Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Bram and Dahlia?
“When did that happen?” she whispered. “How did that happen?”
“She blames us,” Adam said, a smile in his voice for the first time. “Says it’s our fault she ended up meeting the big Psy lunk and now she has to act as his teddy bear so he can sleep.”
Eleri couldn’t imagine Bram needing anyone, but fascinated as she was at this most unexpected turn in her friend’s life, she was more interested in why they were in a cave…that was home to bats.
Her brain came back online in full glory. “Are we in a tent in the cave with the bats?”
“Yep. I know how much you love bats.”
“Adam, why—” Her eyes widened, her breath rushing out of her. “It’s quiet here.” So, so quiet. Not a single mind pressing down against her own. She couldn’t even feel Adam’s or Dahlia’s psychic presence, as if the quietness had given her back her ability to ignore the shielded minds of changelings.
Adam shuddered as he exhaled. “I almost forgot what you said that day. I was almost too late.”
Eleri shook her head even as she luxuriated in the quiet, in the absolute absence of mental pressure. “I didn’t even really process it that day, not with how the bats chased us out right as I felt it—and I was focused on how I just wanted to be with you again.”
She took a deep breath…and wrinkled her nose. “I’m glad neither of us has an intense sense of smell.”
A chuckle. “Poor Dahlia does. Yet she’s tucked up with Bram.”
“And he’s sleeping? Without medical assistance?”
“Far as I know. Out like a light—Naia confirmed he’s asleep, not unconscious.”
Heart beginning to kick as she realized what this could mean, she said, “Why is it quiet?”
“I don’t know, but Saoirse and her crew, along with Naia, are running every test under the sun there is to run.” Lifting his hand, he brushed his knuckles over her cheek.
Sensation rolled through her in an intoxicating wave.
She wanted to close her eyes, sink into the feeling, but the way Adam was looking at her, she knew he needed her to be present. “You’ve bought us endless time.” While she didn’t want to live like a mole, she could manage it for a period if it was the only option. “With me and Bram as test subjects, your sister has a real chance to figure out an answer.”
Furrows between his eyebrows. “She’s feeling out of her depth.” Then, as she listened, he told her about a scientist named Ashaya Aleine and her failed quest to build an artificial shield for humans. “Humans and Psy aren’t the same in psychic terms, but I figure the energy is the same—Psy emit it, humans are vulnerable to it.”
No one had ever talked to Eleri of psychic energy in such terms, but she saw his logic. “Any shield technology should be cross-compatible.”
“That’s what I think,” Adam said. “While Naia was checking you were okay physically, I stepped out to get a signal, made some calls. Friend of mine in SnowDancer says Kaleb Krychek’s also sponsored a group of scientists to find a solution to the problem of human shields.”
“Krychek?” Of all the people in the world who she might think of as choosing to do good for the sake of it, the former Councilor and current member of the Ruling Coalition wasn’t one. Though…“He’s stopped breach after breach in the PsyNet, literally kept it from collapsing. He doesn’t have to do that, is powerful enough to protect his own section and leave the rest to rot.”
“Judd—my SnowDancer contact—calls Krychek a friend, and Judd’s got a moral compass I trust. And wasn’t it Krychek who dismantled Silence?”
“Not on his own, but yes,” Eleri acknowledged.
Adam ran his hand down her arm, over the top of the blanket, and the weight and warmth of it made her entire body glow. “I’m sure the Human Alliance is probably working on a shield project of their own.”
Safe and content, her mind more at peace than it had been in years, Eleri struggled to follow the thread of the conversation instead of just cuddling up to Adam and sinking into him. “Are you considering whether to invite others in to help Saoirse?”
“Saoirse thinks we need a Psy medical specialist, but the general consensus seems to be that it’s better if the various parties work alone, to stop them all ending up at the same dead end. But we have a unique starting point now, one to which no one else has access.”
Eleri put her hand on his raised knee, frowned. “How about parallel tracks? Bring in an M you trust, give them access, then they work on a possible solution while Saoirse continues on her own path?”
“It has to be Ashaya. We have an alliance with DarkRiver, a friendship beyond that. She won’t breathe a word of this discovery to anyone else.” He squeezed her close. “I’ll step out to make the call soon. I just need to hold you awhile longer.”