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Ashaya had no intention of beco’s puppets

She also had no intention of allowing him to take control of her son

So she would take this calculated chance and trust the probability matrix to hold true If she had made an error in her calculations, both she and Keenan were dead But if she did nothing, the outcome was certain death Of course, there was one other person she could go to for help, but the price A to pay This was the only viable option

Taking a seat in the corner she had arranged to shield her froht up the file on Jonquil Duchslaya She didn’t need to look very far before finding his Talin

Talin McKade was listed both as Jonquil’s point of contact at the Shine Foundation and as his next of kin According to the file, the wo the official title of Senior Guardian

It wasn’t what Ashaya had wanted to find This Talin was not going to have the kind of influence or contacts Ashaya needed She’d have to take the chance that, as a Senior Guardian, the woman could somehow attract the attention of the Shine board Ashaya did not like to take chances without statistical support, especially not noith so irl - Noor - was evena few recentfro lack of discipline, the scouts for this genocide labeled an experiment had been careful to choose isolated children They were all linked to Shine, but as the humans had proven over and over, it was the ele committed parent or faanization - especially an organization such as Shine, which, according to her data, was ha by a board full of old men and wootten were still being huntedstill being exterive it to them

But first, she had to strike a bargain

Chapter 36

Talin threw a s water and food into the plane If all went according to plan, they would be in and out overnight "How come you have a pilot’s license? Is that what you do for a living?" she asked the tall, blond, and stupidly good-looking pilot The last tiut twisted at the memory of what she’d revealed to Clay that day, the truth that sat a sullen intruder between them "Dorian?"

Dorian scowled "How co he hadn’t forgotten their enetic flaw?"

To her surprise, his cool expression segued into a s, she felt sucker-punched "You’re sort of little I like little"

Talin looked around Where was Clay? He’d gone to grab so from the Tank, which was parked a short distance away She wished he’d hurry the hell up It looked like his "friend" was hitting on her "I’m taken"

"I know I can smell Clay on you" He pushed up the bri’s a hobby"

"Oh" She shifted her feet, wondering if she’d ever get used to changeling sensory abilities It was unsettling to realize his pack would know beyond a doubt that she and Clay had been intimate Butit was also kind of nice Because if she carried his scent, that meant he had to carry hers, too, didn’t it? "Why are you staring?" she asked when Dorian didn’t look away, his blue eyes bright in the ht

"Curiosity" His tone betrayed the fact that, charant masculine streak as Clay "Wanted to knohat you had that was strong enough to bring Clay down"

She bristled "I don’t think he thinks he’s been brought down"

A grunt "I figure if I know in advance, it’ll be harder for a pretty woly one?" she snapped, irritated by the way he was h she’d trapped Clay

"No such thing," he responded, and there was an honesty beneath the char woht back - when he could be bothered to lay on the char the teenagers out of the bar, he’d been pure, lethal predator "If you like wo why sheto one?"

Those surfer-blue eyes were suddenly chro things to do, people to kill, before I set up house"

"I don’t want to know"

"No, you don’t"

Talin froze, able to sense his deep-seated anger She felt tension begin to knot up her spine Male anger was not so she did ith That level of trust - for thery - she had only with Clay And the depth of that trust was a revelation, one that aonder in her

Dorian’s eyes narrowed "I’ to hurt you"

She answered his bluntness with the sah to trust you"

He nodded "Fair enough"

She could’ve left it at that, but"Being that angry, holding it so close, it’s not good for you" She could ale hidden beneath his handsoh of that from Sascha," he said with a scowl "Why don’t you stick to babying Clay?"

"How do you think he’d react?"

Dorian’s smile returned, slow and more than a little satisfied "I think you’re the one person who could get aith it"

She hunched her shoulders, uncomfortable "I don’t have that much power" Wouldn’t knohat to do with it if she had All she wanted was the chance to love Clay, to wipe away the past with the beauty of the present Before this fucking disease ended everything Her own ever-present anger grew a dull flaot him blind drunk Clay doesn’t drink"