Page 19 of Polestar
“You fought.”
Sascha nodded.“I didn’t want to get on another ship.”
“Another ship,” Ana repeated, thoughtful.“May I hold your hands?”
Sascha’s gaze flicked to Ana’s face, to her upturned palms with the crucifix and rosary and back to her face again.“I don’t pray.”
“No praying.Just talking.”
“You are… a seer?”
“Something like that.”
After another moment’s hesitation, Sascha placed her frigid fingers over Ana’s.Ana slid her hands forward, palms up under Sascha’s.She drew another deep breath to allow the remnants of her mental barrier to fall away.She held Sascha’s gaze as their energies fizzed.
Ana’s hands felt as though they were frosting over, and she fought against a wave of fatigue.
Sascha’s numbness was her own mental barrier, protecting her.
The emotion behind that barrier pressed upon them both, waiting for a fissure that Sascha wasn’t ready to crack.
Yet.
Ana held firm, seeking.
Finally, after long moments, images flickered through.
But she wasn’t seeing survivors like Sascha.
It was the familiar nightmare of Antony’s naval vessel.
Ana released Sascha’s hands, flexing her fingers.
Focus Ana.Focus!
She tried again.
This time, gaunt faces appeared as she searched Sascha’s emotional memories of the last few weeks.
Despair.Fear.Rage.
Ana pressed deeper, seeking the faces of the perpetrators.Whispers of locations.Anything that could send them in the right direction.
Nothing.
Suddenly, the visions changed.Ana no longer guided the flow of memory and emotion.Sascha’s numbness dissipated and everything else surged forward, stealing Ana’s breath away.
She went rigid under the onslaught as Sascha’s memory jerked back to the last beating at the hands of the guards.The last beating because a small group of men stopped it, fought back, protected her and the others in the dank room.
Their faces were familiar to Ana.
“Save them!”A disembodied voice shouted at her.
She flinched away from Sascha again, severing the energetic connection.
Balling her fists on her lap, she drew several deep breaths.
“Who were the men that protected you?”
