Talent For Trouble Read Free

serious look on his handsome face. “When you’re better, the Council would like to question you.”
    “I expected as much. I don’t remember a lot, but I will freely give what information I can.”
    “I told them that would be your answer, but you will face some skeptics. Be prepared for a little hostility. Some of them see you as an enemy, and it will take time to make them understand just how fully you were under the collective’s control.” His gaze hardened. “But they need to know, Jana. For that reason alone, it’s important that you submit to their questions. They don’t understand our enemy, and that could be a fatal mistake. They need to know how the collective operates and why you and those few ship captains took the chance to defect when Jeri and Micah shattered your control crystal.”
     
    Just the mention of the huge blue gem that was now splintered and embedded in her skin made her shiver. Darak saw the fear coursing through her and stepped forward, but he didn’t dare take her in his arms again. That way lay madness. He couldn’t hold her without wanting to have her in every way a man could have a woman. He wanted her in his bed, in his home, in his life. And that thought was truly scary.
    “Jana, I’ve been thinking long and hard about those jewels you wear so prettily.” His voice was deliberately coaxing. “The Wizards used the larger stone to control you and the other ship captains. But what if you learned how to use the crystal shards in your skin to focus your own Talent against the collective?”
    He sensed she was considering his words. He’d gotten her attention. Now, he just had to get her mind working on the problem.
    “Do you think it can be done?” he asked, drawing her gaze.
    “I don’t know. But it’s an interesting thought.”
    “Those who live on Council worlds don’t use stones to focus our Talent. In fact, we’ve never seen anything like the shards the Council has been analyzing. The ones I was able to get out of your skin. Do you know where the crystal is from?”
    “I have no idea. But I do remember that we feared the blue stones and the Wizards that wielded them, even as children. They are the mark of a high-level Wizard, and they were the ones that would come and take children away from their parents.”
    “If I’m right and the crystal connected you to the collective while you were so far out of their home range, then it’s possible that targeting the crystals of other Wizards will also put them out of commission.”
    “Except for the fact that the psi wave released when Jeri and Micah shattered my crystal almost killed me and would have burned every Talent within a parsec of the blast had Jeri and Micah not been there. Only their shielding allowed everyone to live through that unharmed.”
    “Unharmed, perhaps.” An ironic smile lifted the corner of his sensual mouth. “But not unchanged.”
    “That’s when you rose from Dominar to Master Mage, right? You skipped right over one of your Council’s highest rankings, as did the other people on your ship, Jeri told me.”
    “And we haven’t completely figured out what it did to you, yet. Aside from your new, all-too-permanent jewelry, that is.”
    “I’ve been too wrung out emotionally, physically and psychically, to even attempt to use my Talent. I don’t even know if it’s still there.”
    “Oh, it’s there all right.” Darak grinned at her. “I can feel it snapping along my nerve endings. It’s there, and it’s strong. Never fear.”
    “But, without direction of the collective, I’m basically untrained. The healers here have warned me not to try focusing on anything until I’m fully healed and they can arrange a base-level test and some strong shielding.”
    “I think Jeri wants to be with you when that starts. Micah, as well. Their honeymoon is nearly over, so they can be with you when you’re ready to try again.”
    Darak noticed the way Jana stiffened at the mention of her sister,