Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
It was only ever the two of them in that barren place.
“Pathetic coward,” Yakov snarled.
“Yes, he was.” Her grandfather had been a monster to her for far too long—at last she saw him for the weak little man he’d been inside. “As for protecting Pax from the abuse,” she added, “ironically enough, I did it by drawing power from Pax.”
“I didn’t realize Psy twins could do that. Share power.”
“Not all twins can. In our case, our bond isn’t wholly under our control. The door between our minds is instinctive and it shoves open when one of us is in need.” As it had when Scarab Syndrome first took hold of Pax’s brain. Theo had fed him all she could, even as she put on a front of being angered by the headaches and nosebleeds engendered by the draw.
In truth, she wouldn’t have cared if he took all of it, every last drop. It had been about keeping him at a distance, her brother golden and bright who she’d believed still had a chance.
“Why didn’t you drop the shield, allow the pain to reach your brother?” Yakov asked, his arms tight around her. “Not to cause harm, but as a tool to scare off Marshall.”
“He protected me for so long, Yasha.” Her heart ached for the young man who’d died inside each time he sensed Theo’s suffering. “I just wanted to keep him safe for once. I was also a stubborn teenage girl who hated my grandfather. I relished taunting him about the pleasure he got from abusing a vulnerable young woman.”
I guess—a breath through lingering agony—your Silence isn’t so perfect after all, old man. Are you experiencing sexual arousal? I read about such—Another jolt, her scream echoing off the walls.
Theo shrugged on the memory of that scream. “It was stupid to taunt him, but it was the only pleasure I had in life. I’m still not sorry I did it.”
“We all do stupid things as juveniles,” Yakov reassured her. “It just so happens you were with a psychopath at the time.”
A laugh bubbled out of her, and it was real, not forced or halfhearted. “The short of it is that I taunted him a little too much one day and he set the output to maximum. Liquid fire under my skin. You can see the results on my back.” A spiderweb of scars where the current had traveled through the specially designed micro-electrodes hooked into her skin.
“I have the odd rogue scar.” She touched a thin one on her inner thigh. “But the impact was mostly concentrated on my back—and it was the last time. Because I couldn’t protect Pax from that. He went into cardiac arrest at the same time I did.” Her last panicked thought had been her brother’s name.
She’d felt him reach out desperately to her at the same time.
THEO!
Then they were both gone.
“Bozhe moi.” Yakov pressed a kiss to the top of her hair, his hand shaking where it cupped the back of her head. “To know I could’ve lost you before I ever met you . . .” He squeezed the air out of her and she was happy to be so squeezed.
“I knew you were tough,” he added in a voice rough and ragged. “This just proves it.”
She soaked up the praise, a flower deprived of the sun suddenly pulled into the light. “I’m certain my grandfather would’ve left me to die if the medics working on Pax had managed to get his heart beating before mine. But they couldn’t, even though he received near-immediate attention.”
“Your brother is a stubborn fucker. He played chicken with death and won.”
“Yes.” She’d never be able to prove it, but she knew that Pax, a highly intelligent and well-trained Gradient 9, had done something in that final split second before flatline to link their destinies. “My brother’s heart didn’t start beating again until—irony of ironies—my grandfather did CPR on me and got my organ going.”
“I hope the abusive coward sweated half his life away.”
“I’m sure he did. It’s always amused me that he was forced to bring his most hated grandchild back to life.” Theo had always thought that meant she was as perverse as him, but Yakov had made her see the entire event in a different light: she’d been a child acting like a child, and he’d been a Councilor with all the power in the world.
Theo had taken what good she could from the situation.
“Pax has never admitted it, but I know he did it on purpose.” Theo wanted Yakov to know this part of her brother, the part no one else in the world ever saw, the part that Marshall Hyde had crushed and buried and hurt. “Linked his life to mine. So our grandfather couldn’t murder me without murdering him.”
Yakov took a deep breath. “Never thought I’d say this, but I like your brother—at least when it comes to his relationship with you. Pax understands family.” A hard nod. “But I reserve the right to look at him with suspicion in all other dealings.”