Chapter 135-2
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Because from my count, in the last ten years, fifty of them came to this mountain and were never
seen again.”
“Fifty witches!” Kiana squeaked. “She has fifty witches?!”
“More likely a small group of witches has the power of fifty.” The Crone’s gaze settled on Lunessa,
Irene, and Janelle. “The number is probably higher. It’s nothing compared to the magic sitting in
this room, so take care. If Claudine’s plan is about to come to a climax and she needs more
witches, she is likely to try to take you all again.”
I found Amelia in the library where she’d been hiding most days. Except for the upgrades she’d done to the network to make sure that Claudine couldn’t weasel her way in, she spent the rest of her time looking through the files she’d pulled. If anything, she looked a little more upbeat about the prospect of actually hunting for something specific instead of just trying to make sense of the incomplete information she had.
“You want me to search for the names of these fifty witches who have disappeared and for a cult of granny killers?” she repeated.
“In fairness to them, Katherine’s mother wasn’t a grandmother when they murdered her, so mother
killers would be more accurate.”
Amelia wrinkled her nose. “I can’t promise much. Unless Claudine welcomes any of these wolves or witches into her pack, I’m not going to have their name on the roster. Everything else I have is all over the place. Inventory for some of the businesses. Infirmary records. Meeting notes. I don’t have a complete record for anything. Everything was only partially downloaded before the plug
was pulled.”
“Just do what you can. If you need help, I can assign people to you to help you organize.”
At my pointed look of the chaos on the table, she smiled briefly. “What makes you think I don’t have this well in hand? Actually, I could use a few more hands. Especially since I’ll probably have to start over. Stacey can probably help me when she’s done. She might be able to develop a program to help me run through these names a little faster. How is Kiana?”
“Exhausted. Tomorrow, she’s going to start training with the witches, and she’s still not at full strength. I’m worried about her. This is important, but if you could take a break and visit with her some, I’d appreciate it.”
“This dark library is not at all my idea of a good time.” Stopping for a moment, she stared out the
13
|||
O
<
Chapter 135-2
window. “Not too long ago, my only job was to walk the perimeter.”
Claim
“Do you miss it?” She’d saved Kiana that night, ignoring years of hatred and bigotry to alert me to
the fact that Danny was trying to r**e her.
“No. It might be nice to get back to something simpler soon, when it’s safer, but life just isn’t the same anymore. We do what we can to protect what’s ours.” Her eyes darkened. “Even if we’re
certain it’s not going to make a difference.”
She clearly wasn’t talking about Kiana or the pack anymore. I didn’t know what was happening between her and Finn, but they clearly hadn’t found their happily ever after yet.
Like I’d had? Accepting the mating bond, and my own love for Kiana, hadn’t done anything to change the fact that she could be taken away from me any second.
“Oh, one last thing. I know Kiana would want to know. Can you see if any of Claudine’s healers from twenty to twenty-five years ago are still alive? Claudine had five daughters that died as infants. I think Kiana wants to try to humanize Claudine somehow. She wants to know what happened.”
“That’s horrible…wait, did you say five daughters?” Amelia’s eyes widened for just a second before she started shuffling through papers. “Who told you that they died?”
“Kiana’s mother told the Crone. She was worried that her blessings were somehow killing them. Apparently, they were all born healthy until they died. The blessing, and then they died within a
week of that.”
It wasn’t unheard of for pups to not make it out of infancy, although five seemed unusual for a single mother. Perhaps there was something genetic happening, but why wouldn’t the healer have
found it?
Amelia held up her hand. “There’s a memo written in the notes of this patient’s file. The healer who signed off on it was Dayna. The patient was an adult’s broken leg, and it was dated twenty-three
years ago.
The note reads ‘fifth girl passed of SIDS but unable to review body. Strongly believe the Mother is smuggling the children out. Damien?’ The note obviously has nothing to do with the real patient. I figured she’d written the note on the wrong file, but what if she was trying to hide it? There’s a series of words written after that might be in code.”
I wanted to shake my head and tell her that it didn’t make sense. Claudine wouldn’t smuggle her own daughters out. She’d have no need. Her children would have been revered.
“Have Saul take a look at the code. See if it has anything to do with the other healers. See if you can find Dayna and cross reference any other material you have to the name Damien.”
DO 20
“Fuck, Troy, you don’t think she killed her daughters, do you?”
Claim
“Killed them or gave them away. Either way, it’s another layer of Claudine that I think we need to
unravel.”
Comments
LUCK DRAW >
T
103
