“Oh, not in the same way. I don’t mean that,” Fiona continued. “But you’re the one they both inquire about first. You’re the one they look to in order to understand our way of life. Jean resents your ‘power’ over them because she wants it for herself.”

Breanna shook her head, not to deny what Fiona had said but because she still couldn’t accept that Jean might be a danger to Liam and Falco. It was one thing to consider breaking the witches’ creed in order to defend her family and home; it was quite another to break that creed and do harm simply because you could do it. “Have you any proof that Jean ever harmed a boy because he wasn’t sufficiently attentive?”

“Proof? No. Suspicions? Oh, yes. But she always acted the darling around the elders, and they wouldn’t believe sweet, pretty Jean has the heart of a cold-blooded bitch. There was nothing serious, you understand. Just little spiteful things that could have been easily explained as simple accidents if they hadn’t occurred soon after a boy she wanted showed a preference for another girl.” Fiona sighed. “I didn’t want her to come with us. Even knowing what she would have faced if she’d stayed, I didn’t want her to come with us. All during the journey, I was afraid she would do something that would call too much attention to us, make the guards in the villages we had to pass look too closely at where we were coming from. Make them look too closely at us.”

“But she didn’t do anything,” Breanna said. “Perhaps, with Nuala keeping an eye on her…”

Fiona shook her head. “I told you, the elders only saw what Jean wanted them to see—and that’s the face she shows to Nuala, too. Pretty, sometimes pouty in a teasing way, fluttery feminine Jean. She was fearful enough of the people the Inquisitors have turned against our kind to behave on the journey here, but the only reason she didn’t do anything more damaging back home was because…”

“Because?” Breanna prodded.

Fiona looked uncomfortable. Finally, she said, “She was afraid of Jennyfer. And she hasn’t stirred up much trouble here because she’s afraid of you.”

“Me? Whatever for?”

“You and Jenny…you’re…different…from the rest of us. I don’t mean that in a bad way, but…there’s a strength in both of you that runs so deep. A strength that comes from here.” Fiona shifted the quiver to her bow hand in order to press a fist against her heart. “I remember the last time you came to visit the family and stayed for the summer. Do you remember?”

“I remember,” Breanna said quietly.