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)
He made a grunting sort of sound. “That’s not good enough. Pax has already achieved near-perfect discipline over his emotions. That was why we had to separate you—you were a weight on him, pulling him down.”
Theo gulped back the tears that wanted to escape. Pax would never think she was a weight. He was her best friend. He’d always been her best friend.
“As it is,” her grandfather continued, “we’ll need to find you something to do that keeps you out of the spotlight. Our line does not birth Gradient 2s.” His eyes were like a cobra’s.
Theo had only ever seen pictures of cobras during her biology lessons, but she thought that if she saw one in real life, it would have eyes like her grandfather right then.
“I am, however, pleased at your facility in hacking.”
The words were hammers smashing into her brain. She just stared.
His smile wasn’t a real smile. She knew that. Her grandfather’s Silence was perfect. His smile was a pretend thing . . . and it made her back go cold, her chest so tight she could hardly breathe.
“Oh yes, I know,” he said with that scary smile still on his face. “You should grasp by now that nothing happens in this family without my knowledge.” Leaning back in his chair, he said, “Did you really believe we didn’t have alerts on your entire system? You’re such a pathetic power that the alerts were to ensure you didn’t embarrass the family. But this . . .”
Another one of those pretend smiles that were worse than the cobra eyes. “I wasn’t expecting this level of expertise from someone so young. I wonder if it’s a side effect of your particular ability.” He waved that off. “Regardless, at least you show promise in the area. I’m adding a computronic coding and hacking module to your educational requirements.”
Stunned, her mind abuzz, she stood there dumbly.
“Theodora.”
She snapped up her head at that cold tone. “Yes, sir?”
The cobra eyes held hers again. “Pax doesn’t exist for you now. As you don’t exist for him. He is going to soar, while you’re so far below the surface as to barely exist. No one will even know you’re part of the Marshall family. Forget Pax. I assure you that he’s already forgotten you.”
Chapter 8
But here’s the thing, before a bear attempts to feed you, they’ll probably try to make you laugh. They’ll succeed. Because bears have the best sense of humor in the entire changeling kingdom (and yes, I will fight my fellow columnists if any of them challenge my claim).
And see, after you’re weak from laughter and utterly in thrall to their gorgeous, gorgeous smile and wicked humor, that’s when your bear will offer you your favorite sinful dessert of choice. While your guard is down.
Radar up! Remember, those gorgeous bear smiles are dangerous to your status as single Wild Women!
—From the March 2080 issue of Wild Woman magazine: “Skin Privileges, Style & Primal Sophistication”
THEO WAS ON board her flight to Moscow three days after Pax first spoke to her about the hidden Center when she got a telepathic message from her twin. Theo, can you take a look at my mind on the PsyNet?
Theo responded without hesitation, wondering if he was worried about visible instability. Entering the Net now. A heartbeat later and she was in the sprawling psychic blackness dotted with countless stars, each star a Psy mind. Mere years earlier, the highways of the PsyNet had been a pure and unadulterated black, the minds islands in the darkness.
Now, streamers and sparks of color proliferated, and a honeycomb of fine gold connected people to each other and to the empaths who’d brought emotion and color back into their world. Despite it all, Theo’s bond to Pax remained invisible. Forced to be hidden so long that their pain had become a permanent scar.
She didn’t need it to find him. He was right next to her. It had always been this way, the reason why their grandfather had effectively psychically muzzled her for much of her early life. So she couldn’t reach out to Pax on the PsyNet. Now, she did a careful examination of his mind.
It was dazzling, the brightness searing.
Clearly the mind of a Psy on the top end of the Gradient.
No fractures, no instability. Nothing but crisp clarity.
All stable, she told Pax. What’s the matter?
I’ve received thirteen telepathic pings in the last hour. All from unknowns. I was wondering if I was somehow drawing them.
Theo scanned the area around them. While Pax’s mind was visible in the Net, it was also so heavily shielded that it was a silent deterrent against unwanted contact. “Pings,” as he’d put it, could be sent by any mind to any other mind. It was a request for communication, no threat.
It could be innocuous. Teenagers playing games. She’d heard rumors of such annoying but harmless games as her people began to come out of Silence. But keep me updated. If it gets really distracting, you can always just turn up on the Net and catch them in the act. No kid wanted to come face-to-face with an aggravated 9.