Then, as the most powerful being in the city, in the country, knelt by her side, one of his wings spreading over hers with heavy warmth, she showed him shining, laughing pieces of her life before Slater Patalis broke it into a thousand bloody pieces. Along the way, he told her how he’d run wild through the flower-lined streets of Amanat, how he’d been the pet of an entire city. “Tel me more,” she said, enchanted.
Raphael had never spoken of these memories to any living being, but he told Elena al she wanted to know. In turn, she shared with him the joy she’d found in being the third daughter of four, the one who was young enough to get away with everything, and old enough to be al owed privileges her youngest sister was denied.
Much later, as they stood on the cliffs by their home, looking across at the stark beauty of the Manhattan skyline after nightfal , she kissed his jaw and gave him another gift. “She lives, Raphael. There’s hope.”
Hope. Such a mortal concept. For you, Elena, I will accept that this hope might not be a foolish thing.
“Ah, you know us mortals—or recent-mortals—have a tendency to be foolish.” A heartbreaking smile. “It makes life interesting.”
“Then come, Guild Hunter.” Putting his arms around her, he lifted them into the crisp night air. It is time to make your life very interesting.
She laughed, played, and later sighed as he took them into the ocean. Knhebek, Raphael.
And he knew no matter what happened when the pale rays of dawn hit the earth, it would not defeat them. Knhebek, hbeebti.
Turn the page for a special preview of
Nalini Singh’s next book in the
Psy-Changeling Series
Kiss of Snow
Coming June 2011 in hardcover from Berkley
Sensation!
X
1979.
The year the Psy race became Silent.
Became cold, without emotion, without mercy.
Hearts were broken, families torn apart.
But far more were saved.
From insanity.
From murder.
From viciousness such as unseen in the world today.
For the X-Psy, Silence was a gift beyond price, a gift that al owed at least some of their number to survive childhood, have a life. Yet over a hundred years after the icy wave of the Silence Protocol washed away violence and despair, madness and love, the X-Psy are, and remain, living weapons.
Silence is their safety switch. Without it ...
There are some nightmares the world wil never be ready to face.
1
Hawke folded his arms and leaned back against the solid bulk of his desk, eyes on the two young females in front of him. Hands clasped behind themselves and legs slightly spread in the “resting” stance, Sienna and Maria looked like the SnowDancer soldiers they were—except for the fact that their hair straggled in a wild mess around their faces, matted with mud, crushed leaves, and other forest debris. Then there was the torn clothing and the sharp, acrid scent of blood.
His wolf bared its teeth.
“Let me get this straight,” he said in a calm tone that had Maria turning pale under skin that was a warm, smooth brown where it wasn’t bruised and bloody. “Instead of staying on watch and protecting the pack’s defensive border, you two decided to have your own personal dominance battle.”
Sienna, of course, met his gaze—something no wolf would’ve done in the circumstances. “It w—”
“Be quiet,” he snapped. “If you open your mouth again without permission, I’m putting both of you in the pen with the two-year-olds.”
Those amazing cardinal eyes—white stars on a background of vivid black—went a pure ebony that he knew ful wel indicated fury, but she clenched her jaw. Maria, on the other hand, had gone even paler. Good.
“Maria,” he said, focusing on the petite changeling whose size belied her skil and strength in both human and wolf form. “How old are you?”
Maria swal owed. “Twenty.”
“Not a juvenile.”
Maria’s thick black curls, heavy with mud, bounced dul y as she shook her head.
“Then explain this to me.”
“I can’t, sir.”
“Right answer.” No reason they could offer up would be a good enough excuse for the bul shit fight. “Who threw the first punch?”
Silence.
His wolf approved. It mattered little who’d incited the exchange when neither had walked away from it, and the fact of the matter was, they’d been meant to be working as a team, so they’d take their punishment as a team—with one caveat.
“Seven days,” he said to Maria. “Confined to quarters except for an hour each day. No contact with anyone while you’re inside.” It was a harsh punishment—wolves were creatures of pack, of family, and Maria was one of the most bubbly, social wolves in the den. To force her to spend al that time alone was an indication of just how badly she’d blundered. “The next time you decide to step off watch, I won’t be so lenient.”
Maria chanced meeting his gaze for a fleeting second before those rich brown eyes skated away, her dominance no match for his. “May I attend Lake’s twenty-first?”