Page 57 of Primal Mirror

A graft. A foreign part. Inside Auden’s brain.

Whatever it was Shoshanna and Henry had been attempting to do, there was more wrong with Auden than she’d realized. She might be able to function again, but her thoughts weren’t always her own…and neither were her actions.

Her stomach rumbled.

Heart gentling, she rubbed at her belly. I’ll go get us food, she telepathed her baby. Sorry about the disruption to the peace just before.

The baby kicked, safe and content inside her womb where none of the horrors of the world could touch her. And where she couldn’t understand the horrific implications of an M-Psy talking about her brain developing as “required.”

Required for what?

For another experiment as had been done to Auden?

She squeezed the edge of the sink, rage filling her to the brim at the idea of them butchering her child like they’d butchered her. No one was getting their hands on her baby. No matter what she had to do…or whom she had to kill.

That last thought? It was hers. All hers.

That rage gave her the impetus to push away from the sink and stride down to the kitchen area, where the member of staff on duty was preparing a tray of high-nutrient food.

“Sir.” The staff member bowed her head. “Dr. Verhoeven sent through an order to be delivered to you.”

“Good. I’ll take the drink now.” She picked it up. “Please bring the rest to my office.” Her politeness was natural, but it was also one of the rules of the Scott household. Shoshanna had been unfailingly polite to her staff.

“They are cogs in the machine,” her mother had told Auden on one of the infrequent occasions when she’d had charge of her minor child. “Cogs function better with a little grease, and the grease here is the appearance that I care for their psychological well-being—and it’s not a lie. If they are unwell, they can’t perform their duties.”

Shoshanna had never been a caricature of evil. That was what made her so dangerous. People respected her, trusted her, even believed she cared. The truth was that Shoshanna had cared only for herself.

Her staff and Auden had mattered to her in the same pragmatic way.

Cogs in the machine.

Once at her desk, she finished the drink before pulling up files on a number of business projects. Not simply as cover, but because information was power.

Both Henry and Shoshanna had drummed that into her.

When the staff member came in with the tray, Auden only acknowledged her with a nod. Another small act designed to make the entire household believe that she wasn’t only back, but that she was back as her mother’s daughter.

She completed the work she wanted to do in record time—even compared to her work before the brain damage. She seemed to know exactly where certain files were located, or how to retrieve documents she’d never before seen.

Including videos of her interacting with others in a way that should’ve been impossible with her brain injury. Complex, detailed interactions that couldn’t be faked with a nod here and there while Charisma did the talking.

Auden was the one doing the talking.

Parched, she grabbed the glass of water that had come on the tray, emptied it. Her lips remained dry in the aftermath, her heart pumping. Because…she shouldn’t be able to access this material. It was stored in a system that had been well above her security clearance when she’d been “normal”—she’d been too young then to have access to this depth of business information.

More than that…

Passwords.

A number of the documents she’d just pulled up had been password protected, and she’d breezed past the security as if it didn’t exist, her fingers typing in the necessary codes without hesitation.

Not only that, but when she checked some of the more obscure financial records, she saw that the last access had been by Shoshanna. Which meant these were documents even Charisma couldn’t access—she hadn’t been given the override by her mother before Shoshanna’s untimely death.

Her heart hitched.

There had to be an explanation. Perhaps she’d had other periods of lucidity while her mother was alive, and Shoshanna had decided to pass on the information. That must be it. Because what other possibility—

Chest tight, she touched the scar at her temple again.

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