Inescapable (Talented Saga #7) (36 page)

“
Yes, but there are no
rules, no laws in the free lands. If something had happened to you,
I wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it. There is no
recourse for misdeeds committed in the free lands.”

The room grew quiet, the air heavy with the
tension between father and daughter. Curious to know where I was
and what mess I’d stumbled into, I opened my eyes. The man and the
girl were standing in the middle of the room glaring at one
another. His arms were crossed over his chest. The visible half of
the father’s expression appeared disapproving and paternal in the
lantern light.

Emma was over a head shorter than her
father. She too had her arms crossed over her chest and an
expression that matched her father’s.

“
You’re awake!” someone
exclaimed.

Neither Emma nor her father had glanced in
my direction, until the speaker, a small boy sitting in the corner,
started pointing towards the cot excitedly. Both father and
daughter turned.

“
Hi,” I said uneasily. “Um,
my name’s Talia.” Struggling with the heavy blankets, I tried to
sit up, but found someone had tucked me in so slightly that my body
was practically pinned to the cot.

All three people—Emma, her father, and the
boy—continued to stare at me as though I was a green-skinned alien.
The boy recovered first. He grinned and waved.

“
I’m called Ross,” he told
me. Then, pointing first to the girl and then the man, he added,
“That’s my sister Emma, and our father Jeb.” Ross’s deeply tanned
face turned thoughtful. “What were you doing on the beach naked?
Temperature’s well below freezing this time of year. Don’t you know
you could’ve died? You almost
did
die. But Andromeda made sure you
didn’t.”

“
It’s a long story,” I
replied vaguely. Finally managing to extricate myself from the
blankets, I shifted into a sitting position. That was when I
realized that I was still naked. I pulled the blankets up around my
shoulders, repositioning my body so that my back was against the
wall.

“
What’s your tribe, girl?”
Jeb demanded, not looking nearly as pleased to see me as his
son.

“
Tribe?” I
repeated.

Emma moved closer to the cot. Her father
grabbed her arm to hold her back. She shook him off and came to sit
on the edge of the hard mattress. Eyes so dark blue they appeared
almost black studied me intently. Self-consciously, I brushed
tangled curls back from face, tucking the knotted strands behind my
ears.

Up close, I noticed smudges of green paint
beneath Emma’s eyes. A hazy memory floated to the surface of my
mind. The creature that had carried me had also had green paint on
its face.

“
You brought me here,
didn’t you?” I asked Emma, giving her the same scrutinizing
appraisal she was giving me. The girl was tall, thin, and wiry. I
guessed her age to be around fourteen or fifteen.

“
What’s your tribe?” Jeb
repeated.

“
Yes,” Emma said in answer
to my question, ignoring her father’s mounting
agitation.

“
You must be stronger than
you look,” I told Emma, also ignoring her father.

“
That makes two of us.”
Emma grinned.

It took me a moment to realize she wasn’t
referring to my physical strength. Emma, like Erik and me, had the
ability to sense other Talents and their strengths.

“
Damn it, girl. Tell us
where you belong so we can send you back,” Jeb hollered, striding
forward to tower over his daughter’s shoulder.

“
Come on, Dad, can’t you
see she isn’t from here?” Ross interjected. He stood and joined his
father. All three family members were staring at me as though I was
the newest attraction at the zoo. Gesturing in my direction, Ross
added, “Look at her. That skin’s too pale to have seen the sun
lately. It’s smooth, too.” He pointed to where my hands were
clutching the blankets beneath my chin. “She doesn’t even have
callouses.”

Apparently spurred on by
her brother’s appraisal of my appearance, Emma chimed in. “Yeah and
she’s got paint on her toes, they’re
purple
.”

The look of awe and jealousy Emma gave me
was almost comical and definitely a little unnerving.
Automatically, I crossed my legs and curled my toes underneath my
knees to hide them, even though several blankets stood between them
and Emma’s and Ross’s curious gazes.

“
No scars on her body
either,” Emma added, reminding me uncomfortably that she had
firsthand knowledge of that fact.

I pulled the blankets tighter around me.
“Where am I?” I asked the question burning a hole in my mind.

As though I hadn’t spoken, Jeb demanded to
know: “Are you from the mainland?” Though his tone wasn’t nearly as
harsh as it had been earlier.

“
Obviously she is, Dad,”
Ross answered for me.

Still, Jeb stared expectantly, unwillingly
to believe his son unless I confirmed his words.

I swallowed hard and debated how much to
tell them. I considered insisting I would only answer their
questions once they’d answered mine, but figured outnumbered and
naked on foreign land gave me very little bargaining power. Using
my talents to pull the answers I wanted from their heads also
crossed my mind. That too seemed like a bad idea. Emma, at least,
knew I was gifted and might feel me invade her mind, which had the
potential to turn the closest thing I had to an ally into an
enemy.

“
Sort of,” I admitted
finally. “I’m not from here, if that’s what you’re really asking. I
sort of crashed here. There was this storm and lightning hit my
wing—that’s the last thing I remember. Then, your daughter,” I
nodded to Emma, “found me and brought me here.”

Jeb rested one hand on Emma’s shoulder and
glared down at me from his impressive height. I felt like a child
caught telling a fantastical tale to get out of trouble.

“
Planes can’t fly over
Pelia. Even if they could, our scavengers found no wreckage washed
up on the beach. So you want to tell me the real story of how you
came to be here.”

At least he finally
believes I’m not from some rival tribe or whatever,
I thought.

I ran my tongue over my cracked lips,
stalling for time as I, once again, debated my options. The truth
was complicated. Given that the current global climate was
decidedly chilly where Talents were concerned, the truth was also
potentially dangerous. The people I knew who were sensitive to
Talents were all Talented themselves. Meaning Emma was likely
Talented. Then again, half of my life had been spent exclusively in
the company of other Talents. Norms could feel my kind; it was just
rare for them to understand why they felt either a draw towards
someone like me, or an overwhelming urge to run for the hills when
I was nearby.

No matter what, I decided against divulging
the whole escaped convict thing. That would definitely come across
badly.

“
You can shape shift, can’t
you?” Emma asked kindly.

It wasn’t really a question. Her expression
made it obvious she already knew that I could.

“
And when you say lightning
hit your wing, you mean a bird wing, right? Andromeda treated your
arm for a pretty severe burn.”

I pulled my arms from beneath the covers and
examined the skin on both forearms. A pink patch of shiny, tender
skin started just below my elbow and extended several inches
towards my wrist.

“
She makes really good
herbal creams,” Emma explained. “You’ll be good as new in another
couple of hours.”

“
Is this true?” the father
asked. “Can you change forms?”

I nodded. “Emma is right. I did fly here as
a bird. Well, I was aiming for England, but got a little of course
with the storm.”

“
A lot of course,” Ross
snorted.

I was about to ask just how far off I’d
veered, when the father spoke again.

“
What else can you do?”
Suspicion poured off of him, but the accusatory tone was gone. “If
I’m going to have you in my house with my children I need to know
what all you’re cable of.”

I caught Emma’s gaze out of the corner of my
eye. She was shaking her head subtly.

“
Nothing. I’m just a
Morpher,” I said. Seeing three confused expressions, I explained,
“That’s what we call people who can shape shift where I come
from.”

The father nodded slowly. “Okay. Then I
suppose you can stay with us for the time being.”

“
Wait, what? No. I don’t
want to stay here. I need to…”

Needed to what? Hurry up and get back to
civilization where I was wanted by an international organization?
Make a mad dash for London to meet up with another fugitive? Return
to the world so that I could die?

Be with Erik.

That was what I truly wanted. But as long as
UNITED had their tentacles wrapped around Erik, that wasn’t a
viable option.

“
I need to get to London,”
I finished lamely. “My friend is expecting me.”

The lie wasn’t even convincing to my own
ears.

Jeb stared at me thoughtfully for several
moments past comfortable. I thought maybe he expected me to cower,
or at least look away under his scrutinizing gaze. If so, he’d
misjudged me.

“
Storms are bad this time
of year. Another one is just around the corner.” He shrugged
noncommittally. “Once it passes, you might have a few days window
where you could fly out. Now, why don’t you get dressed and Emma
and Ross can show you around, help you get the lay of the
land.”

A few days? I couldn’t stay in the frozen
tundra for a few days.

Why not?
A voice inside my head wanted to know. An iceberg
in the middle of nowhere was probably the safest hiding place
possible.

“
You can borrow some of my
clothes,” Emma added quickly, pulling me from my mental
debate.

Ross, who was both younger and significantly
shorter than his sister, was more likely to have clothes that fit
me, but he didn’t offer.

“
Sure, thanks,” I said,
forcing myself to return Emma’s dazzling smile.

Though I had no intention of staying longer
than absolutely necessary, I figured a tour of my temporary digs
was as good a way to pass the time as any. Besides, I was
incredibly curious about the island. At least, I assumed I was on
an island.

Twenty minutes later, body sore and achy, I
was dressed in the odd assortment of garments Emma had pulled from
her closet. Between the mismatched and heavily patched thermal
leggings and shirt, fur-lined brown leather pants and vest, and
down-filled overcoat, I was roasting as I laced up well-worn boots
and slipped my hands into soft gloves.

“
Ready?” Emma asked once I
was dressed.

“
If the temperature outside
is thirty below, then yes, I’m ready,” I replied.

Ross grinned. “Closer to fifty below.”

When we exited the tent, I quickly learned
that he wasn’t joking. Maybe exaggerating slightly. But it really
was frigid.

It turned out the place I’d been recovering
was a medical hut—sort of. The woman, Andromeda, who had cared for
me wasn’t a doctor or nurse, but rather one of the village
healers.

“
She can cure any illness,
mend all broken bones, and fix any ailment. She’s truly a genius,”
Emma told me as we departed on our tour. “It’s thanks to her that
you still have all of your fingers and toes. Frostbite was starting
to set in when I found you.”

A genius? Or
Talented?
I wondered. Healing wasn’t a
modern ability, but the first generation of Talented children born
after the Great Contamination had exhibited a much wider range of
talents than those of us living now.

I decided not to voice my question just yet.
I wanted to get a better read on the situation first, just in case
Emma and her family were part of some anti-Talent cult. Jeb had
repeatedly demanded to know my ‘tribe’ after all.

Outside the healing cabin, snow covered the
ground in a fluffy white blanket that glimmered prettily in the
sunlight. Icicles were suspended from bare tree branches, dripping
frigid water from their spiky ends.

“
It’s so beautiful here,” I
said honestly.

Ross and Emma exchanged knowing grins.

“
What?” I asked. “You don’t
agree?”

“
Mainlanders always think
snow is pretty,” Emma explained.

“
Yeah, just wait ‘til
you’ve been here awhile. It gets old fast,” Ross added.

I didn’t bother correcting his assumption
that I’d be there for awhile. As soon as the next storm passed, I
was off.

“
Do you get a lot of, um,
mainlanders?” I asked Emma as we followed a stone path through a
small group of huts similar to the one where Andromeda had nursed
me back to health.

She shrugged her shoulders. “A few.” Then,
as if picking up on the nervous energy swirling inside of me, she
added, “Never this time of year, though. Ocean is too rough for
boat travel, and the storms are too bad for a hover to fly anywhere
close to here.”

“
Even so, hovers can’t fly
over Pelia,” Ross interjected, echoing a statement his father had
made earlier.

“
Why is that exactly?” I
asked.

Ross was walking several steps in front of
me and turned so that I could see his ruddy red cheeks peeking out
from the circle of white fur lining his coat’s hood.