He'd been right to yank me up short when I'd torn into Alec, but that didn't make it any easier to deal with. I knew that he was just trying to keep me from saying anything I would end up regretting later, but the truth was that for months now I'd thought that Taggart had my back no matter what. Finding out that he was as concerned about Alec as he was about me was a slap to the face, one that I hadn't been ready for. It was enough to send me to Nellie in tears, but at least I managed not to break down in front of Taggart. I was all about small victories these days—they seemed to be the only kind of victories I could manage as of late. His request that I help him with the attack he and Alec were going to carry out against Kaleb was another bitter pill. It shouldn't have been—I was the one who'd told him I was ready to do whatever was necessary to bring down the Coun'hij—but it was. After spending so long telling me that he didn't want to turn me into a weapon for other people to use, he'd jumped on my first moment of weakness to do exactly that.
