Shards of Hope

Chapter 58

ADEN WAS CONSIDERING the Beacon report Vasic had brought to his attention when he received a comm call not from Hawke Snow, but from Lucas Hunter. “Hawke’s going to touch base with you later,” the leopard alpha said. “I wanted to talk to you about this idea of yours.”

Realizing the two alphas must’ve discussed it with one another, Aden said, “What’s DarkRiver’s interest in this?”

Lucas’s green eyes were suddenly not human anymore. “I have a cub who is as much Psy as she is changeling. It’d be nice if she grew up around children of both races.”

It was a motive Aden could believe. “Would you agree to a contact session?” The RainFire pack was small, had a limited number of cubs. Enough for the test ten, but a larger group would overwhelm them. Aden had intended to rotate the Arrow children, though it wasn’t his first choice—such a tactic would interrupt friendships in progress, such as that between Pip and Jojo.

If DarkRiver or SnowDancer agreed to his plan, however, children could be put into different groups that interacted together over a long period. It would create more well-rounded Arrows as well as forging bonds that crisscrossed the country. Aden wanted those bonds for the children under his care, wanted them to witness the different lives they could choose to live.

Being an Arrow didn’t have to equal a sentence of isolation and aloneness.

“Yes, DarkRiver will do it,” Lucas said, the decision one he’d clearly already made. “I’ll speak to Remi to see how RainFire is handling things; I’ll give you a call in the next day or so.”

“Thank you,” Aden said, aware this was a big step for the insular changelings. Lucas had couched it in terms of the benefits to his own child, but Aden knew that the changelings had once again thought of all children—Arrow “cubs” included. It was their weakness and, oddly, their strength.

“Wait.” Lucas frowned as Aden went to end the communication. “You know a Psy family called Liu?”

“The Liu Group is one of the strongest in the Net.” Aden had been in contact with the matriarch a number of times since he took over leadership of the squad. “I can make the introduction if you want to talk business.”

Lucas shook his head, his shoulder-length black hair sliding forward before he tied it roughly back at his nape. “They’ve been fucking with us,” he said bluntly. “Small things, but it’s irritating.”

“An example?”

“We’re currently building new infrastructure for one of our media companies—they bought out the entire supply of a particular necessary component, putting us off schedule by two months.” The leopard alpha scowled. “I’d understand if Liu needed the component, but they have no use for it. Just like they don’t for the microbrewery they just bought out.”

“A microbrewery?” That didn’t fit into any of the Liu Group’s business interests. “Is it highly profitable?”

“It was a small family operation and profitable at that level. Now it’s just sitting there, nothing in production.” Lucas’s frown deepened. “Two changeling-owned clubs used that brewery almost exclusively to supply their patrons. You see what I’m talking about? It’s like they’re playing a game, probably because we won a couple of recent contracts for which Liu also put in a bid.”

“That doesn’t sound like Jen Liu.” The family matriarch was ruthless and would continue to be a thorn in the Ruling Coalition’s side, but she didn’t waste money or energy. “I’ll speak to her. This may be a junior member of the family who’s let power go to his or her head.”

“Appreciate it,” Lucas said before signing off with a small nod.

Contacting Jen Liu immediately, Aden raised the question. She called him back after forty-five minutes with a very strange report. “It appears we have been doing the things alleged by the DarkRiver alpha. However, we have no record of anyone ever giving the orders to action the incidents.”

“Could a junior have circumvented your decision-making process?”

“Highly improbable, though I’ve asked my deputy to investigate.” Her expression was faultlessly Silent, but Aden had the feeling the green-eyed, silver-haired telepath was annoyed. “I’d like to speak to Lucas Hunter and see if we can come to an accommodation. I currently have people tracking the supply chain to see where the parts may have gone—” She paused, her head angled, as if listening to another voice.

“The parts have been located,” she said a second later. “They were delivered to a family warehouse, and since the documentation was in order, the warehouse manager simply put them on the shelves.” The matriarch’s expression grew even more icy. “Someone is playing games, and those games may have an impact on our business activities.”

Aden knew the changeling sector was a lucrative one that had long been closed to Psy. With the fall of Silence and with other changes in the world, that door was now partially ajar. Aden wouldn’t put it past another family group to scuttle the Liu Group’s reputation with changelings in an effort to win contracts.

“I’m sending you Lucas’s contact details.” That done, he said, “Have you had any other similar experiences?” It could be simply petty business politics, but Aden never assumed anything.

“My family hasn’t, but Kalani Chastain mentioned that a human business association recently filed legal papers that delayed a crucial project.”

“It sounds like an ordinary dispute.”

“Yes, until the other side didn’t turn up to any of the hearings. The judge threw out the filing but the damage was done.”

The hairs on his nape prickling, Aden contacted Chastain as soon as he and Jen Liu finished speaking. The barely twenty-nine-year-old head of the family assumed the Ruling Coalition was taking her to task for the delay in what was a Coalition-funded comm station upgrade, and had no hesitation in giving him the full details.

Since he didn’t have a contact within the human association in question, he asked Zaira to get in touch with Bo. The Arrows and the Human Alliance had a cautiously “friendly” association that boiled down to “don’t step on my toes and I won’t step on yours.”

Making the contact, Zaira called back. “He’s checking, will get back to you within the next hour.”

Every cell in Aden’s body seemed to awaken at the sound of her voice. “Did Miane have any further success with Olivia?” he asked, conscious the BlackSea alpha was currently running everything from a base in Venice while she did what she could to help her packmate heal.

“No, but Persephone was alive as of ten minutes ago.” Zaira’s voice turned edgy, hard. “A new e-mail came into Olivia’s account, warning her against talking. Persephone was holding a printout of the most recent Beacon update, complete with a date and time stamp. And her captors didn’t forget to obscure her face enough to make it useless for a teleport lock.”

Aden’s own anger was a razored thing—he would never forget those recordings of Zaira in that cell of a room, and the idea of another child undergoing the same made him want to do cold, deadly violence. “That implies Olivia does know something.”

“The Halcyon may have done its job there; her memory is shot. Persephone’s abductors will realize soon that Olivia didn’t give us anything.”

Because if she had, Aden thought, the squad would’ve moved. “Stay on it,” he said. “They won’t risk harming the child until they’re dead certain Olivia is contained.” The breathing room was minuscule, but it might be enough to save a tiny and vulnerable life.

“Amin tells me Blake is like a rat in a hole,” Aden said, knowing she wanted to be kept up-to-date on that hunt. “The team doesn’t have him yet, but they know he’s trapped in New York.” There had been no new murders that bore the rogue Arrow’s signature, likely because of the unremitting pressure created by the squad’s tracking teams.

“Good.” An icy response, followed by the unexpected. “I miss you. You’ve addicted me to you.”

He felt his lips curve again, the smile starting in his heart and spreading outward. Like the children, he, too, had discovered there was more to life than being an Arrow or even the leader of the squad. And he’d discovered it with his deadliest commander. “Success.”

No laughter, but her final words were a caress. “See you in bed.”

“Every night.” At present, that was the only time they were together—Blake, Persephone, the constant rumors in the Net, the integration of adult Arrows into family units with Arrow children, it all required care and attention.

But the rest periods, those were theirs. Even if it was a bare five hours, Aden made sure the squad knew he was offline except for major emergencies. Fully accepting his mantle as second in command, Vasic had stepped in to take the calls that would normally be routed to Aden.

It was the favorite part of his entire day.

Bo Knight contacted him fifteen minutes after that thought passed through his head. “The association in question categorically denies ever filing those papers.”

“Interesting.”

“Isn’t it?”

“An individual or a group attempting to pit Psy against human?”

“I’d say that, except I had a very similar conversation with one of SnowDancer’s lieutenants not long ago.” Bo’s tone was terse. “We were apparently buying land out from under changeling packs—except we weren’t.”

Aden’s prickling instincts went on full alert. “Do you know of any other incidents?”

“No. But I’m going to look into it.”

“As will I.” Subtle and insidious, someone was playing what appeared to be a very patient game of chess.