Page 32 of Primal Mirror

Auden found herself saying, “No.” Then she played up her naiveté, leaning into how Charisma had viewed her for years. “I just saw the information in the dossier you gave me.”

“Oh yes, of course.” Charisma’s spine relaxed. “I do recall looking the pack up. They’re fairly insignificant.”

“Yes, but read this.” She called Charisma around to her side of the desk and indicated the article.

“Hmm,” Charisma murmured. “Interesting area for changelings.”

“That’s what I thought. Then I remembered a deal of Mother’s, and glanced over the files. See the latest invoices on this work?”

Charisma examined the paperwork, then gave Auden a long and penetrating glance. “Your memory is excellent,” she said in an eerie tone that Auden couldn’t pinpoint.

It took effort to keep her voice even, to not give in to the shiver that threatened to rock over her. “Mother took me to tour a warehouse once, a long time ago. We didn’t often do things together, so I remembered.” A wholesale lie, but one Charisma had no way to check—not after so many years.

The other woman’s attention was back on the screen. “I see what you mean on the pricing. Our supplier is getting too comfortable, isn’t he? I need to get the general manager there to tighten the negotiating screws.”

“I was thinking we switch to RainFire,” Auden said before she could second-guess herself.

Charisma’s eyes were unblinking when they looked at her. “Scotts have never worked with changelings.”

“It’s strategy.” The words fell off Auden’s tongue with a speed that made her blood run ice-cold. “We give one contract to the cats and our prior supplier will come crawling to us with a better deal than we could ever negotiate. If we even want to stick with them, because here’s what else I found.”

She showed Charisma another four-paragraph article that most people would’ve missed; it spoke about the innovations RainFire had made for another company that had led to increased output and a resulting rise in profit.

The CEO had nothing but glowing praise for the leopard pack.

“I don’t think our current supplier is doing any R&D,” she said. “We contract RainFire before anyone else of our size or caliber finds them, and we can monopolize their skills while our competitors rely on companies with outdated methods of design and composition. Doesn’t matter if they’re changeling, human or Psy, the family needs to control the market on the components in order to surge ahead.”

Charisma didn’t smile—she had been too deep into Silence for too long, but her expression warmed in a way that was as close to a smile as she might ever get. “That’s the same call your mother would’ve made,” she said, a whisper of awe in her tone. “Small, intelligent moves with the long term in mind. Brilliant, Auden.”

Her cheeks frigid, Auden closed down the computer. “Thank you.”

“I’ll action it.” Charisma made a note in her organizer. “Per the file I just pulled up, our old contract expires within the month, so we’ll have to move fast—and hope the pack has enough capacity to accommodate us.”

“I think they’ll make the capacity with a contract this large.” Pushing back from the chair, she rose to her feet to stretch her back. “Since I discovered this, what do you think about me dealing with the cats?”

“I’m afraid you’re in too exposed a state,” Charisma said, her voice gentle. “We can’t have you at risk.”

“We could meet here.” Auden didn’t back down. “I really do need to start doing things, Charisma. I know I’m not the intended heir, but I am meant to be our face for the time being—and I appear to have full cognitive abilities at this point.”

Charisma’s pupils expanded. “Yes”—a soft voice—“and you are the direct line descendent. Your cousin is a substandard replacement.”

This is it. The fault line.

The voice inside Auden’s head was cold and manipulative…and not her own.

Her gorge threatened to rise.

“Yes, and if I’m no longer disqualified by the state of my brain, then no one in the family will argue against a deviation from the transfer document,” Auden pointed out past the churning in her gut, because this was about her baby, about the innocent life she’d promised to protect. “I was created for and trained for this position by both my parents.”

“Yes, you’re right.” A firm nod. “Yes, Devlin has had nowhere near your level of training—and you were Shoshanna’s chosen heir before…”

Auden waved that off before Charisma could walk herself back from her decision. “It would’ve been a useful thing had the experiment worked,” she said. “As it is, it proved a temporary problem, and I’m now at full capacity.”

“What about your physical status? It’s not safe for that to be made public.”

That risk wasn’t imagined. The Scotts had made a lot of enemies, many of whom wouldn’t hesitate at acting against a pregnant woman. “We make RainFire sign a confidentiality clause backed up by the promise of a ruinous financial penalty.” Once again, the words came from a part of her that felt colder and more mercenary than she’d ever believed herself to be. “They don’t have enough money to risk it.”

“I should’ve thought of that,” Charisma said, but it was with something akin to pride in her tone. “You truly are your mother’s daughter. She would be proud.”

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