Page 115 of Primal Mirror

Remi told the healer about Shoshanna’s psychotic attempt to transfer her consciousness by an unknown process. “She and Auden fought—inside their minds. I don’t know the details, just that Auden won.”

Because if Auden had lost, then Liberty wouldn’t be blocked from her mother—and Finn wouldn’t be concerned only about fear in Liberty’s scent; the infant’s scent would’ve been drenched in unmistakable cold metal as Shoshanna attempted to use her in her horrific quest to live forever.

“I was able to pass on pack energy to her through Liberty, but the damage done prior to that…” Hand fisting against the wall, he pushed off. “She gave everything she had.”

“Can you—”

“No,” Remi interrupted, well aware what his friend was suggesting. “She’s blocked me, too.” One last act of honor and courage from the only woman who’d made her way into Remi’s heart. “I’ve tried to get through.”

He’d never have pushed for the mating bond if she hadn’t been bleeding out in front of him. It was meant to be a choice. Her choice. But with the mating bond would come a direct link to him and his pack—and the energy of a changeling pack was a thing primitive and potent.

But Auden wouldn’t even let him try.

Protecting him from the unending grief of losing his mate. As if it wasn’t already too late, Remi’s heart forever tattooed with the name Auden Scott.

Chapter 44

My section of the PsyNet will most likely survive intact. I don’t know why but it’s the most stable piece in the entire state—and we have a disproportionate number of high-Gradient Psy inside it, thanks to its proximity to my HQ.

According to the experiments run on creating PsyNet islands, the Gradient load is skewed enough that we should be able to hold it, even if it’ll take everything we have.

There is room for refugees, and I suggest we prioritize empaths. This all began when Psy decided to erase emotion from our lives—and murder designation E along with it. It seems fitting that we should begin the war of survival by making the opposite choice.

—Nikita Duncan to the Ruling Coalition (18 November 2083)

KALEB DIDN’T ATTEMPT to get in touch with the NetMind.

The neosentience had been faded and weak when it sent its desperate request. The image of a leopard. A keening impression of help needed.

He’d locked onto that image without hesitation, though he hadn’t understood why the NetMind was sending it to him.

That leopard had stared at him in shock, too.

Mere heartbeats later and he’d seen Auden Scott in the arms of a man with clawed hands and shaggy hair myriad shades of brown, his eyes green and gold. It had made sense then. Of course it would be Shoshanna Scott’s daughter who had the rare ability to create a PsyNet island. A small gift, not enough to save the Net, but enough to save hundreds or—if she was strong enough—perhaps even thousands.

Then the NetMind had whispered to him once more, with a heavy sense of the negative.

Not her. But still important enough for the NetMind to spend its precious energy to save. Could she have a child? Surely, that was impossible. Auden was only twenty-four, and Kaleb had heard no rumors of a pregnancy.

Kaleb!

He responded to Vasic’s call at once. Another huge section of the PsyNet was collapsing.

All thoughts of Auden Scott left his mind, his attention only on saving as many lives as he could, even though he felt he was only plugging an unstoppable dam with a single finger.

Days. Only days.

That was all the PsyNet had before terminal failure.

Chapter 45

I bequeath all my worldly goods and assets, tangible and intangible, to my sole biological offspring, Auden Scott (previously Auden Jackson). See Appendix A for complete list of bequeathed items.

—The Last Will and Testament of Shoshanna Scott

FORTY-EIGHT HOURS AFTER the events in the basement, and Auden lay clean and dressed in a crisp blue hospital gown, her hair a soft halo around her head because Remi had released it from that punishing bun in which she’d put it before they walked into Shoshanna’s bunker. Her body was connected by wires and fine tubes to multiple machines that monitored her or provided nutrients and drugs.

Her face was soft, none of that Auden energy to it, and per Dr. Bashir’s latest scans, her brain activity was sluggish. “I spoke to your pack’s physician,” the exhausted doctor had told Remi an hour ago, before he left to catch a few hours’ sleep.

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