Chapter 67

“Mama, Papa made you a little cake!”

“I see that, Dimochka. You’re such a good cub to carry it so carefully to me. Let’s put it down here. That’s it, my sweet boy. You can help me eat it after I give your papa a kiss.”

“You look tired, malyshka.”

“I already feel better now that I’ve had hugs from my two favorite people.”

—A conversation in the office of Dr. Evanova “Nova” Nikolaev (45 minutes ago)

YAKOV STILL HAD a pounding head six hours later, as he sat slumped in an armchair in the den’s infirmary next to Theo’s bed. She’d tried to get out of that bed an hour ago, and faced Nova’s wrath—and her own spinning head. The end result was that she lay impatiently in it, her hand rising to brush the thick and swollen line of her new scar every so often.

Yakov knew she didn’t care about the scar itself; she cared about what the state of it said of her injury. He cared about the scar—because every time he looked at the jagged slash in her throat, it reminded him of the horror of almost losing her.

Now she said, “I’ll get it removed as soon as Nova says it’s healed enough for the procedure.” One side of her face a patchwork of black bruises under a healing mesh, but the blue of her gaze tender. “Until then, I’ll take up wearing turtlenecks.”

Lifting her hand to his lips, he pressed a kiss on it. He was still having trouble speaking, his mind awash with the final images he’d seen before the world had gone dark. Blood, so much fucking blood.

“I’m alive because we changed the future,” she reminded him, her voice husky from the strain of her wound, and when he scowled, said, “We did. I always died in your dreams. But I’m not dead today.”

“Too close,” he gritted out. “She should’ve never got to your throat.”

“Yashin’ka.” A coaxing tone with a thread of steel as his Theo used his name in a way intimate and affectionate. “We can only control our decisions, no one else’s. Don’t be a stubborn bear and refuse to accept that we altered the trajectory of my certain death to almost-death. Big difference.”

He scowled at her. “Are you sure you’re not a bear under the skin? You sound smartass enough.”

A grin that was his sun. “Ouch.” She patted with utmost gentleness at the side of her face overlaid with the glow of the healing mesh and attendant gel.

“I need to hold my energy in reserve for any other emergencies,” a tired Nova had said while Theo was unconscious, her usually perfectly set hair bedraggled and pulled back in a haphazard fashion. “Mesh takes longer but will heal her cheekbone fine.”

Having witnessed the fury with which Nova had worked on Theo, Yakov had just hugged her until she’d squeaked. He’d always loved StoneWater’s healer, but now he fucking worshipped her.

“Stop touching that,” he ordered. “Or I’ll tattle to Nova.”

Theo narrowed her eyes—but dropped her hand. Because even his pchelka knew not to push their healer. Nova had once put Valentin himself on bed rest, then dared him to fight her when he protested.

Needless to say, Valya had stayed put—while sulking.

And his obedience hadn’t been because Nova was one of the alpha’s big sisters. It was because she was their healer, with the attendant power behind it.

“Am I interrupting a lover’s quarrel?” A mock whisper from the doorway.

It wasn’t the first time Pavel had dropped by. The rest of their family, as well as Arwen, had come for a quick visit to reassure themselves he and Theo were both fine, then ceded visiting rights to Pasha, since Nova had made it clear she did not want guests “riling up” her patients.

A bear healer had to have a firm hand—and a big stick.

Nova’s stick was the sweetness of her temper. Calm was never so fucking terrifying as on the StoneWater healer.

“You want to tell me how we ended up here, bro?” Yakov asked him. “I’ve got no memory of anything after I detonated the aural bomb.”

His twin, who’d squeezed the life out of Yakov on his first visit, his heart thumping like a drum and his breathing unsteady, then kissed Theo gently on the mouth with her smiling consent, was in a more composed frame of mind this time.

Grabbing the chair he’d left at the end of the bed, he spun it around and straddled it. “Right, so I went down like a sack of bricks—”

“Wait.” Theo’s voice. “You felt it?” A wonder in her tone that made Yakov want to cuddle her. “I didn’t know changeling twins could do that.”

“Yeah,” Pavel said with a grin. “Not like Psy telepathy, but Yasha and I’ve always known when the other one is in trouble. I first got a glimmer of it a bit earlier, tried to track you down via your phones and the car, and couldn’t. I’d said fuck it and was just going to go with my gut and drive to the facility when”—he spread his hands outward from his head—“my head went boom.”

“Back when we were cubs,” Yakov added, “they once had to put my arm in a sling after Pasha broke his, because I was in so much pain. Our mother still has a photo of the two of us bandaged up side by side, Pasha’s other arm around my shoulders.”

“Arwen loves that photo so much he asked for a copy.” Pavel’s smile went tender and soft for a moment. “Right, where was I? So, I crashed, then Valya felt you go down through the alpha-second bond.” A nod at Yakov. “He’d already been trying to get through to Krychek, but the man wasn’t picking up, so Valya got ahold of Silver and she touched base with Krychek through the Net and asked for his help.”

Yakov stared at his brother. “Bullshit.” StoneWater had an excellent relationship with Silver’s old boss, but they were also wary of any debt to the cardinal Tk.

“It’s fine. Krychek only demanded your liver and one kidney in return for his help,” his brother said with a wave of his hand.

A sound from the bed had Yakov looking up. Theo’s little laugh made him forgive his twin for drawing out the suspense—even when she winced again when the motion jostled her healing cheekbone.

“Did you know Krychek can lock onto faces, not just places?” Pavel raised both eyebrows. “Our local deadly telekinetic tycoon—who, by the way, I still hold is causing the minor quakes when he’s bored—could’ve been standing in our den anytime he wanted all that time we were negotiating with him right at the start.”

“Huh.” Yakov rubbed his thumb over the back of Theo’s hand. “Makes me like him better that he didn’t. No one should enter another’s home without an invitation.”

Pavel gave a nod of agreement. “Short story is he locked onto Nova’s face since he apparently has files on all the senior members of the clan and knows all our faces—because of course he does.”

Yakov felt zero surprise; no one got to Krychek’s level of power without thinking of every contingency. What mattered here was that the Tk had used the information to assist, not harm.

“Once he picked up Nova,” Pavel continued, “he locked onto your face, Yasha. Said to Valya later that it might not have worked if I hadn’t been wearing my glasses at the time.” He nudged up the metal frames. “Identical twins can screw up a facial teleport lock.” A smug look. “See. I told you specs were a better idea than surgery.”

Swamped by a wave of affection for his twin, Yakov grinned. “And it has nothing to do with your fear of lasers near your eyes?”

“Mudak.” A cheerful insult. “Theo appreciates my sacrifice in wearing glasses, don’t you, Theo? Plus my mate says they’re sexy, so you can go scratch your furry butt with some poison ivy.”

“I think you’re wonderful, Pasha,” Theo said with a careful grin. “But I do also love my Yashin’ka’s butt, so no poison ivy curses, if you please.”

Pavel’s laugh held wild affection, while Yakov’s bear prowled pleased inside his mind. That his Theo and his brother liked each other? It made both parts of him happy.

A smile in her voice, Theo said, “Did Krychek then bring us back here?”

“Pretty much. He left your brother to fend for himself.” Pavel’s voice softened. “Said he had a teleport-capable Tk with him? So hopefully he made it home all right. We did send people to the facility to hold it safe until you woke up, and they knew to keep an eye out for him, but the site was empty.”

Theo nodded. “I’ve telepathed with him. He’s at our Moscow apartment.” She shifted her gaze to Yakov, the blue potent with emotion. “He needs to see me.”

Remembering Pavel’s desperate embrace, Yakov nodded. “I’ll talk to Nova, see if she’ll give you a pass for a short visit with your brother. We can set up a meet near the edge of den territory. You understood why he can’t come to the den?”

“Yes. This is the home of your most vulnerable and he’s an unknown threat—he’ll have no argument with the decision, either.” Her brother was just happy she was being so fiercely protected by the bears.

The reason why made her heart hurt, and she saw the knowledge of her pain in Yakov’s gaze, felt it in the kiss he pressed to her knuckles again. “Live in the now,” he murmured, reminding her of his great-grandfather’s advice.

Theo clung to it, to the now where her brother was alive and himself, and where she would see him again soon. Shifting her attention back to Pavel, who’d kept his silence during that quiet interaction, she said, “My aunt?”

“Unconscious. You have any idea why the bomb hit her so much worse?”

“It didn’t. Pax slapped her with a telepathic blow when she began to come around.”

Pavel whistled. “Yikes. She’s going to be in a world of hurt when she wakes.” No sympathy in his tone for the woman who’d tried to murder her—because while the bears were full of heart, they were also ruthlessly protective.

Pax would fit right in.

Theo released a shuddering breath at the thought of a time where her brother sat with a group of laughing bears, all of them in sync. “Where is she?” It didn’t make sense that they’d keep Keja in the den, not when she was a major threat.

“Soon as Nova stabilized her, we drove her to a guarded medical facility outside den territory. Medical transport, designed for this kind of thing, so it didn’t hurt her.”

Theo’s mind blazed hot red, an overlooked piece of information roaring to the surface. “She has access to a teleporter.”

“Shit.” Pavel pulled out his phone and made the call right then, telling the guards to ensure that they positioned themselves right next to Keja at all times. “That work?” he asked Theo while still on the call.

“Yes, as a stopgap. Janine can still go to her, but she can’t teleport her out if she can’t touch her.” Tks like Kaleb Krychek didn’t need physical contact, but Janine wasn’t that powerful.

After passing that on, Pavel hung up. “What do Psy do about criminals like your aunt? People who can vanish out of locked rooms?”

“I don’t know.” She coughed, her throat dry. “I’m assuming there must be a way to block or shield certain abilities.”

“Drink first, talk later.” Yakov put a straw to her lips—it went into a glass of nutrients he’d arranged for her.

Theo sipped while scowling at him, but she wanted to cuddle her worried bear. She’d never forget the terror in his voice as he screamed her name.

“Ugh, goo-goo eyes, that’s my cue to get out of here.” Pavel rose to his feet. “But I’m fucking glad you’re in the den, where we can look after you both.”

Theo jerked her lips from the straw, her brain only now processing the import of her current situation. “I can’t be here.” The air suddenly jagged bits of stone in her lungs, she sat up, pushing aside the blanket. “I can’t be here.” She swung her legs over the side of the bed.

Her skin was hot, her chest compressing in on itself.