experience, so anyone who can teach anything is roped in.”
Of course. Many of the first trainees would’ve been young—individuals not so entrenched in Silence that there was no hope of pulling them out. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Memory.”
“Yes, Sascha told me.” Jaya’s welcoming smile showed no indication of fading. “You always up so early? If you are, we can get in an hour or two of drills before everyone else starts stirring and Sascha arrives for your sessions on shield mechanics.”
“I’d like that.” Blanketed by the warmth of Jaya’s presence, Memory dared imagine the young E might one day become her friend. “It won’t trouble you to wake early?” At present, the only others who appeared awake were the Arrows . . . and a slinky gray cat who came over to talk to them.
“Hello, Phantom—back from your morning prowl, are you?” Jaya reached out to scratch him behind the ears. “He adopted me about three months ago, and when a cat adopts you . . .” A sudden, quiet glance. “Oh, this hurts you.”
Memory rubbed a fist over her heart. “I had a cat,” she whispered through a thick throat. “He died of old age just before Alexei found me.”
Jaya patted Memory gently on the thigh as she stood back up.
After rubbing his body along one of Jaya’s legs, Phantom ignored Memory to pad off into the morning mist. “He’s a terrible snob.” Jaya sat down beside Memory. “Takes days to decide if you’re acceptable and worthy of his attention—half the time, he glares at my husband for having the nerve to kiss me.”
Memory gave a laugh that felt rusty and wet.
Jaya ran her hand down Memory’s spine. “They get inside your heart, don’t they?”
Memory could only nod.
“As for me,” Jaya continued, “I tend to wake with Abbot’s shifts. I’ve become so used to cuddling next to his body that my eyes snap open the instant he leaves the bed.” She pointed to a shadow in between two cabins in the far distance. “The one with the killer sea-blue eyes and black hair is mine.”
Memory bit down on her lower lip. “He doesn’t seem like a cuddling sort of man,” she ventured warily. Alexei knew how to cuddle. Even when he was growling at her, if she went to him, he’d hold her. Jaya’s Abbot, in contrast, stood expressionless, his body at battle readiness and his eyes as cold as the Arctic.
Jaya laughed—and Memory saw Abbot’s gaze turn toward her. But there was no softening in his features, nothing to betray that Jaya meant more to him than any other empath under his watch. Except . . . Jaya blew him a kiss, as if he’d made a grand gesture of love. “I had to work on him a bit,” the other woman whispered conspiratorially. “But my Abbot once stayed up all night with me—playing cards very badly—just so I wouldn’t be scared. I knew then that he was a keeper.”
“I understand.” Someone who stood with you in the worst times and who didn’t take advantage of your weakness, that was a person you could trust. Like a wolf who kissed you even after he’d learned your most terrible secret.
Memory’s toes curled inside her astonishingly wonderful shoes. “Would you like some coffee?” she asked hesitantly, not sure she wasn’t assuming too much in Jaya’s friendliness.
“When I get back from my walk, if that works for you?” At Memory’s nod, she added, “I need to shake off a few of the cobwebs from staying up late to write my first column.” Jaya got up with a groan. “I don’t know what I was thinking, agreeing to be the Beacon’s new social interaction columnist.”
Memory made an immediate note to download a copy of Jaya’s column.
“We should have forty-five minutes together after I get back. Now I have to go distract Abbot for a minute.” A wink before she turned to walk in the direction of the blue-eyed Arrow.
He watched her come to him with no alteration in his expression . . . but cupped her cheek with one hand when she reached him, a piercing tenderness to his touch that was wholly unexpected in a man so outwardly martial and cold. Smiling, Memory looked away to give the couple their privacy, and finished her breakfast. She was considering whether to go inside and pour herself another coffee when her eyes widened.
Ashaya Aleine had just walked out of the trees from what Memory guessed was the DarkRiver side of the