Raising Innocence: A Rylee Adamson Novel(15)

Giselle came into my line of sight and gave me a nod. She thought it was a good idea, though I wasn’t so sure. With an effort, I peeled my Immunity back, my fingers bared to whatever magic the witch would use on me.
Her fingers touched mine. “Hold still, this will hurt, but it will be quick and your body will be whole.”
A soft tingle was the first of it, and then my broken bones did a jig, yanking back into place. I bit my tongue on the scream that rose up, shaking as my body re-knit itself. I was shocked—and not just at the pain.
Milly had always claimed that healing like this wasn’t possible. That it wasn’t just not one of her talents, but that you couldn’t heal people with magic.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me a third time, and I’m going to run you the fuck through.
Panting, I lay still while my body finished mending itself under the guidance of the witch’s magic. The pain slowly lessened and the click of bone snapping back together slowed until there was nothing but the beat of my heart in my ears.
I pushed myself into a sitting position, my back against the wall, one sword across my lap the other on the floor beside me.
“Cannonballs. Nasty, but effective,” I said, pushing one of the iron balls with my left foot.
The man I’d stabbed sat up from across the room, the healer stepping away from him. The woman whose arm I’d removed was not in the room. How long had I been out for? “We thought it pertinent, considering your innate ability to avoid magic, to be prepared for an attack.”
A snort escaped me. “Attack? I’m not here for you. I’m here for Milly.”
The witches stilled around us. Apparently, honesty is not always the best policy.
Giselle stepped between us, as if her frail body could withstand even one blow from a cannonball. “Milly has betrayed not only us, but your Coven as well.”
The woman, the one who’d healed me, held her hand up for silence. “The rest of you may stay, but I will lead this. I knew Milly the best. She was like my sister.”
My stomach felt as if it had been yanked out and dropped from the window, the words striking me as easily as one of those gods-be-damned cannonballs. This woman was like Milly’s sister? Then what the hell was I? And why did I care?
I was a goddamned fucking idiot. That was what I was.
Giselle turned her face away, shaking her head. Tears slipped down her cheeks, and I knew that we’d both been fooled. We had been completely blinded by our love for Milly. She’d been able to manipulate us into believing her, and worse, trusting her.
I pushed myself to my feet and with great care cleaned off my one blade, before sliding it into its sheath. With my foot, I flicked the second blade up into the air and put it away too. “Let me guess,” I said. “Milly told you something along the lines of Giselle and I had her under our control, and she needed you to watch out for her. Help her train so she could eventually escape? Some shit like that?”
The members of the Coven exchanged glances. Even if I wasn’t bang on, I was close enough.
Laughing, I touched one finger to my chin. “Would you like to know what she told us about you? The Coven is ignorant of the world and you demanded her complete devotion; you forced her to cut ties with us and the world. And in the end, you wanted to kill her.”
The witch with the angelic good looks seemed shocked, her hand going to her throat. “We would never ask her to cut ties with her family. It is a support system that every witch needs. I can’t believe Milly would tell you that . . . no, you must have been mistaken.” She lifted her hands and three of the cannonballs rose in the air. Ah, crap, I did not want to get smashed again.
Giselle put her hands on her hips. “There was a witch who’d gone with Milly on the last salvage. She was the Coven leader’s wife?”
Eyes widened throughout the room. “Why would you say that?”
My mentor closed her eyes, and I felt her draw on her abilities. I wanted to stop her, to stay her hand and keep her sanity with us a little longer. “Milly was having an affair with the Coven leader. What better way to remove the wife from the picture than to have a Tracker kill her rival in self defense?”
Now, I won’t say I’d forgotten about killing that particular witch, it just didn’t make me lose any sleep. She’d been about to kill Milly, and at the time, I couldn’t let that happen.
Three of the witches turned to face the one man I’d laid my blade on, the blond. He went deathly pale as he addressed the angelic witch. “It is why I stepped down, Terese. I knew I was wrong and was using my connections for Milly. But I did love her.”