Last Guard (Psy-Changeling Trinity #5) by Nalini Singh

But there were no answers that day, and Kaleb logged off as frustrated as when he’d logged on.

PAYAL glanced at her organizer after leaving the meeting. A single priority message sat at the top of the queue: Your father requires your presence.

A hot ball of fire in her stomach, dark and dangerous.

Canto’s voice hit her mind the next instant. I got your sample to Ashaya and Amara Aleine.

She knew those names. Everybody with any interest in science knew those names. The twin scientists were said to be geniuses alone—and beyond that when together. How? Payal had a lot of contacts, but she’d never managed to get close to the Aleines.

Silver to Valentin; Valentin to Lucas Hunter, alpha of DarkRiver; Lucas to Ashaya, as she’s a member of his pack now. A touch along their bond. Mercants are all about connections.

Again that word: connections.

Her brain scrabbled for what it was that she couldn’t see, fell short.

She forced her mind back to the point at hand. But why would they take it on? Payal was nobody to them.

Scientific interest—and because I passed on the information that this was for an anchor. The Aleines were high up enough in the Council superstructure that they’re aware of the dearth of anchors. Amara, from all I know of her, likely wasn’t swayed by that, since the twins are no longer in the PsyNet, but Ashaya has a child and must’ve thought of the lives in the Net.

Payal didn’t know much about the Aleines in terms of their personalities, but she’d once heard her father say that Lalit was the Rao family’s Amara Aleine. It had been a while ago, and she hadn’t really understood what he was talking about—only that he’d been displeased with Lalit at the time.

Did they say anything yet?

No. But if anyone can find the solution, they will.

The two of them ended the conversation there, without good-byes. They weren’t necessary, because even separated by thousands of miles, Payal and Canto were never apart, the bond between them a living thing luminous with emotion.

He lived inside her, as she lived inside him.

The Payal before, the one who hadn’t yet met Canto again, she would’ve believed such a thing must be intrusive—but it wasn’t. They didn’t surveil one another. No, it was more akin to knowing that if she held out a hand, he’d be there to grab onto it. Always, he’d be there.

A word hovered on the tip of her tongue, such a huge word, such a massive emotion.

Breath shuddering, she pushed it away. Not yet. She wasn’t ready to face that … to hope for that. It felt like asking for too much.

After doing breathing exercises to compose herself, she took one last look in the mirror before she headed to her father. Sunita, her long gray hair neatly braided and her black staff uniform pressed to within an inch of its life, was hovering outside her room when she exited. “Miss Payal,” she whispered, fear a tremor in her voice.

Payal immediately stepped close to the taller but far thinner woman. “What’s the matter?”





Chapter 44



Murder most foul, as in the best it is. But this most foul, strange and unnatural.

—From Hamlet by the human playwright William Shakespeare (17th century)

“YOUR BROTHER,” SUNITA said, darting looks up the hallway. “He destroyed his suite last night.” She twisted her hands. “He hasn’t lost control like that since the day you saved Visha.”

Payal’s mind flashed to an image of Visha’s wounds, the slick of red on the brown of her skin. “Thank you. Now, I want you to disappear for a few days—log health leave into the system. I’ll authorize it.” If her brother was in a rage, then the older woman wasn’t safe. Lalit might ignore the servants, but she couldn’t take the risk that he hadn’t worked out that Sunita was Payal’s.

The older woman—who put on a good Silent front most of the time, but who’d clearly thrown off the shackles of the protocol with far more success than most Psy her age—looked at her with distressed eyes. “You’ll be all alone.”

Payal had always thought theirs a strictly mercenary relationship, but there was fear and worry in the other woman’s eyes. She could see it clear as day now that she was no longer blocking her emotional center. It shook her to know she’d blinded herself in such a destructive way.

“I’m a cardinal Tk,” she said gently. “He’s never going to be as strong as I am.”

Sunita resisted. “He won’t fight in the open. He’ll be like a snake, sliding in under the door while you sleep—it’s how he was as a boy, so cunning that he hurt you while your father wasn’t looking. I tried to watch, to find ways to distract him, but I was only a maid.”

No doubt in Payal’s mind of the depth of Sunita’s concern. “I’ll make sure I never drop my guard.” She put a gentle hand on Sunita’s shoulder, felt the jut of bone there; she’d looked into Sunita’s nutrition in the past, learned that the other woman ate a normal diet—the thin stature was a family trait and not a cause for medical concern. “But I need you out of the way so I don’t have to worry about anyone else.”

Sunita hesitated again before nodding at last. “I should leave now?”

“Yes. Go.” A storm had been gathering on the horizon for a long time—her ascension to the Ruling Coalition would’ve only fueled Lalit’s fury.