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)
Naya made a happy sound at seeing her small friend but didn’t run off; she might be a panther, but she was also a DarkRiver cub raised with the boundaries a strong changeling child needed to feel safe—and to grow into a trustworthy and disciplined member of the pack. “Mama, I go play with Jina?”
“I’ve got her,” Dorian said when Sascha glanced at him.
To trust the sentinel with this living piece of her heart wasn’t even a question. “Yes, go play. And mind your manners if you go to Jina’s house.”
Leaving her daughter to play, safe in the knowledge that she’d be watched over in this landscape that wasn’t theirs and held dangers Naya might not understand, she followed Adam inside the Canyon, Hanz at her side.
The youth paused outside the infirmary. “I need baselines,” he said. “I’ve never had reason to interact with or read falcon changelings before. I don’t have any idea of your emotional normal.”
When Adam glanced at Sascha, she gave a nod.
He extended his hand. “Please go ahead.”
Hanz frowned after he made contact. “I held your daughter’s hand,” he said, his head angled toward Sascha. “I made no attempt to read her, of course, but her surface self felt primal in a way I’ve never experienced. However, you, Adam, are closer to the husband of my trainer, Jaya. Wildness contained.”
Jaya’s husband was an Arrow, a lethal soldier. And so, Sascha thought, was Adam. Alphas—and wing leaders—tended to be that way. She should know.
“Adult versus child,” Adam said as “big Naia” came to join them, his voice gruff. “Jacques is my right hand. He should feel similar to me.”
After Hanz nodded and broke contact, he said, “Jaya said she called you. She did explain that I might not be able to get through? Changeling shields are formidable.”
It was Naia who answered, her fingers touching Sascha’s in a silent hello. “Yes. She also said the shield might be more permeable due to the serious nature of his injuries, but that there were no guarantees.”
“Just do your best,” Adam said, his tone the encouraging one of an alpha to a young packmate.
He reminded Sascha of Lucas in many ways. Both of them leaders with huge hearts. As Naia reminded her of Tamsyn, another healer who’d give her blood itself if it would help her packmates.
“Thank you for coming,” Adam said to Sascha in a low tone as Naia led Hanz to Jacques’s room. “We have no way to monitor the E, see what he might be doing to Jacques.”
“I understand.” The Es had a strict code of ethics, but to expect a changeling pack to blindly trust a being from a race that had so often been their enemy was to ask the impossible.
“I spoke to him on the flight from the airport, and he’s relieved to have me shadow him in a telepathic sense. He wants the oversight, is scared he’ll screw something up.”
“Kid’s young.” A frown between Adam’s eyebrows. “You sure this won’t hurt him?”
There it was, that protective heart. “There aren’t many Es with Jaya’s—and Hanz’s—specialty, so he’s been pulled into active service earlier than might be optimal, but Jaya told me he’s passed every single test to check his psychological and psychic readiness, and that to hold him back would be detrimental to his development. He also knows he can walk away at any point.”
“Good. Last thing Jacques would want is to scar an E.”
A sucked-in gulp of air, distressed telepathic contact. Sascha, he’s so hurt. My sensors are picking up amputations and other variations they can’t process.
Leaving Adam’s side at once, Sascha went straight to Hanz’s. And though Naia had described the extent of Jacques’s injuries, Sascha’s own stomach twisted at the sight. The last time she’d seen the falcon male, he’d been scowling down at her cub, saying no to playing a game of swords and dragons, but in the way of a man who knew he was going to do it but had to make a show of resisting first.
Right then, she’d known that her cub would be as safe with Jacques as she was with Dorian. If her heart hurt at seeing him so wounded, how much worse must it be for his clan?
Do you want me to telepath you a visual? she asked Hanz, forcing herself to keep her tone calm because if she wavered, the younger E might crumple. Will your receptors be able to process it?
No, I was born blind. I have no visual parameters beyond how I perceive the world with my sensors. Please describe him to me.
Hiding her surprise at his revelation of his congenital blindness—and hoping the story behind it was of a loving family that refused to buckle to societal and Council pressure—she spoke aloud to keep the others in the loop. “Hanz needs a description of Jacques’s physical state. His sensors are having trouble processing it. I’ll—”