Read The Far Shores (The Central Series) for Free Online Page A

the bag over your head. Bind your hands.”
    Anastasia nudged the bag
with the toe of her extraordinarily expensive burgundy shoes.
    “I think not. It would
not go with my outfit at all.”
    The shapes in the
darkness rustled impatiently, currents of motion and uncertainty running
through them as they wavered. Anastasia basked in the face of their collective
indecision.
    “We have been warned of
your Deviant Protocol. We have taken every precaution. Whatever the nature of
your abilities, we are more than capable of subduing you. We offer you a chance
to avoid...unpleasantness. I cannot promise good treatment or safe transport if
you do not surrender.”
    “How crude,” Anastasia
said coldly, leaning the tip of her parasol on the ground. “Do you actually
think you can defeat me? That would be a novel occurrence, would it not?”
    “We have been warned...”
    “Of what?” Anastasia
said crossly. “I am well-versed in the art of keeping secrets. If you knew what
I was capable of, you would not have come. It is hard to tell behind that mask
– who are you? Which cartel has come for my head this time? I prefer to know
the names of those who are about to die.”
    More uncertainty.
Anastasia could feel the Ether ripple as the empaths among them reinforced
their collective nerve.
    “This is your final
warning,” the man advised her, gesturing at the bag with the muzzle break of
his rifle. “I would advise you to consider your situation.”
    “Oh, I have, not to
worry,” Anastasia reassured him, adjusting her shawl to cover her neck from the
cold night wind. “All alone in an isolation field. No bodyguards...no
witnesses. Almost as if I planned it that way. Rather convenient, isn’t it, Vera?”
    She didn’t bother
talking to the man who had addressed her. He was just a mouthpiece. Anastasia
gave her attention to a girl near the back of the group, who shifted
uncomfortably as she stared.
    “Would you care to hear
the main difficulty with a Deviant Protocol, cousin-once-removed? It must be
kept secret, naturally – from the Auditors, and therefore everyone. This rather
sharply limits the usefulness of said protocol. Do you see my dilemma?”
    The girl made her
decision, pushing her way to the front of the crowd, pulling aside her mask as
she approached. Her hair was as black and long as Anastasia’s, but despite her
name, she favored their great-grandmother, with finely sculpted Han features
and skin the color of gently aged parchment.
    Anastasia could not help
but note, even in her moment of power, that Vera was almost six centimeters
taller. Not to mention the issue of her chest. Vera was only four years her
elder, but their appearance was decades apart.
    “You are rambling, Ana,”
Vera snapped, brown eyes livid with weaponized telepathy. Behind her one of the
men removed a glove and touched the ground, his skin rippling as it took on the
form of the concrete. The group was gradually closing around her, a spiral
becoming a closed circle. “You cannot be allowed to ascend. I cannot allow a deviant
at the helm of the Black Sun. Even if your father and brother have been cowed,
even if the honor of the Martynova Clan has been broken, I will stand against
you.”
    “Oh, don’t be foolish,”
Anastasia chided her cousin, planting her feet and waiting. The time was so close
that her hands trembled with anticipation. Her protocol slithered through the
recess of her mind like a predatory reptile. “The Black Sun belongs to me
already. Has the Elling Cartel suffered for it?”
    Vera’s hands twisted
through the routine needed to activate her protocol – according to Anastasia’s
memory, a variety of telepathic assaults that focused on trapping the target in
a nightmare memory loop – and advanced as she spoke, her troops following her.
Anastasia glanced at the distance, and decided to give it a moment more.
    “Are you certain you
won’t reconsider? It seems a shame to waste your talents...”
    “All