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)
“Viewpoint of a cub?” Yakov said.
“Cub?” A frown that cleared quickly. “Yes, a cub. A child. Half my current height or so. Young then. Under twelve. I had my main growth spurt around twelve; until then I was in the shortest percentile of my age group.”
Yakov hated the idea of a vulnerable child being in this cold and lonely place with its patina of old evil. “You have any conscious memories of the place?”
“No. Until the incident at the gate, I never knew I’d been here.”
Yakov wanted to believe her. In her favor were his own instincts, and her reaction by the gate. No one could’ve faked that panic, including the chemical changes in her body that had screamed her fear. Against her was her family and their history.
The Marshalls were very good at hiding things.
Bear and man straining against the duality, he nonetheless offered her his hand once more. She stared, and he thought she’d turn it down. But Theo Marshall surprised him all over again, sliding one slender and too-cold hand over his, her fingers curling around his palm.
“You definitely need warmer clothes,” he muttered as he enclosed hers in his much bigger hand, willing his heat to sink into her.
“Yakov?”
“Call me Yasha.” It just came out, his bear making the decision about trust well before the more logical part of him could work through his dueling feelings.
Her fingers tightened on him. “I don’t touch people.” A statement coated in a hard shell.
“I’m not people.” He winked at her. “I’m a bear.”
A frown . . . followed by the faintest tug of her lips. “I stand corrected.” She took a deep breath. “I’m ready.”
A bird squawked loudly overhead at that instant and Theo’s head jerked up, following its progress across the sky. When she looked back at him, he could barely see the blue of her irises. “Maybe it’s a good sign.”
“It’s important to you,” he murmured, “that memory of saving the bird.”
“Yes. I think, in the end, that’s what counted most heavily in favor of our family’s decision to separate Pax and me. So maybe it’s a bad omen.” Her expression grew hard. “It used to be a secret, but I’m not keeping the Council’s or my family’s secrets anymore. We’re a Harmony pair, my brother and I.”
Yakov didn’t know that term, but he had a feeling Silver would. Not that he was about to ask her. This, what Theo had just shared, was a private thing. “Tell me about it at dinner.” Because he was damn well filling her with comfort once this was over. “After this is done.”
She squared her shoulders, the anger in her a shield of fire. “After this is done.”
They climbed the steps together, found the door locked—but that was no impediment, Theo unlocking it with her telekinesis in a matter of seconds.
Yes, that was one very useful skill in a family that liked power.
Yakov kept his mouth shut because he wasn’t about to terrorize her—she might be tough and determined, his Psy, but this was the home of her private horror.
His questions could wait, he thought as they stepped inside.
Chapter 17
Harmonies are a gift, to be treasured and protected. These rare pairs—often, but not always twins—hold within them the gift of life itself. No Harmony pair is to ever be harmed. In harming them, we would be harming the shining heart of us.
—Aleya, Psy philosopher (circa 1571)
Twenty-Two Years Ago
THEO WALKED OUT of the family house even though she wanted to run. Her grandfather and parents had made the rules very clear: there was to be no running inside the house.
“Any infractions will result in the loss of privileges.”
That was what her mother had said. Theo hadn’t understood what the second word meant, so she’d remembered it and asked her and Pax’s tutor. So now she knew it meant breaking the rules. She’d told Pax, too, even though he didn’t get punished like her. Her twin had told her to follow the rules, so they wouldn’t lose their time outside—the time when they were supposed to exercise in the way that they’d been taught, but that they used to play.
Mostly no one checked on them during that time, since they were inside the grounds of their grandfather’s big estate. They played hide-and-seek, or climbed trees, or played games that they came up with together.
I don’t know why they punish you, Pax had said to her, mind-to-mind. We do the same things.
Theo might’ve only been five, but she knew the answer. It’s because you have lots of psychic power. I heard Mother say that you might be an 8 or a 9 and she couldn’t understand why I wasn’t strong, too. Her mother’s disappointment made her sad. I keep on trying to be stronger so that when we do the tests, we’ll be the same, but I can’t make my mind bigger.