The most surprising person on the team was Heenali. She'd turned up silent and grief-stricken, and hadn't left Kaia's side for more than a few minutes all day. It had been that way since BlackSea consigned Hugo to the sea in a haunting song-filled ceremony that said nothing about his crimes against BlackSea.
Miane had made that call.
"Whatever his mistakes," she'd told Bo as they stood on the windswept deck of Lantia, "he gave up his life for the clan. We will honor that."
As a result, Hugo's family had been able to mourn him as a hero.
As for Kaia, under her own grief, she was pure light. No hint of the phobic pain that had followed her through time. The same couldn't be said of her family and alpha. Not a single member of BlackSea looked anything but grim--until they realized this home was partially submerged, the first two floors below what was a permanent floodline.
Kaia loved the presence of water so close. Especially when, on the day they took possession of the keys, he told her of his overhaul of the original front door; it was sandwiched in between the dry top part of the house and the biosphere-shielded bottom floor. Except for one protected passage to allow them to reach the first floor, the second floor was reinforced and permanently flooded--something to do with how the biospheres and houses were kept stable. A delicate but steady balance. "I had engineers go down, fix the door, and create an airlock so you can swim in and out safely."
All but jumping up and down, she'd made him put on a wetsuit and breathing gear so they could go explore their home and the surrounding waterways. Bo was a basic scuba diver at best, but he'd signed up for extensive lessons. If his mate was going to be swimming out into the blue and into the deep, he'd be coming with her until the fear clawing at his heart let go.
She saw that fear, kissed him deep in the night with her palm over his heart, and didn't try to stop him from coming along on her swims--even though he was slow and clumsy at his current level of skill. Kaia understood such fear intimately, though she no longer seemed to feel any terror of land.
Bo wanted to believe the change was real, but he'd witnessed the horrific depth of her pain, couldn't bring himself to accept that an act of violence had brought her happiness instead of agony. The only thing that would fix that was time--which they had now, thanks to Dr. Kahananui's experimental treatment.
Cassius, implanted second, would begin his own treatments in a week.
"Do you know you two are linked on the psychic plane?" Kaia said to him one night in bed after meeting his best friend--and charming him as much as anyone could charm Cassius. That she'd brought along his favorite pecan pie hadn't hurt.
"Doesn't surprise me." Curious, Bo asked her how she knew.
It turned out that as a changeling telepath, her brain didn't work the same as Psy brains apparently did; she couldn't see the network to which she was connected, but she could feel it.
The mating bond had pulled her out of the network she'd been blooded into as a child when her clan realized she was a telepath and needed that psychic network to survive. "Good thing Bebe's so old," Kaia whispered. "She knew exactly what was wrong when I got sickly as an infant."
Eyes glowing with light, she sat up to look down at him, a siren with hair that cascaded over his chest and perfumed the air with hints of coconut and tiare flowers. "Want to know how many humans are connected to you?" Her fingers weaving in the air, as if she could sense hundreds . . . thousands of threads. "So fragile, so fine, not like changeling bonds, but there are so many of them that they've become unbreakable."
Bo had spent much of his life hating telepaths, but all he felt at that moment was wonder. "How is that possible? Cassius and the knights I can understand. We've been through hell together. But so many others?"
"They acknowledge you as alpha." A soft murmur, her face kissed by the moonlight pouring through the window of their new home. "Even if they argue with you, they see you as their leader."
Despite the switch in networks, Bo had no fears about her psychic health; he could feel her bright with life inside him. Yesterday, she'd met a Psy child in the street and the little girl had taught her a telepathic game. "Pippi couldn't believe I was a grown-up and didn't know." Throwing back her head, she'd laughed. "Also, apparently my telepathy 'smells' different. Wild."
As wild as her.
As for Bowen's parents, they were ecstatic at both the result of the experiment and that Bowen had fallen in love. Having stayed with Bo and Kaia for the past couple of days, they'd quickly come to adore Kaia.
Life was more beautiful than Bo could've ever imagined . . . but for one dark cloud.
"Bo," Kaia had asked in the aftermath of their reunion in Lantia's infirmary, "what did you barter to get Krychek's help?"
She still hadn't forgiven him for what he'd done, especially since Krychek hadn't called in his psychic marker. It was a sword that could fall at any moment.
Epilogue
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--Entry tagged: Malachai Rhys (image attached)
KAIA SAT IN the gondola as Venice, a stately lady dressed up for the night, glittered past on either side of the canal. Music whispered over from some of the restaurants, conversation and laughter from others. She'd thought about opening a restaurant here, because of course the idea of simply sitting on her hands was ludicrous.
And cooking was a love for her, a delight.
Then Bowen had turned up with a petition signed by all of his knights demanding he offer her a position as the official Alliance HQ chef. She'd had them all to dinner by then, and it delighted her that they'd loved her cooking so much--they certainly needed to be well fed; it was obvious none of them ate particularly well.
She'd glared at them and told them as much. In return, they'd decided to claim her. For Kaia, to be in the thick of this human ohana that now held the same place in her heart as BlackSea, it suited her changeling nature right down to the ground.
She missed everyone on Ryujin, but she'd spent too long hiding. It was her time to spread her wings and live a life with her mate. Tansy and Sera were already planning a long visit and others would come, too, nosy and affectionate and welcome, and she'd cook for them as she had on Ryujin.
Bebe was too old to travel so far, and for her, Kaia would return as often as Bebe wanted to see her. In between, she'd chat with her grandmother while Bowen and Bebe mused over chess moves and argued the merits of a sneak attack versus a full frontal assault.
Her new human family was building her a kitchen deep inside the HQ, in the underwater biosphere section that looked out at Venice's sparkling water.
"You're making us a family."
"What?" She turned her eyes toward her gorgeous, obstinate mate who had bartered his psychic freedom for her. Even if Kaleb Krychek decided not to exercise that option, Bowen had bargained away a lifetime of favors to one of the most ruthless men on the planet.
Gods, she loved him. And gods, she wanted to push him into the water and yell at him for giving up so much of himself. He'd put himself in chains for her. He'd also put himself in a position where he might have to walk away from the Alliance if Krychek attempted to manipulate the organization through him.
"I'd do it again in a heartbeat."
That was what he'd said to her when she'd pounded her fists on his chest in anger.
How could she do anything but adore the man? Even if she was so very angry with him.
"Us, everyone at HQ," he said, his voice gruff with emotion. "We were close before, but there was something missing. The heart." He poled them past a trattoria festooned with fairy lights where a woman in a velvet dress was playing an upbeat tune on the fiddle. "It's there now, in the kitchen we're building and how everyone's always dropping by even though you currently only have a single working stove. The HQ isn't just about work now, it's about ohana."
The cool night wind kissed her cheeks. "It feels like that, too," she said with a smile that hurt with all that she felt for him. "A new family that's becoming entwined with my old
family."
"You're happy" had been Miane's determination when she dropped by two days earlier. "Good. If you ever need anything, you remain one of mine."
That wasn't quite true. Kaia's first loyalty was to Bowen. But she knew her First's meaning, understood the love that drove it. Miane appeared hard to the outside world, but to her own people, she was a fierce force of love--and of vengeance. KJ had disappeared into the blue, but Miane wasn't about to allow him to hide. She would find him and she would make him pay for his heinous crimes.
The one good thing to come out of this was the idea of every member of BlackSea getting a unique miniature tattoo in a hard-to-find location. On the inside shell of the ear, in the bottom crease of a toe, under the heaviness of curls, hidden along the hairline, or in the complexity of an already existing tattoo. A nonsense collection of characters from the world's different alphabets, mixed with numbers. Random strings of short code that were each unique enough for a teleport lock.
Vasic Zen had tested the idea after speaking to Kaleb Krychek about how he'd found Kaia, and it worked. It apparently required a slightly different kind of telekinetic focus, but the Arrows were willing to learn that focus in the name of Trinity.
It'd take time to roll out the tattoos across Kaia's vast clan, but Armand was in charge and he could be meticulously organized when he wanted to be; he'd already split the entire globe into tiny grids and assigned people to find their most far-flung and vulnerable members first. Whether to get inked was a choice, of course, but so far, everyone had agreed to the practically invisible marking that would allow a teleporter trusted by the clan to find them if they were taken.
The information about which string belonged to which clanmate--and the images of those tattoos--was kept in a database unconnected to anything and accessible only by Miane and Malachai, with an intentionally anonymous third person holding the access codes as a failsafe. The Consortium would not be getting their hands on the database and using their own teleporters to snatch BlackSea's people.
"Adrian Kenner said humans are the bridge," Bowen murmured after long moments in the silken dark. "But this time, it's you."
Kaia tilted her head slightly to the side. "No, it's us." Despite all the efforts of those who'd destroy their friendship, the Alliance and BlackSea were now linked together for all time. Mating was forever. "Do you like children?" It was a question he'd asked her, but she'd never had the chance to ask him. "You'd make a wonderful father." Protective, honorable, loving.
He sucked in a breath. "Yes," he said roughly. "But Kaia--"
"I know." So long as Bowen was beholden to Kaleb Krychek, they couldn't bring a child into their world, not when they had no idea what the cardinal would demand from Bo--whether that meant smashing open his mind or forcing him to effectively work for Krychek. "I just thought you should know that."
Face setting in pitiless lines, he said, "I'll never regret my choice."
Kaia wanted to throw something at his head. "You're impossible." But he was hers.
"We're home." Poling the borrowed gondola to a stop exactly where the gondolier had requested, he hopped out, then helped her out.
They were walking down the cobblestoned lane toward their home when Kaia's gaze caught on a couple who stood looking out at the water. The woman wore a white beret and a matching ankle-length coat with bright red boots. The profile of the man's face, it was oddly familiar. He turned at that instant and in the white stars of his eyes glittered the reflection of the colored lights of a nearby tavern.
"Krychek." Bowen's voice, nothing in it of harshness or anger; he'd made his bargain and he'd honor it. "Are you calling in your marker?"
As Kaia fought the urge to scream, one of the deadliest men in the world glanced down at the woman with eyes of midnight blue who stood next to him. "Sahara has made it clear to me that our bargain cannot stand."
"It was made in good faith." Bowen set his jaw. "You don't have to worry I'll back away from it. You held up your end. I'll hold up mine."
"I'm afraid I'm the one backing away from it." The cardinal raised an eyebrow, his face so handsome it was intimidating. Kaia shifted an inch closer to Bowen's warm humanity.
"We'll make a new bargain," Krychek was saying. "You owe me nothing but a single personal favor. Not political. A thing between two men, as was my favor for you."
"Kaleb." Kaleb Krychek's mate scowled up at him, as if he weren't lethal and merciless and a shark in a well-cut suit.
He didn't smile but there was an unexpected softness to him when he said, "Knight won't accept a favor for nothing."
"I pay my debts." Bowen's body was rigid. "We hold to the original bargain."
Rolling her eyes, the woman named Sahara spoke to Kaia. "Make him understand."
Kaia squeezed Bowen's bicep with the hand she'd curled around it. "It's a gesture of good faith." Not friendship, that didn't exist yet, but a step in the right direction. "Kaleb won't take advantage of your need to push you into a corner."
"Actually," Kaleb said in a voice that reminded her of the darkest hour of night, "I would. But Sahara prefers I act as if I have a conscience." He held Bowen's gaze. "We must both answer to our mates." The faintest hint of a smile. "You are a braver man than I if you attempt to take them both on."
Kaia's eyes widened; what would Malachai say if she told him she was ninety percent certain that Kaleb Krychek, deadly cardinal and all-around dangerous predator, had a sense of humor? That particular fascination, however, could wait.
Tugging Bowen out of earshot of the other couple, she said, "Bridges are built over thin air. Someone must lay the first plank, the first brick, take the risk."
A grimace. "Friendship with Kaleb Krychek?" He sounded like she was asking him to swallow knives.
"You don't have to go quite that far yet," she reassured him with her hands on his chest, his heartbeat so strong and sure under her palms. "I don't think he's good at friendship, either." A man like Kaleb Krychek probably only trusted a rare few--exactly like her own mate. "A personal favor for a personal favor. It's fair and exactly the bargain you'd make with Malachai in the same situation."
Bowen's jaw worked. "My ego is dented," he muttered.
"He came to you because his mate made him." Kaia poked him in the chest. "You can have matching dented egos."
Narrowed eyes from Bowen, but when she drew him back to the others, he said, "You're certain about this?" to Krychek.
The cardinal nodded once.
"Then I accept." Bowen held out a hand.
Krychek slid his own out of his pocket to shake it . . . and the psychic ripple of that act was an invisible quake that jolted the air.
Across from her, Sahara's face glowed with an open and intense pride. All of it directed at the lethal telekinetic who engendered fear in the vast majority of the world.
"Come up for coffee," Kaia said impulsively, suddenly certain she would like this woman who loved as openly as Kaia. "I made a batch of tea cakes this afternoon and there are plenty left."
"I love cake."
Kaia stepped forward, Sahara joined her, and the two of them began to walk side by side shadowed by two dangerous, beautiful men. When she snuck a glance back at them, she saw they continued to walk a foot apart, as silent as the women were not.
Bridges took time to build.
But on this night, Bowen Adrian Knight and Kaleb Krychek had, together, laid the first brick.
About the Author
New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh is passionate about writing. Though she's traveled as far afield as the deserts of China, the Highlands of Scotland, and the frozen landscapes of Antarctica, it is the journey of the imagination that fascinates her most. She's beyond delighted to be able to follow her dream as a writer.
Nalini lives and works in beautiful New Zealand. You can contact her directly through her website: nalinisingh.com. While visiting the site, Nalini invites you to join her newsletter for up-to-date news about both the Psy-Changeling and
Guild Hunter series, as well as fun exclusive extras, including free short stories set in her worlds.
You can also find her online at twitter.com/NaliniSingh, facebook.com/authornalinisingh, and instagram.com/authornalinisingh.
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Nalini Singh, Ocean Light
(Series: Psy-Changeling # 17)
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