Psy & Changelings 02 - Visions of Heat

continue this conversation in a more secure venue.” The mind blinked out and two of the others followed, probably going to a destination known to all three.
    Intrigued by what she’d heard, Faith let herself float through several other rooms, but nobody else was discussing such incendiary matters. However, it was as well that she’d been floating so seemingly without focus, because it became clear toward the end that she had two shadows. She tracked back through her mind and realized they’d been there from the start.
    She knew exactly who was responsible for setting them on her. Even in the supposed anonymity of the PsyNet, she was too valuable to be left alone. A kind of cold fury settled in her gut and it was so pure she could feel it burning her. And she didn’t care if that sounded like an emotional reaction.
    She returned to her mind in as straight a line as possible. The second she was back behind the walls of her psyche, she opened her eyes and considered her next move. Would it betray too much of the changes in her if she demanded privacy? Could she live knowing she’d never be let alone?
    No.
    Swallowing the things shoving at the walls of her conditioned Silence, she got up, gathered her hair into a sleek roll, and put on one of the flowing dresses she preferred to wear while forecasting. This one was a deep rust brown with spaghetti straps and a hem that skimmed her ankles. Even when the visions refused to let her go, her body at least felt free.
    Ready, she walked out into the living room and took her usual position in the chair. Monitoring would’ve begun the second she entered the living area, but now they’d be sitting up in expectation of a session. Instead, she threw up the strongest blocks she could imagine—she couldn’t stop the visions, but she could occasionally contain them for a time—and started reading a book.
    By the time she finished it two hours later, she knew they had to be getting impatient. She never used the chair for such mundane things. Then she picked up another book. Ten minutes later, her comm console chimed an incoming call. Using the remote, she flicked on the screen facing the chair.
    “Father.”
    The title was nothing more than a convenient way to refer to him. Anthony Kyriakus was a stranger to her except as the governing force of the PsyClan, no matter that it was half his blood that ran in her veins. “Faith, Medical has informed me of erratic behavior on your part.”
    Here it came, she thought, the request for a complete mental and physical workup. “Father, would you consider it a breach of your rights as a free citizen to be monitored on the PsyNet?” An ultimately logical question. “Or am I allowed to shadow you wherever you go?”
    Anthony’s brown eyes remained cool on-screen. “It was for your own protection.”
    “You didn’t answer my question.” She picked up her book again. “As it appears I cannot inform myself in private, I thought I should do it in public.” The most subtle of threats.
    “You’ve never shown any desire for complete isolation.”
    Isolation, not privacy. It was becoming crystal clear how they’d been herding her along a certain path her entire life. But he was right—she couldn’t show such a drastic change without some explanation. A flicker of memory from the Net gave her inspiration and if it came from the same part of her that showed her the visions, she chose to ignore that. “Perhaps an adult cardinal, one of the rare F designation, might possibly be interested in other opportunities . . . but those opportunities are highly unlikely to be offered to someone with a babysitter.”
    Understanding filtered so quickly into Anthony’s face that she was certain he’d already been thinking along those lines. “It’s a dangerous game. Only the strong survive.”
    “Which is why I can’t appear weak.”
    “Have you heard anything concrete?”
    “I’ll tell you when it’s time.” A blatant untruth because the time would never come, no matter what Anthony believed. The Council was hardly going to consider a cloistered foreseer as a possible member. But as far as reasons for privacy went, it was close to perfect.
    Something brutal and ugly shoved at the walls she’d set up against the visions and she knew she had to get out of here before it erupted and exposed her. Because the business visions were never this powerful, this aggressive. Putting down the book, she swung her legs over the side of the chair.