by Nalini Singh
Berkley titles by Nalini Singh
Psy-Changeling Series
SLAVE TO SENSATION
VISIONS OF HEAT
CARESSED BY ICE
MINE TO POSSESS
HOSTAGE TO PLEASURE
BRANDED BY FIRE
BLAZE OF MEMORY
BONDS OF JUSTICE
PLAY OF PASSION
KISS OF SNOW
TANGLE OF NEED
HEART OF OBSIDIAN
SHIELD OF WINTER
SHARDS OF HOPE
ALLEGIANCE OF HONOR
Psy-Changeling Trinity Series
SILVER SILENCE
OCEAN LIGHT
Guild Hunter Series
ANGELS' BLOOD
ARCHANGEL'S KISS
ARCHANGEL'S CONSORT
ARCHANGEL'S BLADE
ARCHANGEL'S STORM
ARCHANGEL'S LEGION
ARCHANGEL'S SHADOWS
ARCHANGEL'S ENIGMA ARCHANGEL'S HEART
ARCHANGEL'S VIPER
Anthologies
AN ENCHANTED SEASON
(with Maggie Shayne, Erin McCarthy, and Jean Johnson)
THE MAGICAL CHRISTMAS CAT
(with Lora Leigh, Erin McCarthy, and Linda Winstead Jones)
MUST LOVE HELLHOUNDS
(with Charlaine Harris, Ilona Andrews, and Meljean Brook)
BURNING UP
(with Angela Knight, Virginia Kantra, and Meljean Brook)
ANGELS OF DARKNESS
(with Ilona Andrews, Meljean Brook, and Sharon Shinn)
ANGELS' FLIGHT
WILD INVITATION
NIGHT SHIFT
(with Ilona Andrews, Lisa Shearin, and Milla Vane)
WILD EMBRACE
Specials
ANGELS' PAWN
ANGELS' DANCE
TEXTURE OF INTIMACY
DECLARATION OF COURTSHIP
WHISPER OF SIN
SECRETS AT MIDNIGHT
BERKLEY
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375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014
Copyright (c) 2018 by Nalini Singh Penguin Random House supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Singh, Nalini, 1977-author.
Title: Ocean light / Nalini Singh.
Description: First edition. | New York : Berkley, 2018. | Series: Psy-changeling trinity ; 2
Identifiers: LCCN 2018004012| ISBN 9781101987827 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781101987841 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Psychic ability--Fiction. | Paranormal romance stories. | BISAC: FICTION / Romance Paranormal. | FICTION Fantasy / Paranormal. | GSAFD: Fantasy fiction.
Classification: LCC PR9639.4.S566 O28 2018 | DDC 823/.92--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018004012
First Edition: June 2018
Cover illustration by Tony Mauro Cover design by Rita Frangie
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Version_1
Contents
Berkley Titles by Nalini Singh
Title Page
Copyright
Winter
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
In the Deep
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Epilogue
About the Author
Winter
THE YEAR 2083 dawns in the icy shadow of winter's crystalline wings.
Snow is falling.
Flowers have gone dormant.
And a man sleeps in an endless winter of the mind.
Does he dream? Does he remember that humans are the bridge?
A truth brought to light by Adrian Kenner, the eighteenth-century peace negotiator who ended the territorial wars that had drenched the world in changeling blood.
The Psy were thought too condescending in their belief that their telepathy and telekinesis, psychometry and foresight, made them stronger, better.
No changeling negotiator could take on the task, for they all had their alliances and enemies. A leopard would not trust a bear, a bear would not countenance being at the same table as a wolf, a wolf refused to accept an eagle's authority . . . So many broken, splintered packs and clans, so much enmity.
Only the humans, caught in between the two violent powers and considered impartial, were trusted.
Only Adrian was trusted.
And in designing a peace accord that ended the wars, he repaid that trust a thousand times over.
But it has been more than three hundred years since that historic signing.
And people have forgotten that humans are the bridge.
Humans have forgotten.
Chapter 1
Bowen Knight: Status unknown. Location unknown. Condition as noted in final verified medical report: "Persistent comatose state. Brain functional, but no evidence or indication of increase in brain activity regardless of all measures taken."
--Human Alliance Internal Register
KAIA HATED HOSPITALS.
The sharp antiseptic scent, the quiet beeps occasionally uttered by the machinery of life, the stark lack of color on the walls, the carpetless floors, even the perfectly blameless pale blue sheets on this particular bed--it all caused her gut to churn and air to tighten in her chest until the pain was a constant.
This patient wa
s breathing on his own, so at least she didn't have to listen to the quiet whisper of the apparatus that forced air in and out of the lungs.
Shh. Shh.
Such a soft sound. Such a terrible sound.
Fisting her hand just below her breastbone, she pushed in hard in an effort to dislodge the agonizing knot. "Breathe, Kaia," she ordered. "This isn't even a hospital."
It was only a small clinic and it had only a single patient. A single subject.
The reminder did nothing to calm her heart or warm her skin, her breaths still shallow inhales followed by jagged exhales. She should've told Atalina no when her cousin asked her to step in to check the subject's vitals and status. She should've pointed out that she was the cook for the entire station and had lunch to prepare. But then Atalina wouldn't have agreed to get off her feet and have a rest despite her advanced pregnancy.
And Kaia had once been a scientist who worked alongside her cousin. She could do this simple task that Atalina did multiple times a day. It wasn't as if Attie had asked her to titrate the subject's medications or run complicated neurological scans. Though, if she had, Kaia was trained in both.
Becoming a cook hadn't wiped out her years of study and experience.
It had just made her happy that she no longer had to pretend to be something--someone--that she wasn't. She'd leave the science to the Kahananui branch of the family, and surrender to her own artistic lineage. Because while Elenise Luna had been a doctor, Iosef Luna had made his living as a lyricist. And the smallest "Lunatic" of all, their baby daughter, Kaia, had once thrown a tantrum in a toy store because she wanted the toy oven so very much.
"Procrastinating won't get this done any faster," she muttered under her breath before closing the short distance to the end of the bed. A complex piece of machinery, that bed featured a large computronic panel at the foot. Data about Atalina's motionless subject glowed quietly on that panel.
It had been updated thirty seconds earlier, the bed set up for constant monitoring.
It was also programmed to alert Atalina if anything changed beyond acceptable parameters, but Kaia's cousin was too meticulous a physician and scientist to put all her faith in technology. She did a manual check every hour except the six hours when she slept. And then, she had the feed going to an organizer beside her bed, with multiple types and levels of alerts built in.
It was a good thing her mate loved her so much.
Kaia scanned the data, saw nothing problematic. The subject was stable, but his neurological profile remained unchanged--Attie would be disappointed. The well-built male was still in as deep a comatose state as he'd been in when they'd transferred him to this facility. Technically speaking, Kaia and the others had kidnapped him--she'd been roped into the team of felons because Atalina couldn't move that fast right now and they'd needed someone with the necessary medico-scientific expertise to safeguard the subject.
A flicker on the screen.
Frowning, she looked more closely and spotted another blip in the graph that charted the subject's neural activity. The profile was changing at last. Though from what Kaia could see, the change was minor. Nothing that would instigate an alert to Atalina. Satisfied all was as it should be, Kaia made a couple of notes on the organizer Atalina had given her, then slipped the slim computronic device into the pocket built into her ankle-length sundress and moved to stand beside the bed.
Though that bed was designed to monitor every possible function, it remained good practice to physically check the status of a subject. After releasing the transparent "shell" around the subject's chest and lower body--a shell that protected and monitored at the same time--she made sure the sheet that covered him was undisturbed, then placed her fingers carefully on the inside of his wrist and began the quiet mental count of his pulse.
He might be human, might be the enemy, but right now, he was her responsibility.
His skin was surprisingly warm and healthy, though it looked to have lost its natural depth of color. She wondered absently what shade it became under sunlight. A deep golden-brown? More bronzed? The tawny color of that flowering plant she'd seen in the hydrogardens when she ducked in to grab a handful of fresh herbs?
Whatever shade it became, it was currently interrupted by hundreds of tiny "bugs" hooked into his system. Strangely adorable, the dull silver objects worked to ensure that the subject's muscles would remain strong and flexible despite his inactive state. The bugs were currently in the beta test phase but showed every sign of having surpassed their creator's initial targets.
Should Atalina's subject wake, he'd be capable of movement within a relatively short period.
Kaia's eyes went to his face.
He was pretty, she supposed--though the thought made her want to scowl. Square jaw, high cheekbones, tumbled black hair that made her fingers itch to touch. And an unexpected softness to his lower lip, as if his smile would be playfully sensual. She snorted inwardly. This was not a playful man. His reputation made it clear he was one of the most ruthless humans on the planet.
His pulse jumped under her fingertips.
Snapping her eyes to the machines around them, she saw sudden, dangerous spikes appear in front of her eyes. Everywhere. "Shit."
She broke contact with his wrist and took a single step toward the data panel to make sure it had shot an alert to Attie.
That was when Bowen Knight, Human Alliance security chief, and a pitiless man with a beautiful mouth, parted his lips and spoke.
Chapter 2
Kaia, if you don't put Mr. Puggles in his travel box, he'll get hurt feelings and think you don't want him to come with us.
--Iosef Luna to his only daughter, Kaia
THE LAST THING Bo remembered was smashing through the bridge wall and into the canal, the cold Venetian water closing over his head as his heart exploded in bloody shards inside him. He'd almost been able to feel the pieces of the bullet piercing and devastating the vital organ, had known he was a dead man.
He'd said something to Lily before he died. He'd told his sister to use his brain.
Maybe he wouldn't have said that if he'd realized he'd still be conscious while his brain was being chopped up.
"I am not chopping up your brain."
Bo frowned . . . Could a brain frown? And why was his brain talking back to him in such a coolly affronted tone of voice? Had it gone insane while being a disembodied brain in a jar that someone was experimenting on?
"And I'm not experimenting on your brain, either!" A long pause. "Someone else, however, is experimenting on it. But Attie needs your entire living brain for research, so you're safe from being sliced up."
For some reason, those words--spoken in a feminine voice as lyrical as it was husky--weren't very reassuring. Also, why was his brain suddenly replying in a woman's voice? Was that a side effect of getting shot and dying and having your brain scooped out to be put in a jar?
He'd really thought he could trust Lily to make certain he was actually dead when his brain was put into a jar. He'd have to have a serious chat with his sister when she made it to the afterlife. If he ever made it to the afterlife himself--because if he was stuck as a brain in a jar--
His foot jerked up hard before slamming back down to the bed. The reverberation pulsed up his entire body, disrupting his train of thought and making his shoulders jerk. Wait a minute. If he had shoulders, then he couldn't be a disembodied brain in a jar.
"That's what I've been trying to tell you," said the female voice that held an undertone of ice.
His breath kicked hard in his chest . . . No, that was his heart. But his heart had been fatally damaged, he was sure of it. Or maybe . . .
Things had been chaotic after the shooting, his memories a jumble of shocking pain entwined with raw fear for Lily. Maybe he'd gotten it wrong. Maybe his heart hadn't been destroyed after all.
But he knew. Bo was a security specialist; he understood weapons and he had zero doubts that what had gone into his chest had been a bullet designed to fra
gment and cause catastrophic damage.
Hearts didn't regenerate from that brutal an assault.
He shouldn't be feeling anything inside his chest, but he was, and he was having thoughts inside his head, which meant his brain hadn't exploded, either. Was it possible the medics had him on some sort of life support?
Yet he felt too alive to be nothing but a vegetable hooked up to a machine.
He needed to open his eyes. But he couldn't.
"Hold on a minute," the frost-kissed female voice said. "You have tape over your eyes."
A sliding sound, a new and breathless woman's voice saying, "He's awake?"
"Yes, and thinks he's a brain in a jar. Can I take the tape off his eyes?"
"Do it. I need to monitor his vitals as he rises. It's possible he might not make it all the way out." More huffed breaths. "This is incredible. I never expected this response. The compound clearly works on human neural tissue far more efficiently than it does on ours."
Bo wanted to scowl. He was right here. Could they please stop talking about him as if he couldn't hear them? And if they weren't human, where was he?
"I think you're speaking Italian now," said the one with the cool but throaty voice. "I only speak Hawaiian, Samoan, English, Japanese, and a bit of very bad Cantonese and French."
Bo felt a whisper of movement against his face, caught the edge of a lush scent that made him draw in a deeper breath. Some kind of exotic flower . . . and sugar. Cinnamon. He liked cinnamon.
"Good to know. But don't start thinking I'm going to bake you a cinnamon cake, Security Chief. I save that for friends."
Bo tried to settle his brain. But he kept on being distracted by the waves of luscious scent rippling across the air. That scent had nothing to do with the otherwise astringent smell all around him.
Hospital.
It was a hospital smell he'd been ignoring. Every single person in the world probably knew that smell. Whatever antiseptic they used to clean hospitals, it seemed to be the same regardless of location. Maybe they got a bulk discount.
Flowers and cinnamon whispering across his perception again.
A tug on the skin of his face near his eyes.
"I'm sorry"--an unexpectedly gentle touch, her fingers stroking back his hair--"the tape isn't meant to stick so hard."
"Here," the other woman said. "Use this to warm it up first. It's probably stuck because I used a new roll. Christ, his vitals are insane."
"Good or bad insane?"
"Phenomenally good."
"Permanent?"
"Unlikely. He could come up only to dive back down."
A sensation of warmth against his skin, then the tug again. "Keep still--moving your head's just making it harder."
