Page 103 of Primal Mirror

Even more intimate was what came after. Remi carrying her to the shower, stripping her, then stepping into the cubicle with her and soaping her all over. He wouldn’t let her do it in return however. “I need to prepare for the op,” he said, kissing her neck from behind as he stroked the flare of her hips. “I will not be able to do that, beautiful, if you keep putting your hands on me.”

Auden loved how he said those things to her…how he meant them. Even though her body wasn’t taut and trim as she’d seen on changelings. She’d just had a baby, but even before those changes, she’d always been more curves than muscle.

But it turned out that Remi did love her “cuddlier” form.

She saw that in the wickedness of his grin when he toweled her dry, and felt it in the playfulness of his kiss and the little slap he gave her bottom. He enjoyed her body. She’d never known how good such a simple thing could feel.

The happiness buzzed through her even after she’d gotten into some comfortable clothes and sat down in bed with the organizer she’d abandoned earlier. Remi, dressed only in sweatpants, lounged beside her on one arm, his eyes on the screen. “Where are you going to look?”

“First, I have to link into the house system, but that shouldn’t be too hard since I’m on-site.” It only took her a minute, her mind clear on the process. “I was able to get into some secure files before, so I’ll try there first. Might be a clue in old documents they forgot to move to a vault.”

But after touching the screen to bring up the necessary access page, she found herself entering code after code in an unbroken chain. Shimmering, the screen went blank for a moment before clearing to reveal a stark dual S symbol in solid black against a starlit background. Black on black, the symbol erasing the stars beyond.

Auden gasped and peered closer.

“What is it?” Remi’s previously languid form was predator-ready.

“My mother’s private mainframe—remote access to it, anyway.” Auden’s heart was thunder in her chest. “I have no idea where it’s actually located, but I know it exists. My father mentioned it to me at some point.”

“Auden?” Remi’s big body sitting up next to her now, his arm braced behind her.

Making a listening sound, she frantically scanned the files that were opening out in front of her in a rapid-fire cascade. She was half-afraid they’d vanish as fast as they’d appeared.

“Are you sure you don’t know the physical location?”

She started to ask how would she, when she realized what she’d just done. Face going ice-cold then red-hot, she slumped back against his arm. “How do I know? How could any part of me know?”

She jolted forward a heartbeat later. “The answers might be in here. This is the heart of all her operations.”

“Could she have told you the access codes while you were impaired?”

“No,” Auden said at once. “This was her private archive. She’d rather have let it crumble to dust than allow anyone else inside.”

Her fingers moved on the screen, pulling out data, drilling through files. “What’s this? ‘Architect.’ ” She frowned. “It’s a sizeable subsection of the files.”

Remi whistled, the air of it brushing her cheek as his naked upper body curved slightly around her. “The Architect,” he said. “Arrows told me about that. Individual behind terrorism designed to destabilize the world and fracture the Trinity Accord.”

“Hmm.” Auden scanned the files before putting them aside.

“No surprise she was the Architect?”

“My mother loved power more than anything else in the world. Manipulation like that sounds right up her alley.” A sharp stab of pain in her temple, agony so visceral that it burst blood vessels in her eyes.

* * *

• • •

REMI smelled blood before he saw the first drop fall from Auden’s nose to the screen of the organizer.

Her face was frozen, gone blank, the metal in her scent beginning to deepen.

In transition.

Not permitting himself to second-guess his plans, he moved at leopard speed to the kit. Inside was his ace in the hole.

He was shoving it into her hand in a matter of a second or two.

Auden’s fingers spasmed to clench around the tiny knit cap.

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