Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
“Yes, only a hundred times worse. Because scents fade after a short time when compared to imprints. And layered imprints, where the same action has occurred over and over and over, can be relentless.”
—warmth, happiness, pride—
She realized she was stroking the arm of her chair, bathing in an imprint that didn’t hurt but healed. How utterly lovely.
“The bad reads…they’re chaos, nightmare pieces.” Auden wanted so much for him to understand that she tried to think of a way to give better shape to the experience. “Like walking into a library to find all the books pulled off the shelves and thrown on the floor, only a few spines visible and all the pages ripped out and scattered out of order.”
She found herself tracing Remi’s profile with her gaze as he took the time to think over her words.
“That’s why you only pick up snatches, images, or pieces.”
It made her wonder all over again what she’d read on his comm device. “Yes.” But then she told him more, because her defenses were down and any other motivations aside, he did care in at least an impersonal way.
“We can pick up more coherent things—that’s what the academic psychometrics do, but it requires intense focus and energy. It’s too difficult with emotion-touched objects. The resonance is too strong, starts to overwhelm the psychometric.
“Crispin called it terminal velocity in his book, the point at which the psychometric isn’t able to turn back, get themselves out of the nightmare.”
Remi’s eyebrows drew together over his eyes. “Have you—”
“Only once—and I was so scared that I broke away before terminal velocity.” It had left her a trembling, sweat-soaked wreck regardless. “A mistake in childhood. An object picked up off the ground at my small private school that had been dropped by a teacher who should never have been in charge of children.”
Remi’s growl made her nape prickle.
“My father was…not a good man,” she said, speaking the words aloud for the first time. “But he did a good thing then. He believed me. And that teacher vanished.” Swallowing, she met his gaze. “Do you judge me for not caring about what happened to him?”
“No. I’m changeling. If you’re implying what I think you’re implying about the teacher, then our sentence is death at the claws of the alpha. No mercy. No forgiveness. Not for violating the trust of the smallest and most vulnerable of us all.”
Auden’s shoulders softened.
His jaw yet a brutal line, Remi’s eyes went to her empty glass. “How about it?” He nodded at the cooler. “You want to try the food I brought?”
Her stomach rumbled right on cue.
“I think your cub is saying yes.” His grin creased his cheeks, eased up the grim line of his jaw.
Her stomach flipped.
She was still struggling with the reaction when he opened the lid to show her the goods within, his eyes bright with a feline wildness.
Right then, she understood what humans and changelings meant when they said a person’s smile reached their eyes. It was a warmth that couldn’t be faked, a sense that this being was glowing from the inside out.
“Auden?”
Flushing, she jerked her gaze away from his face and to the cooler.
Remi didn’t rush her as she stared down at two items she recognized as muffins from seeing them on the comm, a swirling pastry that might’ve been a cinnamon roll, and what looked like a croissant. Then there was a sealed packet of cookies, a clear container of mixed berries, and a block of chocolate.
“I wasn’t sure how into food you were, so I kept it simple. The cinnamon roll is probably the one with the strongest flavor.”
Hungry in a way she hadn’t ever been before her pregnancy, Auden felt as if she could devour it all, but limited herself to trying the croissant for now. It was still warm. What she’d assumed was a cooler, she realized, was actually a carrier designed to keep food at the temperature it was when put inside.
Having placed her empty glass on the ground, she now took a large bite of the croissant…and made a startled sound as flakes of pastry drifted down around her. It was no doubt all over her face, too.
But she didn’t care.
“This is delicious.” Forgetting every bit of manners she’d ever been taught, she took several more bites in quick succession…then looked sadly at her empty hand.
Instead of laughing at her, Remi creased his cheeks again with a smile she could almost believe held affection. “I’ll bring more croissants next time.”
Next time.
A galloping horse inside her chest, she decided to try the cinnamon roll despite his warning that it was the strongest tasting. A single bite and she moaned before licking up the frosting around her mouth.
“You should have some water to wash that down,” Remi said, his voice sounding strangled.
She waved him toward her cabin.