Page 173 of Eclipse Sector

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Then I jolted as that fog came at me, trying to fuss with my own sense of right and wrong.

I don’t think so,I thought at it, throwing up a mental wall to keep it from clouding my judgment.

Electricity zipped down my spine, the magic intensifying as the psychic energy demanded that my barrier crumble.

“Oh,” I breathed, my palm slamming against the wall as my knees threatened to buckle.

Cillian said something, but I couldn’t hear him, my mind fighting to protect itself from any and all intrusions.

Only one Alpha could make me submit, and he wasn’t the owner of this intrusive power. This manipulative cloud. This compulsive nonsense.

Back off,I growled at it, my mental barrier vibrating with resistance. Determination. An unwillingness to bow.

I gasped as the power hit me again, this time like a blade to my head, stirring an ache I felt to my very soul.

But my shield held.

It didn’t even crack.

Or had it?

I… I wasn’t sure.

The world felt dark.

Unfamiliar.

Cold.

Why am I so alone here?

I shivered, my eyes blinking into the inky night.What happened? Where am I?

Ivana!Cillian shouted, making me blink.

Cillian?

Fuck, Vana. Come back to me, macushla. Fight!

I frowned.Fight what?

But in the next instant, I felt it. That oppressive presence. The power that had blasted through my mental blocks, threatening to take control of my mind.No!

The black curtain fractured, then detonated into a pile of obsidian blocks.

And my sight returned.

I was still in the room with Quinn.

But she was trying to open the door again, her fingers flying over the panel keypad.

I caught her wrist, yanking her back just as a click sounded.

“Quinn!” I shouted, both aloud and in her mind. Then I shoved that damning fog from her thoughts once more and sent it right back to the owner.

To the culprit outside.

Only, it wasn’t who I expected.

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