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)
The Arrow took off her uniform jacket and threw it on the end of the bed. “I like you, Auden Scott.”
Auden didn’t move. “Why?” she asked warily.
“Because you just got in between a trained killer and your child.” A shift in her expression. “I wasn’t sure who I’d meet today. It wasn’t a woman with Shoshanna Scott’s eyes melded with the protectiveness of an Arrow mother.”
Auden’s emotions were all over the place, but she realized that if Zaira had wanted to do her harm, she could’ve done it the instant she came through the door. Arrows were Arrows for a reason; she had no idea of Zaira’s specialty, but that didn’t matter—all Arrows were lethal.
Taking a deep breath, she shifted aside. “Would you like to meet Liberty?”
Zaira came over to look into the incubator, her shoulder-length black hair sliding against her neck as she glanced down. Her expression gentled. “I like that name,” she said afterward.
“It’s a promise to her,” Auden found herself saying. “Of a life lived in freedom.”
Zaira Neve’s dark eyes locked with hers again, words unspoken within. “Telepathic shields,” she said at last. “I need to examine yours to make them better. I’ll get a couple of chairs from outside so we can sit facing each other.”
Auden knew she had no real choice with the required trust. And even if she didn’t know or have any reason to trust Zaira, her faith in Remi was a thing unbreakable. And it was Remi who’d brought Zaira to her. “I’ll use Finn’s chair,” she said. “Healer imprints seem to be like empathic imprints; my senses don’t react.”
“Of course.”
After they were in position on the chairs, she gave the Arrow the necessary access. Zaira’s eyes went black as she expended psychic power, but her mental touch was so subtle that Auden didn’t even feel it. That told her the deadly truth: Zaira was a combat telepath.
Her father’s voice filled her mind.
Most combat telepaths are experts at shield destruction and war on the psychic front, but the really good ones can slip past defenses without a whisper. You’ll never know one has infiltrated you until they’ve melted your brain from the inside out.
She sucked in a breath.
Zaira spoke at the same instant. “Apologies. I wasn’t intending on picking up that thought, but it was too strong to avoid. I’m not planning on melting your brain. If I did, Remi would try to kill me, we’d fight and both be badly hurt, and then everyone would be mad at me, including Jojo.”
“Who’s Jojo?” Auden choked out.
“A young friend,” Zaira murmured, the black retreating from her eyes. “Hmm, that was interesting. I’ve never been inside the mind of a psychometric before.”
Auden closed her fingers into her palm. “Is it different from other Psy minds?”
“Yes,” Zaira said, to her surprise. “Your shields have a layer of complication I’ve never previously encountered, but it makes sense if you’re getting data through tactile contact.” She glanced at Auden’s hands. “No gloves?”
“I gave up on them after they did nothing to protect me during pregnancy,” Auden said. “Finn’s already ordered me a couple of new sets now that my sensitivity’s settled back down to normal levels. The thin layer generally blunts the impact of unknown imprints.”
“I’ve never thought myself ignorant on Psy abilities,” Zaira said, “but I realize I know next to nothing about psychometrics.”
“Not many people do. Can you show me what you saw in my mind?”
Zaira nodded. “I’ll project the information.”
The images were crystalline. “Your telepathy is beautiful,” Auden whispered, astonished. “Even Shoshanna didn’t send with such clarity.”
“Let’s not bring up your parents.” Zaira’s voice held ice for the first time.
Auden’s entire being went still. “I’m sorry.” For all that her family had done, the atrocities they’d helped commit.
“Nothing for you to be sorry about.” Zaira shoved a hand through her soft curls. “I apologize for snapping at you. You had nothing to do with their actions.”
Auden wasn’t sure quite how to take that.
Zaira held her gaze. “We, all of us Arrows, are learning to believe that we are not how we were brought up, that now we have a choice, we can choose to be better. So for me to accuse you of evil simply because of your parents goes against our very ethos. I was wrong. Simple as that.”
No one had ever apologized to Auden. Not that way. Not so real and honest.
“I accept the apology,” she said past the lump in her throat. “Thank you for giving me those words.”
Zaira kept on looking at her with eyes that were too incisive. “Did you grow up like us?”
“I don’t know what growing up as an Arrow is like,” Auden said, “but no, I don’t think so. My father wanted me, you see. He didn’t even care that I had a passive ability. He treated me well.”