Friends and Enemies (Gwen Farris Book 5) by P.S. Power Read Free Book Online Page A

her fiancée. She'd been horrible about doing that, only calling when Beth reminded her to do it, most of the time.
    Bethany did a way better job connecting with Martin Cordell, her own sweetie. If the former bigot mouthpiece could be called that. They were engaged, so it probably counted. Eventually they'd probably break up, which would be good. Martin was doing a lot better, but his history as an anti-Westmorland activist had to make for some tense holiday dinners, if they went through with it.
    The idea of making an item that could do the work of a rifter wasn't exactly a new one either. At first she'd figured that she was being brilliant, her non-magical upbringing letting her see things that these people had clearly missed. In her studies on the topic, once she had the files on it all, the secret ones that Ferdinand had given her himself, she'd learned that her brilliant plan had been tried for decades . No one else had mastered all the needed skills for it. Mainly because it probably wasn't possible. Not with the way the Westmorlands were trained.
    That was, she thought, the initial key. The part of things that Gwen Farris could do that no one else could. Not being a Westmorland, her training was different. It still hurt, but past a certain point she was going to have to cut that part out and just use raw willpower to get things done. She was going to have to be able to put all the parts of the thing together.
    Imprinting radiatives was a skill that took years of schooling to really learn to do well all on its own, and Gwen was going to need to master it. So was the basic skill of teletransport.
    The thing there was that being powerful at it wasn't going to help her much. It was being able to move in different directions at one time that she had to push for. That was really how rifting worked. If you tried to teletransport in three different directions, at exactly the same time, you'd rip a giant hole in space. Nature took care of the rest. That was the thing she had to master, and knew it. If she had that, Gwen would be able to get on with the rest of it.
    The trick there was that the Westmorlands learned to rift as a specific discipline, being trained in a way that only let them do it under orders. She needed to get around that part, somehow. Basically she had to beat the safety net, if it was all going to work.
    She sighed, and let her breathing come back to normal. One great thing about this world, there was nothing to do most of the time. That meant she worked out, and studied a lot, day to day. Gwen was in fantastic shape, which would let her do some of what she needed, hopefully.
    "Can we get Rhonda and Pete to heal me some more first? Then get... Mona in?"
    Gwen hated that old bitch, Mona. Loathed wasn't too harsh a word for how she felt toward the woman. In fact, there were standing orders for the lady to be physically removed from any place that Gwen was going to be, if it could be managed. Not that she had conscious plans to harm the woman, who was tiny, thin, and so wrinkled that it felt almost criminal for her not to be baking cookies. The fact was no one could guarantee that Gwen wasn't going to lash out at her anyway.
    Probably in fear. The old witch had hurt her. More than anyone in the entire world ever had. In two worlds, and that included beatings that had nearly killed her, and decades of surgeries.
    The thing there was that Mona, as hated as she was by Gwen, was needed. Someone had to get her to be willing to do the work needed, no matter how hard it was, and having someone else do it was just asking for her to hate, and fear, two people that much. Even thinking about her coming made Gwen feel physically ill. Like she was going to foul the floor right then and there.
    Pete raised his left hand, about six inches.
    "On it, Miss Farris. We should find some place for you to lay down. I can do a basic healing set. Really, Rhonda should go first, so that we make sure everything is going to knit right. This