Laughing softly, Miane shook her head. “Think of her as another me. I’m sure you’ll understand her much better.”
Expression unchanged, Malachai met the crystalline clarity of Miane’s hazel eyes, something silent passing between them before he withdrew. “I don’t normally have guards,” the BlackSea leader told Zaira. “However, with the rash of disappearances”—her mouth tightened—“the lieutenants are edgy.”
Zaira wondered how the other woman had accurately guessed her thought processes. “You don’t feel their presence is a comment on your abilities and skills?”
“No. I wouldn’t be BlackSea’s First—its alpha—if they doubted my strength.” Coffee prepared, she took a seat on one of the sofas, gestured for Zaira to take the one opposite. “I’m glad you decided to take me up on my invitation.”
“Why did you offer it?”
“Partly because the Arrows would be a good ally to have.” She held the cup balanced on one knee, cold fury in her next words. “If the bastards who’ve taken my people hadn’t thought to disfigure them, your teleporters could’ve brought them all home by now.”
“I’d have made the same decision in your shoes.” Done whatever it took to protect her family.
“But,” Miane added, “I also did it because you’re the first woman I’ve ever met who reminds me of me.”
“You live an emotion-rich life.” While Zaira had spent most of hers in chilling Silence.
Miane drank some of her coffee. “BlackSea is unique. Some of us are very similar to other changelings in our interactions, while others are loners in a way even the feline changelings would struggle to understand. Our emotions are sometimes not what you would expect.”
Zaira thought about the squad, about how many walked alone even while part of a group. “I think you’ll find more Arrows who understand you.”
“Perhaps.” Eyes gone obsidian, the other woman said, “BlackSea doesn’t trust easily and it’s clear Arrows don’t either, but here we must. Someone is hunting my people and yours.” A grimness to her tone. “I’ve sent word across BlackSea about little Persephone. It’ll take time to get to those who live in the very deep, or in the most distant places on this Earth, but of the hundreds of confirmations I’ve received so far, none have caught any glimpse of her.”
In the ensuing hours, the two of them went over theories and possibilities and split tasks so they wouldn’t waste time following leads in areas that weren’t their strengths. Zaira wouldn’t normally have made such an arrangement with a relative stranger, and she knew neither would Miane, but the alpha’s anger over Persephone’s fate was visceral and it spoke to the same in Zaira.
“I am angry for and worried about all those who’ve been taken,” Miane said at one point, her bones sharp against her skin. “But to imprison a child? That is against every rule of engagement. It would cost them nothing to release a child so young. That they haven’t makes them monsters who deserve no mercy.”
Gut instinct told Zaira that Miane could be trusted on this point; she and the BlackSea alpha were very much on the same page. If she was wrong, she’d deal with it after the girl was located. Until then, the Arrows and BlackSea would have a temporary working alliance.
It was well past midnight by the time they finished.
“Aden,” Miane said as she made herself a second cup of coffee. “He belongs to you, yes?”
“Yes.” He’d given himself to her and she would not release him from that promise. Not even if she failed in her bid to live this new existence. That was why she’d asked Vasic to make sure she was eliminated should she become a deadly threat either as a result of the madness—because there remained a chance it lived in her genes, a pitiless intruder who could strike at any time—or because of her violent possessiveness.
The teleporter had looked at her with those wintery eyes, said, “He’ll never forgive me. Or you.”
“But he’ll be safe.” What Zaira feared more than anything was that the madness would make her turn on Aden. “Will you do it?”
“Only if his life is under imminent threat.”
Zaira had to be satisfied with that and hope Vasic never had to fulfill his promise. If he did, Aden wouldn’t forgive it; he’d lose his closest friend as well as his lover in one savage blow. Zaira would’ve asked someone else but Vasic was the only one she trusted to watch out for Aden’s interests above all else.
Evil didn’t win there. And it won’t win in our fight to be together.
No, it won’t, Zaira vowed, but part of her knew that the choice might be wrenched out of her hands, rage swamping her in black fog that drowned out all reason.
Chapter 56
ANTHONY LISTENED TO what his daughter was telling him and knew he had to act. “How many?”
“At least twenty-five,” Faith responded, her voice high-pitched and her words running together. She’d called him directly after an intense unsolicited vision, was clearly still feeling the aftereffects.
Stopping her when she would’ve spoken again, he said, “Are you alone?” He understood that her bond with her jaguar changeling mate gave her a way to leach off dangerous psychic energy, but foreseers needed someone with them after the most powerful visions. It was one of the reasons why F-Psy had always been and would always be part of a tight clan group.
Even when Anthony had believed Faith had to be isolated for her own good, he’d made sure she always had medical oversight.