Allegiance of Honor (Psy-Changeling #15) - Nalini Singh Page 0,143

the Net.”

“Anthony helped us,” Clara said, and it wasn’t as big a surprise as it should’ve been. Anthony Kyriakus, after all, was the man who’d created Haven.

“You see, he was already helping me,” Clara continued. “Justice Psy don’t last too long once our internal telepathic shields go.” Shadows in her eyes, memories of all the evil she’d witnessed, evil that had acted like acid on her mind. “That was why he was able to react within microseconds when Patrick and I refused to follow orders and ended up mated.”

A smile that made her entire face glow. “Then, when it became clear my ability to shield was starting to heal”—wonder touched her expression—“Anthony taught me how to take over, how to hide the bond and Patrick’s mind.”

“The only other J I know whose shields spontaneously regenerated is Sophia,” Ivy murmured. “And she’s unique.”

“Sophie and I’ve talked this over,” Clara said. “The only commonality between us is that we both love human men with unbreakable natural shields.” She lifted her gaze from her wedding band. “And love can’t be forced. If there’s another answer . . . There are so many hurt Js in the world.” Her hands fisted in her lap, pain drenching her voice. “You say the PsyNet is healthy around me—maybe that has something to do with the regeneration, too.”

Ivy was beginning to realize that if her suspicions were true, then the single fact that connected Stefan, Sophia, and Clara had far more staggering implications than even she had guessed. “The shielding technique Anthony taught you,” she said. “It must be phenomenal to hide your bond with Patrick so effectively.”

A pause, before Clara said, “The shields are very strong, but the thing is . . . I always had the sense something was helping Patrick and me keep our secret.”

“The NetMind protected Es for a century.” A tremor of understanding ran through Ivy’s bones. “I can see it doing that for a human mind in the PsyNet.”

“Would you like to see?” Clara’s question was whispered, secret.

Ivy nodded and joined Haven’s manager in the PsyNet. The J-Psy slipped her own shields around Ivy’s, with Ivy’s permission—after Ivy warned Vasic what was about to happen. Only after Ivy was isolated did Clara drop a second layer of shields, and Ivy saw the autumnal warmth and cool blue rope of the other woman’s psychic bond with another mind. That second mind wasn’t Psy, though it shone as bright, in shades of icy blue. And it sat not in the PsyNet but not quite out of it.

No Psy mind could reach it, could hack it. Clara was the only point of contact.

Conscious she’d been given a gift, Ivy slipped back out of Clara’s shields when the woman opened them. “Thank you,” she said on the physical plane. “Why did you trust me?”

“J-Psy get good at judging people. I know your heart, Ivy Jane Zen, and I know it’s good.” Clara rose to her feet. “I have to go, but call me if you need anything else.”

“I’d like to meet Patrick.” Ivy had only glimpsed him at Zie Zen’s funeral. “He seems fascinating.”

“Oh, he is.” A sudden smile. “Aggravating at times, but always wonderful.”

Ivy sat in place long after Clara left, turning over the consequences of what she’d discovered. It all made sense—the NetMind’s bloody images of loss and desecration, the fact that the PsyNet was barely maintaining coherence despite the number of active Es, why the Forgotten had a healthy network and the Psy didn’t.

Because when the Forgotten left the Net, they took their human mates with them, while the Psy were told to sever those bonds or to suffocate them out of existence. Until in this generation, there were only three known human minds in the PsyNet.

Ivy understood now.

Until the dawn of Silence, the PsyNet had never been populated only by Psy. Changelings and humans had both been a presence—though, in the case of changelings, that presence would’ve been minor at most. From what Ivy knew as a result of her friendship with Sascha, changelings tended to pull their mates into their own psychic networks.

Not so with humans.

There were no records of humans being an active presence in the PsyNet, but even the old Councils hadn’t succeeded in erasing eons of history that spoke of human-Psy marriages and relationships.

Such relationships had been unremarkable before Silence.

Ivy’s own family history included multiple human ancestors.

The human race had therefore always been part of the PsyNet’s psychic fabric, providing a mysterious and indefinable energy without which