Heart of Obsidian

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Synopsis

Kaleb Krycheck was abandoned by his parents and raised by a brutal serial killer who left his mark on this brilliant and powerful Psy, who rose to the rank of Councilor at a young age. The only bright spot in his life was his friendship with Sahara, a girl six years his junior. But then his adopted father kidnapped and tortured her to gain Kaleb's cooperation in his sick games. The man intended to kill Sahara as well, but opted to simply tuck her away in a place where no one could find her, including Kaleb. That didn't stop Kaleb, though, and after seven long years, his search is finally over. He's rescued Sahara from her physical prison, but her mind is a tangled web that she put in place in order to survive the torture she was subjected to. Now she doesn't recall Kaleb or the role he thinks he played in her ending up there. As he works to help her regain her memories, Kaleb knows he cannot live without Sahara, but he also doesn't think he's capable of love and fears what she will do when she finally does remember. Meanwhile Pure Psy is ramping up their attacks on innocent civilians in their efforts to terrorize the Psy into maintaining Silence at all costs. Knowing that's a foolhardy plan, Kaleb has been diligently working to shore up the PsyNet before complete disaster strikes, killing all Psy in existence.

Unlike many Psy children, Sahara Kyriakus was cared for by her father, who always saw her as much more than the product of a reproduction contract. He knew from the time she was young that she had trouble maintaining Silence and that she had a very unique ability, so rare that the Psy don't even have a designation for it, so he protected her. Sahara met Kaleb when they were children and they became the best of friends with their relationship growing into something more by the time she was sixteen. But that's when she was kidnapped and imprisoned by Kaleb's father. To survive, she created an elaborate labyrinth within her mind to hide herself and her memories of Kaleb, so that when he finally rescues her, she doesn't remember him. Although she senses that Kaleb is a dangerous man, her instincts tell her that she can trust him when he says he'd never hurt her. The couple slowly rebuild their bond and gradually Sahara's memories return. But with Pure Psy presenting a major threat to everyone on the planet and the PsyNet's degradation threatening the existence of all Psy, Kaleb increasingly becomes involved in dealing with both, sometimes in seemingly ruthless ways. Through it all, though, Sahara becomes his moral compass and a voice of reason, keeping him on the right path, but what will happen to them when she finally recalls the last piece of the puzzle regarding the night she was abducted.

Review

Heart of Obsidian is the twelfth book in Nalini Singh's Psy-Changeling series. For the past seven years, former Psy Councilor Kaleb Krychek has been searching for Sahara Kyriakus, the only person who has ever cared for him. She was taken captive by his father-figure and former mentor, Santano Enrique, who turned out to be a brutal serial killer, and after scouring the PsyNet for all that time, Kaleb has finally located her and helped her escape. However, she's built a tangled psychic labyrinth in her mind to protect herself from the torture she endured. She has significant gaps in her memory and doesn't really recall Kaleb, although her body and some part of her mind seem to remember him enough to be oddly comfortable with him. While Sahara tries to unravel her past and figure out what this man means to her, Kaleb, a powerful dual cardinal telekinetic/telepath, is busy trying to save the PsyNet and and his entire race, who rely on it for the psychic feedback that's essential to their lives. He's decided that in order to accomplish that, Silence, the conditioning protocol that renders all Psy emotionless, must fall, but he's in a battle with Pure Psy, an extremist group who believes that Silence must be preserved at all costs even though it has caused a rot at the core of the PsyNet that will destroy it. Pure Psy has been ramping up their attacks on major targets, resulting in the deaths of many people, which leaves Kaleb and the Arrows in a race against time to find their leader and end their reign of terror. Meanwhile, Sahara, a powerful Psy in her own right with a very unique ability, is gradually regaining her memories. Kaleb is slowly reconnecting with her and knows he can't live without her, but he fears what might happen when she finally recalls the night she was abducted and his role in that.

Kaleb was abandoned by his parents, who turned him over to the care of Santano Enrique at the age of three. Enrique both raised and mentored him, abusing him in brutal ways, sometimes physical, but mostly on the psychic plane where he exercised ruthless control, often forcing Kaleb to watch his kills and sometimes to participate as well. The only bright spot in Kaleb's life was Sahara, whom he met when he was thirteen and she was seven. The little girl, who had difficulty with her Silence conditioning, was a ray of sunshine in his dark, dangerous life, and became the only person who ever showed him any kindness or compassion. The two continued to meet covertly until she was sixteen, at which point, Enrique kidnapped and tortured her, then whisked her away to be held captive. Although Enrique is long dead, he had an accomplice, so it's taken Kaleb seven long years to find Sahara. Now that he has her back, he's determined to never let her go again, but she doesn't remember him, and he fears how she might feel about him once she does. In between taking care of Sahara and helping her recover her memories, Kaleb finds himself in a fight against Pure Psy for the health and survival of the PsyNet and all their people.

Throughout the series to this point, Kaleb has been an intriguing character, although I haven't always known how to feel about him. He definitely falls into the anti-hero category, and I'm not typically a huge fan of anti-heroes. Sometimes he's been brutal and ruthless, both in his quest for power and also his quest to recover Sahara. However, he was also sometimes on the right side of things, usually more so under the guise of his secret identity, which I'd suspected for a while, but didn't discover for sure until this book. Still mostly mired in Silence, Kaleb can be a little cold at the beginning, but the longer he's with Sahara, the more the icy veneer starts to melt. He admits that she was always the one crack in his Silence, but one that he didn't want to shore up. He doesn't think that he's capable of love or even fully understands the concept, but he shows his love for her in every word and deed. The way he drops everything to come when she needs him, the way that he keeps his promise never to harm her, the beautiful charm bracelet that he gives her that bears so much meaning, his passionate desire that he shares with her, and so many other little things, all express the feelings that he can't yet verbalize. Also the way that he pushes himself like a machine to help care for the survivors in the wake of the Pure Psy attacks show that he still has goodness in him, in spite of Enrique's brutality. So in the end, I thought Kaleb was a superbly drawn hero, and I did like and relate to him a lot more than I thought I would.

Sahara comes from the Kyriakus family, who are mostly foreseers. However, her ability is a lower gradient backsight combined with a very unique and powerful ability that's so rare it doesn't even have a Psy designation. Her father always showed her that she was far more than the product of a reproductive contract to him, so when her abilities started to emerge and she had difficulty with Silence, he kept her protected. Sahara met Kaleb at the age of seven, when Enrique brought him along for a business meeting with her uncle. Afterward Kaleb continued to secretly teleport in to see her. For years, he was like a big brother or best friend to her, but as she grew older, her feelings for him developed into something more and she knew that he felt the same. But at the age of sixteen, she was kidnapped by Enrique, and later held captive by an accomplice and tortured for the past seven years until Kaleb finally freed her. During that time, she created the elaborate labyrinth in her mind with her memories of Kaleb at the center. Although she doesn't remember him, she somehow instinctively knows she can trust him and that he meant something to her in the past. As she slowly unravels her memories, Sahara falls deeper and deeper in love with him. She becomes his conscience and a voice of reason whenever he's teetering on the edge of violence. She's also a strong and powerful Psy in her own right, and I greatly appreciated her moral and ethical take on her own powers. Strangely enough it's something I've mulled over myself a time or two, so it was really fun having it be part of a story I enjoyed. I additionally admired her strength to have gone through all that she had and still survive.

Heart of Obsidian is a pivotal book in the Psy-Changeling series and one of the absolute best so far. Both Kaleb and Sahara come from deeply tortured backgrounds that would have easily killed lesser people, but because of each other, they had the strength of will to survive it all. I love Kaleb's single-minded determination to find Sahara. She's the only person who's ever mattered to him, and it really shows in his care and concern for her. He's loyal to a fault, but only to her, and he respects her and understands that she makes him a better person. Sahara is totally committed to Kaleb and almost equally as possessive of him as he is of her. She's sweetness wrapped in steely determination, and even though she doesn't remember him at first, it's her love for Kaleb that helped her get through her captivity. These two are perfect for each other, and their love is apparent in virtually everything they do. Their love scenes are deliciously steamy, while also expressing their deep emotional connection. They both might start out virgins but they embrace their sensual sides and give generously of themselves to one another. A large part of the book is about these two building their relationship, mostly apart from the rest of the world, but that doesn't mean that the author skimped on anything else. There's a decent amount of suspense as Pure Psy ramps up their attacks, and Kaleb tries to end Silence and save the PsyNet. We do see a little of other series characters, but the only other POV we get this time around is pretty much Aden's (Shards of Hope) as he and his partner, Vasic (Shield of Winter), help out a lot in the wake of Pure Psy's attacks, and the Arrows must decide if they're going to back up Kaleb. These two intrigue me, so I look forward to reading their books, which are the next two full-length novels in the series. Overall, Heart of Obsidian was a fantastic story that was a pleasure to read. Some major changes occur by the end, so I'll be eager to see what happens next moving forward.

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Nalini Singh

Themes

Amnesia
Friends Before Lovers
Reunion Stories
Tortured Heroes
Tortured Heroines
Virgin Heroes