Allegiance of Honor (Psy-Changeling #15) - Nalini Singh Page 0,138

trainer tried to break him down over the years. Because Sahara loved Kaleb, no one else. And he loved only her.

Sahara was also the one who’d made him see that, sometimes, it was better to extend the hand of friendship than to force compliance by fear. Santano Enrique had tortured him until Kaleb hated him with every ounce of his being. Sahara had loved him, and for her, he’d do anything.

In line with that thought, he didn’t attempt to break into the shielded mind.

Instead, he dropped out of the PsyNet, made contact with Aden, and asked the leader of the Arrows to meet him on the PsyNet, at the site. “Do you see it?” he asked.

“You’ll have to explain.”

“The Net,” Kaleb pointed out. “No rot, no disintegration, nothing but pure strength.” He didn’t need an empath to confirm it, could feel that strength like a crisp, fresh wind against his psychic senses.

Aden examined the psychic fabric with care. “You’re right.”

“The Es need to know who’s causing the effect,” Kaleb said. “It would give them a third data point for comparison.”

“I’ll check with the individual in question.”

Kaleb let it go at that; pushing an Arrow was a useless endeavor.

Aden’s message came in ten minutes later, while Kaleb was in a meeting with the alpha of the BlackEdge Wolves: The Arrow is Stefan Berg, stationed on Alaris. He’ll contact Ivy Jane personally.

Kaleb knew he’d only been given that information because Sahara would share it anyway, once she learned of it from the empaths. Even Arrows, it seemed, didn’t expect bonded pairs to keep secrets from one another. Excusing himself from the wolf alpha for a short period, he thanked Aden, then passed on all the information he’d discovered to Ivy Jane.

Stefan Berg, he mused as he returned to his meeting. As far as Kaleb knew, the powerful teleporter stationed on the deep-sea station had never officially been an Arrow. Clearly, however, Aden Kai considered the man one of his. Yes, it was never a good idea to take the Arrows for granted—or to assume you knew all their secrets.

• • •

IVY couldn’t believe the identity of the third calm space in the Net . . . then she thought of Sophia and Clara, and suddenly the connection between the three was blindingly clear. Heart thumping, she sent a message to Stefan. The Alaris station commander had most recently visited the orchard two months earlier, during his mandatory leave “upside,” as station folk termed it.

You don’t need to teleport up to see me, she told him. I think I know what’s going on. Though Stefan was a violently powerful telekinetic, he wasn’t a born teleporter like Vasic. ’Porting took serious energy for him and he needed to maintain that strength to evacuate Alaris should the station ever suffer a serious incident.

Are you sure? Stefan messaged back. I can meet you on the PsyNet without issue.

Yes, I’m sure. I’ll contact you if I need further information.

You know where I’ll be.

Ivy laughed. These Arrows, they were definitely developing senses of humor.

When Rabbit barked and ran around her, she bent down to give him a rub that had his eyes rolling back in ecstasy. Goofy, wonderful dog. Leaving him with a smiling pat, she took a seat in one of the comfortable couches arranged just off her kitchen area, the nearest counter close enough that she could put drinks there, and people on this side could pick them up.

Almost the entire first level of her and Vasic’s cabin was built this way—as open plan as possible and full of light. It was on purpose, so that any Arrows who visited would never feel isolated or alone. Ivy had decided that they’d had quite enough of that. And it seemed to be working; more than once, she’d had members of the squad drop by and just sit on a couch and work while she went about her own work nearby.

Today, Rabbit jumped up to sit beside her, his small body warm under her hand as she entered the PsyNet and went to the location of Clara Alvarez’s mind, for which Kaleb had given her coordinates.

He was right: the area was clean of infection and vital in its strength. No disintegration, not even a single frayed thread.

Hope bloomed inside her.

Dropping out of the Net, she thought of what she’d learned at Zie Zen’s funeral, knew she couldn’t assume anything. The bond . . . that was the key.

She could call Clara, but that didn’t feel right. She knew