Heart of Obsidian Read Online Free PDF

nothing.
    The
only
way to reverse the ruinous effects of her own creation was for her to be put into an environment her subconscious recognized as “safe.”
    It was impossible that this situation fit those parameters—the male with hair of jet-black who smelled of ice and pine in a way that made her want to rub her face against his skin, and whose eyes never moved off her, was clearly not safe in any way, shape, or form. He was a predator: he’d told her of his ability to cause madness, displaying his utter lack of remorse in committing such a heinous act. More, his motives in appropriating her from her former prison were worse than opaque.
    Yet the labyrinth continued to unstitch itself, her mind brushing off cobweb after cobweb as she came out of her long hibernation, splintered memories merging into a moth-eaten stream. So when Kaleb’s eyes went pitch-black without warning, she had the knowledge to understand he had to be using a great deal of power . . . and since he
was
a power, that meant something very, very bad was about to happen or had already done so. “Kaleb.”
    * * *
    THE psychic surge impacted Kaleb’s mind with the force of a slamming blow.
    The velocity of the wave made it deadly clear the damage that had produced it was catastrophic. Locking down the house with a single telekinetic command, he shot out into the PsyNet to see hundreds of thousands of minds flickering in a way that denoted stunned shock at the sudden insult.
    It was the one vulnerability of the Psy, their need for the biofeedback provided by the psychic network that connected their race. That connection meant Psy could go anywhere in the world on the psychic plane, could share data with an ease the other races couldn’t imagine. It also meant they couldn’t escape the devastating aftershocks of a fatal event that had happened on another continent—in a city called Perth, Australia.
    A city he’d now reached.
    The black fabric of the PsyNet, the minds within it flashing red in panic as their conditioning shattered with the onset of agonizing pain, was crumpling inward here, in a pattern he’d witnessed only once before. Hundreds had died then—men, women, children—but Cape Dorset’s population was minuscule in comparison to Perth’s.
    Throwing out a protective telepathic shield the instant he was close enough, he halted the collapse. And knew that thousands were already dead, their minds severed from the Net at implosion in a brutal punch of pain that would’ve ended the lives of children at once. The adults would’ve lived a few seconds longer, the toughest lasting perhaps a minute.
    The anchor network in Perth has been compromised,
he communicated to the leader of the Arrows, covert operatives who were the most highly trained and dangerous in the world.
Initiate secondary backup.
That backup system, put quietly in place after Pure Psy began to target the anchors, the linchpins who kept the Net from collapsing, was still a work in progress.
    Initiated,
Aden replied within a split second.
I’ll assist with the shield.
    Unnecessary.
Kaleb could seal up the breach on his own.
Find out how this was done.
The telekinetic behind the earlier murders was dead, gutted by a changeling during another attempted killing. Every other anchor in the world had been notified, and the majority were now in hiding, their locations known to only a select few in each region.
    There are reports of fires in several parts of Perth,
Aden said after a short pause.
Vasic and I are teleporting to the affected area.
    Suturing the bleeding gash in the psychic fabric of the Net with measured efficiency, Kaleb spoke to the minds whose lives hung by a thread he held in his grasp.
This is Councilor Kaleb Krychek,
he said, using his now-defunct title because it would foster calm.
I am in the process of stabilizing this region. You are safe.
    Simple. Matter-of-fact. Effective.
    None of these people would ever forget who it was that had come to their aid when