Justice-Psy Eleri Dias knows the end is near for her, her mind one step away from fatal psychic exposure. In the short time that remains, she is determined to atone for an act of omission that has haunted her for a long, cruel decade. But that decision not only means facing a powerful changeling wing leader, but also putting herself in the path of a serial killer.
Falcon
wing leader Adam Garrett is fiercely protective of his family and his clan.
After losing his parents as a teenager in a shocking act of malice, Adam has no
forgiveness in him for the J-Psy who betrayed him, betrayed them,
at the most painful moment of his life. But the evil that stalks his territory
will allow him no respite, forcing him once more into contact with the J he has
never been able to forget.
Everything
that could’ve been between Eleri and Adam was lost years ago, a shimmering
promise crushed. As they work to uncover a monster, the moment of reckoning
looms ever closer. Soon, there may be no more time left for either atonement…or
love…
Nancy’s Thoughts:
One of the pleasures of the Psy/Changeling universe is that it holds so many beings with so many different skills. The Psy have a variety of abilities, some valued more than others, and many of them two-edged swords. The Changelings come in a wide range of species, each with commensurate abilities. And the PsyNet, the interconnected psychic web the Psy need to survive, is deteriorating. All that makes rich ground to mine for stories.
In Atonement Sky, we get a close look at the J-class Psy and the price they pay for using their abilities in the justice system. When walking in the memories of serial killers and other criminals becomes too much for them, they undergo a reconditioning process that scrapes off a layer of their personalities. Each time, the procedure scrapes away another, deeper layer. Having undergone this reconditioning several times, Eleri no longer feels emotions. She believes that anything left of the woman she once was is so deeply buried that she’ll never access it. As most J-Psy do, she has planned to self-terminate before she loses the last shreds of her psionic shielding and is overwhelmed by the thoughts of everyone around her roaring into her skull. Before that happens, though, she wants to track down the serial killer known as the Sandman. That hunt brings her to Raintree, Arizona, home town of the WindHaven falcon changelings.
When Adam realizes she’s the newcomer in town, he confronts her. He demands to know whether she’s in Raintree in hopes that he might forgive her for not correcting her mentor’s lie at the trial of his parents’ accused murderer. That lie let the murderer go free and crushed the nascent mating attraction between Adam and Eleri.
She explains that she’s tracking the Sandman and believes he’s based in Raintree. No matter how he feels about her, Adam can’t take the chance that a serial killer is hiding in his hometown. He’s torn between wanting her and wanting to punish her, even to destroy her, for letting that injustice stand. Eleri’s flat manner contrasts with the warmth that drew him toward her before her mentor’s lie shattered any hope of anything between him.
Seeing Adam again, Eleri finds herself drawn to him despite her inability to touch the feelings she remembers having for him. Certain he will never forgive her, believing her time will run out soon, she vows to focus on the hunt that brought her to Raintree.
When one of Adam’s clanmates is shot and hovers so near death, frozen in mid-shift, powerful empaths cannot reach him. They do sense something in his mind, though, and his brain wave patterns show one unusual reading. Adam knows his friend, Jacques, doesn’t want to be kept alive on machines, but he can’t call an end to the treatment until Jacques is truly gone and not trapped in the depths of his mind.
Eleri agrees to try to help Jacques, and her willingness to risk herself and the fragile state of her shields helps break through Adam’s old anger. She pays a price for her efforts, and he gradually comes to realize the events at the trial were more complex than he knew. As he and Eleri spend time together, the old attraction between them flares, and understanding follows.
Changelings are family-oriented, and the family around Adam is loving and fun. Eleri also has a family, four longtime friends whose abilities are also rolling toward a point of no return. One, Bram, is particularly well drawn. So are Adam’s wing second, Dahlia, his sister, Saoirse, and Saoirse’s daughter, Malia. Eleri admires his dedication to clan and family.
There’s a delightful scene with Eleri and a very young fledgling, and the interactions between Bram and one of the falcons were both touching and fun. The characters are easy to root for and enjoy, and the plot moves at a good pace.
I enjoyed the beautiful, evocative descriptions of the southwest. The use different types of falcons and the culture of WindHaven were also engaging points in the story.
The deterioration of the PsyNet isn’t a major point in this book, but it is one in the overall arc of this series. Singh pulls that thread through without letting it disrupt the flow of the main story.
The serial killer plot is well constructed and logical. I could’ve done without the scene in the killer’s point of view, though. For me, it didn’t add anything to the story.
My other quibble with the book is a scene where four J-Psy whose shields have collapsed are in a single space with falcon changelings. Singh establishes early in the story that changeling shields mostly compensate for the lack of them in the J-Psy. I was baffled, though, as to how four Psy with no shields could be in close proximity without their unshielded minds crashing. After I thought about the nature of that space, I came up with what I think is the answer, which means the space affects telepathy in a way that wasn’t clearly established earlier. Wondering what was going on with that distracted me from the story. A sentence of explanation would’ve clarified that and let me stop wondering.
Despite the quibbles, I recommend this story highly.
4 Stars
~ Nancy
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