Sienna nodded. “The second I met him, everything crumbled, my shields, my conditioning, everything! And Sascha, Ineedthat conditioning. Judd showed me how to short-circuit the pain controls but I haven’t—I’m not like him, I don’t think I can stop without the pain.”
Sascha squeezed her eyes shut, sending Sienna soothing waves of reassurance. But she didn’t brush aside the girl’s words. Silence had been undertaken for a reason. It had become perverted over time, but at the start, the Protocol had been their salvation—it had saved people like Sienna, Psy who couldn’t think for the virulent strength of their gifts. It was possible the girl simply couldn’t exist without Silence.
And if that was so, it would send shock waves through both the Lauren family and the SnowDancers.
“The LaurenNet,” she said, referring to the small psychic network that linked Sienna’s entire family, “is it strong enough to survive your not being in the den?”
Sienna nodded immediately. “Marlee and Toby are settled. They won’t attempt to rejoin the PsyNet. And with Brenna in our net as well, it’s gained in strength. But I can’t leave for long—maybe a week or two. Toby’s my responsibility.”
“Of course,” Sascha said. “But you need a break, you know that. And we’re close enough that someone can drive you up here when necessary.”
“I can drive. Uncle Walker taught me.” A pause, then a slight shake of her head. “But these eyes, Sascha. We can’t hide them.”
Sascha smiled. “Sometimes, I don’t want to stick out either, so I’ve been working with our techs to develop a new type of contact lens. It’s not perfect yet, but it’s good enough—you can wear it up to a month before it needs replacing.”
Hope lit Sienna’s face. “I could be free. I mean, not leave or anything, but I could go out into the city, move about.”
“Yes.” Sascha touched her hands again. “But not until you can control yourself.”
A shaky nod. “I don’t know who can help me—Judd’s done a lot, but there’s no one else like me.”
Sascha felt a flash of worry. What if . . . ? No. Cardinal X-Psy were a myth. Even midrange Xs were rare, their gift turning on them during childhood. None but the very weak survived to adulthood. “Sienna, what’s your combat ability?”
“I can’t tell you.” Sienna’s jaw set in a way most would’ve read as stubbornness. They would’ve been wrong. It was desperation. “Ican’t. No one can ever know.”
Sascha stroked her hand over the teenager’s hair again. “Don’t worry—I’m not going to withdraw my offer. But I need to know this—will you be safe around my pack?”
Sienna took long moments to think about it, strengthening Sascha’s faith in the girl. “I wascoldin the Net, Sascha,” she said at last. “Really cold—maybe even colder than Judd. It’sbeing here, in this den, that breaks me. If you get me out of here, my conditioning should spring back.”
Sascha knew precisely what Hawke would think of that, but if Silence would keep Sienna functional, then she’d fight tooth and nail for the girl. “Did the Council know about your abilities?”
“Yes.” She swallowed. “Ming wanted me to join his Arrows, become his protégée. Then he found out I was stronger than him. And that’s when my family got the order for rehabilitation.”
“It’s not on you,” Sascha said firmly. “It’s on the Council—they made the decision to destroy their own people.”
“Sascha . . . I might have to go back.”
Both of them knew exactly what Sienna was talking about—the dark skies of the PsyNet, Silent and cold, might be the girl’s only hope.
CHAPTER 34
Riley knew he’d fucked up. Even his wolf knew he’d fucked up. What he didn’t know was how to fix things. That was what he did—he fixed things. For his family, for his pack, for everyone who mattered to him. But he had no idea in hell how to fix something so crucially important to him. Mercy had been soangry.
“Riley?”
He looked up to find Elias running toward him, sweat rolling down his temples. “How’d it go?” Eli was one of their best trackers, his nose fine-tuned in either human or wolf form.
But this time the SnowDancer soldier shook his head. “They’re smart—went straight from here to Pier 39, far as I can tell.”
“Shit.” Pier 39 was always jam-packed with people, and with the blue skies they’d had today, it was doubtless worse than usual. “The trail dead-ended?”
Eli nodded. “I didn’t say anything to the others, didn’t want to influence them in case they caught something I missed.” Said with a soldier’s calm acceptance that he was part of ateam. “That cat—Kit—he’s really good. He might be able to pick up the trail again.”
But half an hour later, when Mercy called him, it was to say that Kit had only been able to get two piers farther down. “He thinks they might’ve had water transport. But we’ve got their scent now,” she said, her voice terse, businesslike. “I’m sending everyone who knows that scent to do sweeps of the city.”
“I’m doing the same.”
“Teijan’s coming over to take a sniff. Don’t shoot him.”