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Chapter Two
Iwaited until I couldn’t hear Katie’s footsteps anymore before I said, “She’s up to no good out there.”
My mother’s eyes widened. “She isn’t smoking, is she?”
“I wish,” I replied with feeling.
Justina gave me an appalled glance. My wave dismissed it.
“That would at least be an expected form of pre-teen rebellion. She’s sneaking off to practice killing.”
Saying it out loud made it more real. Guilt, grief, and rage scalded me with its usual toxic mixture. I saved Katie from the human monsters that had held her captive, so why couldn’t I save her from the horrible things she’d learned from them?
“You’ve been spying on her?” Bones sounded more surprised by that than he was by hearing of Katie’s activities.
“I prefer ‘practicing attentive parenting,’” I muttered.
His look plainly said, Who are you bullshitting?
I threw up my hands. “Fine! Spying on her is messed up, but that’s hardly our main concern, is it?”
“Kitten, we told Katie it was wrong to kill anyone who wasn’t trying to harm her, but we never told her that she couldn’t still train.”
My eyes widened. “Isn’t that focusing on the letter of the law while ignoring the intent?”
“Maybe training is just familiar to her?” my mother said.
Justina, the excuse-making, indulgent grandmother? Never would’ve pegged her for that, but here she was, showing Katie more understanding for her trial slaughters than she’d shown me my entire childhood.
“She wasn’t just shadowboxing, Mom. She was kicking trees in half and then decapitating their fallen stumps.”
And appearing to enjoy it. That worried me the most. Had she enjoyed killing people in her former life?
Bones didn’t look concerned. For a second, something flashed across his face that looked traitorously like approval.
“Oh, come on,” I snapped. “She’s just a child!”
His dark brown eyes seemed to stare into my soul. “Yes, but she’s no ordinary child, and you know it. So, what’s really bothering you about this, Kitten?”
“I keep screwing things up with her!”
The words burst from me while emotions that I tried not to think about, let alone show, exploded free like a cork shooting out of a shaken-up champagne bottle.
“I wasn’t there for the first seven years of her life when she was experimented on and forced into becoming a killer,” I said, trying to regain control. “Now? What sort of mother am I? I can’t cook, I keep dropping f-bombs, I could barely stitch the tear in her favorite pants, and, oh yeah, I’m spying on her.”
My mother stood, not appearing to notice that she upended her chair with her fast, jerky movements.
“You love your daughter as she is.” Her voice vibrated, and I was shocked to see her eyes shine with unshed tears. I could count on one hand the number of times I’d seen my mother cry.
“I failed to do that with you when you were growing up, and it almost killed you. Don’t worry about the other stuff. Keep loving your daughter unconditionally, Catherine, and unlike me, you’ll always be a wonderful mother.”
With that, she left. Moments later, I heard her car start, and then the spin of gravel as she pulled away.
“Your mum is right.”
Bones’s statement broke the silence. I turned toward him, a humorless smile tugging my mouth.
“You and my mom agreeing? Is it the apocalypse again?”
