Tangle of Need

right while hiding things, Lara. You know that. You should’ve double-checked with me.”

“I didn’t want to distract you at such a critical stage.” Ashaya herself had told Lara the final calibration would take precision work—so much so that the scientist had spent two days away from her mate and son, in the dedicated lab DarkRiver had built for her.

“No harm done—the serum wasn’t ready.” Ashaya went as if to shove a hand through her curls, realized they were bound, and dropped it back on the bed. “For future reference, though, my twin is very, very smart, but she has no moral compass.”

Sascha made a small sound in the back of her throat. “I didn’t like Amara when I met her,” she said, clearly still troubled by what she’d described to Lara as an overwhelmingly hostile response. “Even now, she sends a chill through my bones because of the lack in her, but that lack isn’t as total as it once was. I don’t think she’ll ever be capable of the normal range of emotions, but she may be showing a stunted kind of awareness of the emotions of others.”

Ashaya’s face held painful hope. “You’re not certain, though?”

“No, I’m sorry.” Sascha touched the other woman on the arm. “I have such a strong reaction to her that I find it difficult to get a clear read, and as you said, her intelligence is unquestioned. She’s fully capable of manipulating her responses.”

Smart enough, Lara thought, to fake empathy.

“But,” Sascha added, “there has been a change in her, that much I can verify. It might simply be the effect of being in a clean psychic network—there’s no DarkMind in the Web of Stars, no hidden miasma that’s seeping into her brain.”

“I’ll take that.” Swallowing, Ashaya returned her attention to the computronic readout on the panel in front of her. “Unless either of you disagrees, I think it’s time we spoke to Alice.”

Lara and Sascha both nodded at her to go ahead.

Pressure injector in hand, the scientist looked to where Sascha’s fingers now intertwined with Alice’s. “Are you sensing anything?”

“Frustration again,” Sascha said, three deep vertical lines between her eyebrows. “But there’s something else.” Lashes lowering, she squeezed the bridge of her nose between the thumb and forefinger of her free hand. “Determination.” Her eyes flicked open. “I’d bet my life she’s trying her hardest to wake up.”

“That’s enough for me.” With no more hesitation, Ashaya pressed the pressure injector to Alice’s neck, punching the serum into her bloodstream. “The effect should be apparent within two or three minutes if it works as it’s supposed to.”

No one said a word, the silence so pristine Lara could hear the hushed breaths of everyone in the immediate area, including Eli and Adria. If the room had boasted an old-fashioned ticking clock, she thought, every tick would’ve sounded like a bomb.

One minute.

Checking the data coming in through Alice’s computronic skullcap, Lara shook her head at the others.

Two minutes.

It was Ashaya who checked this time, her fingers flying over the panel. “No change.”

Three minutes.

Four.

Five.

Disappointment a heavy rock on her chest, Lara squeezed Ashaya’s arm in silent sympathy, and they walked to stand across from Sascha. However, the cardinal empath paid them no attention, her eyes gone a midnight that denoted either strong emotion—or a powerful use of her abilities.

Exchanging a taut, hopeful glance with Ashaya, Lara maintained her silence.

“Ashaya,” Sascha said almost half a minute later, her voice muted, as if her attention was elsewhere, “do you have more of the serum?”

“Yes, but a second shot could kill her.” Ashaya fiddled with the settings on the injector, paused for a second. “Amara’s confident we can safely give her another eighth of a dose.”

Recalling the other woman’s earlier warnings, Lara turned to her. “You trust her on that?”

“This is a challenge.” Ashaya’s answer held a clarity that said she saw her twin’s faults and flaws as well as her gifts. “Amara doesn’t like failing, and Alice’s death would constitute failure.”

“I can feel her struggling,” Sascha said, her fingers now locked so tightly with Alice’s that the warm honey of her skin was bloodless. “She knows she’s trapped—there’s panic, fear. God, it’s like she’s suffocating from the terror of being entombed inside her own body.”

Clearly shaken by the report, Ashaya put the injector to Alice’s neck. “Are you sure, Sascha?”

“Yes. Quickly.”

A press of Ashaya’s thumb and a one-eighth part of the serum blasted through the permeable barrier of Alice’s skin.

Alarms blared a second later, Alice’s body arching so severely off the bed that she almost bent herself in half before falling back onto the sheets in a jagged spasm. Scanning the alarms, Lara grabbed the oxygen mask and placed it over Alice’s mouth and nose. “Ashaya, stats!”

“Rapid spike in her mental activity. Irregular heartbeat, insufficient oxygen being absorbed.”

Slapping Sascha’s hand over the oxygen mask to keep it in place, Lara reached for another injector and pressed it to Alice’s upper arm. “Now?”

“Heartbeat is stabilizing.” Ashaya tapped the screen. “Oxygen levels reaching optimum. Brain activity continues to be erratic.”

“Alice,” Sascha’s gentle voice turned somehow ruthless, it was so intent. “Alice, you’re safe. Focus.”

That was when Lara looked down and realized that Alice Eldridge’s eyes, so rich a brown that pupil and iris were near impossible to differentiate, were wide open.

HAVING returned from the meeting with BlackSea to be told the news about Alice Eldridge, Riaz spent several minutes talking with Ashaya and Hawke. It wasn’t simply about the human woman that they spoke.

“I’ve been focused on Alice,” Ashaya said, “but what I’ve studied so far of the Alliance chip hasn’t raised any red flags. However, that’s not saying much—I’ll begin intensive work on it as soon as Alice is stable.”

Waiting until after the scientist had returned to the infirmary, Hawke said, “When’s Bo getting back to you about his liaison?”

“Next few days.” Riaz folded his arms. “What do you think about the BlackSea situation?” The secretive changeling group had finally shared why it was they needed SnowDancer as an ally.

Hawke’s expression was grim. “They’re a valuable group to have as friends. We help them as much as we can—Miane knows I won’t do anything that’d leave SnowDancer vulnerable.”

Riaz had had the same thoughts. “Do you want me to set up another meeting to finalize the alliance?”

Hawke took a second to think about it, shook his head. “I’ll talk directly to Miane, make sure there are no misunderstandings. Can you take some of Riley’s load? I figure he’s earned a rest … and some spare time to stalk Mercy.”

Riaz’s lips twitched. “Not a problem.” As a result of arranging things with Riley, as well as staying late to take several calls from the men and women in SnowDancer’s international network, Riaz didn’t get a chance to speak to Adria until after nightfall. Unable to find her in the den, he shifted and began to check out her favorite spots in the forests one by one.

He found her at the third location, the full moon a spotlight across the large clearing dotted with young saplings that had come up after a storm felled many of the mature trees a couple of years back. Silhouetted against the midnight blue of the night sky, their slender profiles added a haunting beauty to the scene.

And there was his empress walking through the saplings, her head lowered in thought.

He watched for a long, motionless moment, his hunger satisfied now that he’d found her. She was magnificent. Strong and lithe and lovely. And his. Even if she wasn’t quite certain she wanted to be—Adria thought he didn’t know about the apprehension that haunted her, but of course he knew. He noticed everything about her.

He’d been patient, but it was time she accepted he wasn’t ever letting her go.