Chapter 34

Chapter 34

The tests are definitive: none of the drugs in the trial offer long-term amelioration of the problem. As psychic remedies have already been ruled out, only one option remains.

—Classified Report to the Psy Council by PsyMed: Pharmaceutical Development 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."

Zaira's expression held a quiet intensity. "I'm learning subtlety and nuance," she said. "And how people can have different faces. I suppose I never expected Councilor Henry Scott to ever wear the face of a doting father." The Arrow waved a hand in a slicing motion. "But that's not why I'm here."

Auden was glad to move past the topic of her parents. "How bad are my shields?"

"Not bad at all," Zaira told her, to her surprise. "Who taught you shield construction?"

"My father."

"I thought as much. He was good. But you have an erratic crack through your psychic pattern at the foundation—it's destabilized things at the very start so that the error runs outward."

Auden could've made excuses, hidden the truth, but if she was going to do that, she might as well end this session now. "I was implanted with an experimental biograft. It did permanent damage."

Zaira's eyes had gone gleaming obsidian at Auden's first words. "So," she said after a pregnant pause, "you were brought up like us after all."

"No," Auden said, "I had sixteen years of a life where I felt safe and protected."

Though Zaira didn't push the point, Auden could follow the line of her thoughts: that Auden didn't want to believe she'd suffered because to do that would be to destroy everything she'd believed about her childhood.

"I wasn't raised as a sacrificial lamb," she whispered, wondering who she was trying to convince. "Until the brain damage, I was meant to be his genetic legacy. I'm almost certain Shoshanna was the one who decided to implant me."

"All those things can be true," Zaira said and the words weren't harsh, just straightforward. "That your father cherished you in whatever way a Councilor born in Silence could cherish a child, and that he saw you as a tool that, once broken, was no longer worthy of his attention."

Except the latter cancels out the former , Auden thought, but didn't say aloud. "Can I fix the crack?" she asked instead, her voice rough with all the emotions she couldn't release, all the things she couldn't say.

"Yes," Zaira said, "but we'll have to rebuild from scratch. That means a purposeful destruction of your current shield. I realize that's asking a lot. You don't know me and it'll leave you vulnerable, but it is the best possible option to ensure we don't leave the error behind at some level of the psychic code."

"Remi trusts you," Auden said without hesitation. "And I trust him." She took a deep breath, exhaled. "Please make sure my baby is protected from any psychic shock waves."

Zaira nodded. "You know she's a strong telepath?"

"The squad can't have her."

Zaira's lips kicked up. "I wouldn't dare make that claim with such a mother—and with Remi in the mix. I was just going to say that she'll need to learn psychic discipline earlier than most. Bring her to me when she starts cracking your maternal shields and I'll teach her."

The Arrow gave a curt nod after that extraordinary offer. "Shield destruction in three seconds. Three, two…one."