Page 73 of Border Control

My brain finally kicks into gear. “Wait,hisstrategy? I'm the one who set out our game plan.”

“He has to execute it, so it's his.”

Lava flows through my veins. No you don't, you fucker.

‘I’m a psychic. I can blast him from here,’Nevare offers.‘Scramble his brain waves. Make him bleed from all orifices. Turn all his internal systems… dark.’

A shiver races up my spine. “Absolutely not,” I yell.

“What the fuck? Lisa? What did you just shout at me?”

Dom pulls Nevare away, but the powerful psychic bats his Base back, surging up the bond toward me.

My hands tingle, radiating down to my elbows, skin prickling in waves. Life-ending power at my literal fingertips. It surges in my right hand, my fist spasming around my phone.

Dom orders,‘Stop it right now. She's a female, do not interfere with her work.’

‘But there's an enemy. We must defend.’

Morgan’s tinny voice rages from my hip. Is this real life? How is it all fucking up so badly?

EIGHTEEN

DOM

Nevare isn't listeningto me. He's in position to allow Law-rah to direct him, fully out of Arik and my control. But she's never done this before, and she's a human. Guiding psychic energies is hard, impossible under emotional duress, and I don't know what trying will do to her.

‘This enemy is not one we are authorized to deal with,’I try, but Nevare doesn't hear me. He's caught up in Law-rah’s panic, which batters at me like a sandstorm, stinging and choking. Arik screams as he sinks under the onslaught. Underneath lurk the gray-blue spikes, turning inward and piercing her right to her core.

She’s in so much pain.

Dropping the chains and ripping off the blindfold, I stand and put my arms around her, pressing my forehead to hers, ignoring the squalls of the despicable male in the device in her tense hands.‘Law-rah. You are physically safe. I won’t let anything hurt you. You have to breathe.’

She takes a single inhale, then another, and buries her head into the crook of my arm.‘Dom, I… I…’Her upper thoughts get subsumed by deeper ones.‘FRIGHTENED. LOST. ALONE.’Sheflinches back from me, as if she can’t stand being near me, but I tighten my grip.

Mentally, I lift her up and over the maelstrom. It slashes and burns, attacking me from every side, the spikes digging in under my skin.‘FAILURE. WEAK. STUPID. USELESS.’

The strength of it makes me waver. I am stupid, and weak. And if I can’t help Nevare and Law-rah, then I’ve failed, and I’m useless.

But I only hesitate for a moment.

“You are not any of these,” I say patiently, a mantra to drown out the ceaseless noise poisoning us both. “You’re strong, and kind, and considerate. You’re accomplished, and celebrated, and a wonder. You’re Law-rah.”

Her tiny mental form curls in on itself, then gets bigger. Good.

Quickly she slips out of my mental grasp and away. I try to reach after her and slam into a strong shield. She’s locked herself down, the way I told her.

But it leaves Nevare without a guide.

Drok na.

I grab him with everything I am through the mind-sync, but it’s not enough. Arik’s out, I’m the only Base, and I’m a poor psychic compared to Nevare.

Power spills from him, ripping across the sky. Law-rah feels it, shuddering, and it snaps us back to our physical bodies.

I check she’s physically fine, set her on her feet, and bolt.

Fields blur past in streaks of green and churned-up brown. Mud sucks at my boots, slowing me down. The link roars again, wild pulses like electromagnetic surges. My Apex broadcasts panic, power, pain. The wind stings my eyes as I run, faster, harder, until the air tastes of metal and my lungs burn.