeep into drive, the engine rumbling smoothly as I headed back to the Interstate. Knowing Milly was going to try and kill us was one thing, just like knowing that the night would come after the setting sun. And just like the night, I knew it would only be a matter of time before she succeeded.
    That was, unless I beat her to it.
    We spent the rest of the drive reminiscing, talking about old times, good times and bad, that we’d had—our final goodbye, and we both knew it. Without meaning to, my foot eased off the gas pedal, extending our time together, even if only for a few additional minutes. It would never be enough, though, not for me.
    Tracking Milly was easy, something I did without even thinking, really. She was the first person I’d ever Tracked on purpose, the first person’s whose life threads had hummed inside my skull, a vibration all their own.
    I followed her threads through Bismarck to the northeast side of town. There wasn’t much here, at least nothing that should have drawn her. She’d always loved the glitz and glamour of the city life.
    “Stop thinking about her as your friend, Rylee.”
    A long slow breath in helped to calm me, then I let it out and, with it, let go of Milly once and for all.
    Milly’s threads drew me to a beautiful office building, newer, but with architectural touches that showed a modern design with a nod to the past. Squinting my eyes and using my second sight, I could just see the faint outlines of what had to be the Coven’s symbol, a full moon with the faint image of a wolf inside it, on the front door. What the hell, why not storm the Coven’s main building? One last hurrah for Giselle and me. The witch was inside, resting, by the feel of things. Not sleeping, but relaxing. I had no way of knowing how many other Coven members there were.
    “Maybe you should wait here,” I said, thinking about how to get to the top of the three-story building and past any number of Coven members with Giselle, who was frail on a good day.
    “I can bloody well walk. I’m not dead yet,” she snapped at me.
    Oh, there was one of those bad traits she mentioned. A smile flitted across my lips, but disappeared as I stepped out of the Jeep.
    The ever-blowing wind