Pure cold rage shot through my body and, like the first time, I fantasized about hunting the killer down, exacting revenge for the young lives unjustly ended. Vengeance was as much a part of being Amazon as our worship of Artemis. Within the tribe, a band of warriors would have been chosen and none would have rested until the killer was found and destroyed. Her soul released, but not in the gentle manner I’d used with these girls. No, it would be torn from the killer’s body, then grounded to earth. Cursed to stay locked for eternity in one spot, her only conscious world the moments of her own death playing over and over.

But then reality settled down around me-again.

I was no longer part of the tribe. A fact I didn’t regret, but for these girls’ sakes, for my family’s…for a moment I wavered. Amazon justice was hard and fast. A tempting resolution to this ugly dilemma. But I had left that world, and even if I wanted to return, they wouldn’t accept me back easily.

In fact, they would view any approach from me with suspicion, perhaps even enacting their hard and fast justice on me before bothering to gather tiresome details. And they’d be back in my life, in my daughter’s life. My daughter, who knew nothing of her heritage, didn’t even know Amazons were real and that she was one.

It was why I hadn’t done anything about the first girl-or not much anyway. I’d released her spirit, then left her body where the police could find it.

It had been something, but not enough. I cradled my face in my hands…not enough by a long shot. The dead body beside me proved that.

What now? Nothing had changed. I couldn’t do any more this time.

But hard as I tried, I couldn’t let it go. Couldn’t just stand up and cart this body off like I had the last. Forget her…or try to.

What about their families? Their mothers wondering when their daughters would come home…expecting them…