"Wendy. Her name's Wendy."

"Yes. I know. Don't worry, we'll take care of her. She has family who love her and will want her."

"She also has an ability she's barely aware of." Sarah reached out once more to gently touch the child's hair, then stepped back. "Protect her. Protect her gift."

"We will. And you watch your back, hear? You've got a dandy shield of your own, but if it's taking an effort to pretend you could belong here, Samuel or one of his so-called advisers could pick up on the fact that you're hiding more than a bit of doubt about the good reverend and his real agenda."

"Believe me, I know." Something cold was spreading through Sarah's body, and she took two more steps back, deliberately removing herself from the other woman's protective shield. "Tell Bishop and John that at least one of Samuel's closest advisers is a strong psychic. I've felt it. Not sure which one; there's nearly always a group of men around him."

"Maybe you were just picking up Samuel."

"No. With Samuel it's just the way it's always been, a null field. As if he isn't even there, at least psychically. No sense of personality, no aura, no energy signature at all."

"That's more than a shield."

"I know. I'm just not sure what it is. I've never sensed anything like it before."

Bailey shook her head. "I was really hoping that had changed or you'd learned to read him somehow."

"I've tried, believe me, every chance I've had. But nothing. He's literally shut inside himself."

"All the time?"

"Whenever I've been close enough to try to pick up something. But I'm not part of the inner circle or one of his chosen women."

"No, we haven't been able to get anyone that close."

"And I don't know if we ever will. That inner circle is incredibly protective of him. And whoever the psychic is he's got one hell of a shield, a readable one, so it's a given there's something powerful generating it. But I'm not sure what he can do, what his ability is. It could be anything. Tell them to be careful. Whoever else they send in needs to be careful."