Inescapable (Talented Saga #7) (48 page)

Since I wasn’t sure whether Kip would need
to drink the concoction or inject it, I pocketed three syringes to
be safe. By the time I finished my felonious acts, Kip had joined
Emma by the front doors.

They were mid-argument when I slipped
outside.

“
You need me,” Emma was
saying. “Mt. Tipper is on Hoya land. If you’re caught—”

“
Which is why you need to
stay here,” Kip shot back.

“
I know this island better
than you do. You need me,” Emma repeated, stomping her foot
angrily.

“
I’m guessing Hoya is
another tribe?” I interrupted.

Both Kip and Emma turned, startled to find
me listening to their bickering.

“
Yes, it is,” Emma said
through gritted teeth. “And they aren’t one of the friendlier ones.
I am familiar with all of the trails on the mountain. I can make
sure no one catches us trespassing.”

Crap. This just got a whole lot
stickier.

I started having second thoughts about this
plan. Throwing caution to the wind, morphing, and braving the storm
seemed like the better way to go.

“
Jeb is our leader, Emma.
You are his daughter. If the Hoyas capture you,” Kip shook his
head, frustrated, “it would be really bad.”

Neither Emma nor Kip actually knew what
would happen if this other tribe captured us, but they were both
convinced the punishment would be severe. Great. Why was everything
so damned difficult?

“
Look guys, you don’t need
to do this. I can fly to London. I didn’t understand all the risks
involved when I asked you to take me originally.”

“
The famous Talia Lyons
shying away from a challenge. That goes against everything we
learned about you in school,” Kip said, the dare evident in his
tone.

“
Oh, I’m not worried about
me. I can take care of myself. It’s you guys I worry about.” I
hesitated. “I’m not even sure how safe you’ll be with me in London,
even if you drop me off and return immediately.”

“
That’s not an option. I
won’t be able to teleport again right away, too much energy
required. I’ll have to stay in London for, minimum, a couple of
hours. Really I’m thinking more like a day.” Kip waved off the
protest I was about to make. “Don’t worry. I won’t cramp your
style. You can go off and do your thing. I’ll lay low at a café,
maybe sightsee. I have always wanted to visit a big
city.”

And the twists just kept coming. I rounded
on Emma. “You should have told me that,” I said accusingly.

She shrugged. “You wouldn’t have agreed.”
Her voice had a hard edge, at odds with the desperation I felt from
her. “You don’t understand what it’s like here, Talia. We live in a
tiny, closed-off society. It’s downright primitive. We learn about
the ‘real world’ in school, but we never get the chance to be part
of it. Right now, the biggest thing in our history since the
discovery of the Talented is about to take place in London. And I
am stuck on this stupid island. I just want to experience life.
That’s why I told you about Kip in the first place. I knew you’d
want to utilize his abilities.”

Emma was way more manipulative than I’d
given her credit for, and not simply in the gifted sense.

“
We’re wasting time,” I
declared. “I know there is nothing I can say to make Emma stay
behind, either on the trip up to Mt. Tipper or the one to London.
So, I won’t waste my breath. If you have to stay in London for a
couple of hours, well, I guess that’s how it has to be. You will
stay with me, though. The city is extremely dangerous on a normal
day. This close to the vote, it will be suicide for you two to
wander around on your own. Those are my terms. No amendments, no
arguments.”

“
I’m in,” Kip said
instantly.

“
Me too,” Emma agreed, her
relief palpable.

“
Okay. Emma, lead the way,”
I said before I gave too much more thought to mess I’d made of
their lives.

“
There is one thing I need
to do first,” Emma said. She withdrew a folded piece of paper from
her jacket pocket. “I want to leave this note for my dad. So he’ll
know where I went. We can leave it in Andromeda’s healing cabin.
She’ll make sure he gets it.”

“
Yeah, okay,” I
agreed.

The detour took all of ten minutes, and then
we were off for Mt. Tipper.

The three of walked in silence. Emma and Kip
were annoyed with each other. Emma because she thought Kip was
treating her like a baby. Kip because he didn’t understand why Emma
couldn’t understand that he only wanted to keep her safe. I
filtered out their thoughts and tried to reach Erik yet again.

Unfortunately, the only thoughts in my head
were my own. And they weren’t comforting. I had yet to choose an
exact location in London for Kip to teleport us to. I didn’t know
the city well enough to select a secluded spot. Walburton Manor
would have been a good option, but it was too far from the actual
city. With Emma and Kip along, I couldn’t just morph and fly the
rest of the way. Victoria did have a bunch of hovers in her massive
garage. Knowing her, the vehicles were alarmed, and stealing one
would tip her off.

Just as I was wracking my memory for the
name of that shady pub where I’d met Riley, one of Kenly’s friends,
voices invaded my thoughts.

I grabbed ahold of Kip and Emma, who were
walking on either side of me. They stopped abruptly, and I held a
finger to my lips. In a voice barely above a whisper, I muttered,
“Guards. Three of them. Fifty yards ahead. Let me go first. I’ll
incapacitate them.”

My companions were skeptical, but they both
nodded their agreement.

Alone, I crept silently through the woods,
using the guards’ voices to guide me in the right direction. When I
had them in sight, I locked onto their minds and prepared to order
them to sleep.

“
Talia!”

The scream was both inside my head and
ringing in my ears. I whipped around in time to see six furry white
objects dragging two people between them. Emma stumbled and fell to
her knees. Kip reached for her, but one of the furry objects
slapped him hard across the face with a huge paw. The boy tripped
but recovered quickly, venom in his infuriated gaze when he met his
attacker’s eyes.

I snapped into action, sprinting towards
Emma, Kip, and their captors without any thought as to how I was
going to help. Instinct born from my years of training kicked in.
Using telekinesis, I ripped two heavy branches clean off of a tree
near Emma and the others. I brandished them like clubs, smacking
the two furry heads closest to my new friends. The captors released
their respective grips on Emma and Kip.

“
Run,” I screamed, still
barreling towards the action.

Kip hauled Emma to her feet and together
they headed in my direction. Behind me, the original three guards
I’d heard were yelling words in a language I didn’t speak. I
focused the tree branch weapons on the four people pursuing my
friends, smacking them to the ground and slowing their
advances.

“
Where’s the boost?” Kip
yelled, gasping for air.

“
My pocket,” I shouted
back.

“
Talia, behind you!” Emma
screamed.

Not bothering with makeshift weapons this
time, I sent the guards trying to sneak up on me flying with one
huge gust of power. I heard one moan and another curse as they
landed off in the distance.

Two of the guards chasing Emma and Kip were
on their feet again. When I went at them with my tree branches, the
smaller of the two waved a hand to deflect the blows. She, at least
I thought it was a woman, snarled and hissed jumbled insults. The
only ones I understand were my name.

How did she know my name?

Something small and pointy was suddenly
hurtling through the air, set on a collision course with my head. I
swatted at the object with my mind.

Knife
, I thought, as the object sailed harmlessly ten feet to my
right. The blade sunk into the bark up to the hilt.

Out of nowhere, dozens of voices were
thundering inside my head. Reinforcements, I realized with a stab
of fear. We were about to be seriously outnumbered, and I had a
feeling that Emma at least wasn’t a great fighter. I spared a
second to gauge the closeness of the newcomers. One hundred yards
and closing fast. Too fast. And not all of them were in human
form.

More sharp objects were winging towards me
from too many directions to count. I deflected them with my mind,
hating being on the defensive when the only way I was going to win
this battle was with a strong offense. Or, I could not play the
game. Which was what I’d decided to do.

I made a decision.

“
Take off your jacket,
Kip,” I shouted, already fumbling in my pocket for the booster and
syringe. I transferred the liquid to the hypodermic needle using my
mind, since performing the stunt manually while running wasn’t
feasible.

Kip didn’t hesitate. Feet still in motion,
he shed his outer layers until only a thin thermal shirt remained.
I sent a pointy object of my own catapulting through the woods. My
target: Kip’s arm.

Kip and Emma were approximately twenty feet
away from me when the syringe pierced his skin through the fabric
of his shirt. He clung to Emma with one hand and extended the other
towards me, but we were too far away for me to grab it just
yet.

All around us, the woods were crawling with
more Hoya tribesman in their white furry outfits. Arrows zipped
through the air. Spears whistled. Rifles cracked. I summoned all of
the power I could muster to halt the projectiles. Kip depressed the
syringe’s plunger, and then threw the needle aside.

“
Give me a location!” he
bellowed.

The name of that stupid pub finally surface,
and I blurted it out. “Pink Giraffe.”

Picturing the pub in my mind, I sent the
images to Kip. I had no idea how his gift worked, but it was the
only idea I had.

We were still five feet apart. So close. And
yet so far.

The barrage of pointy objects was still
converging on us. My strength was waning. I wasn’t going to be able
to hold them off much longer. In one last-ditch effort for
salvation, I sent a tsunami of power downward. The ground quaked
violently. I dove for Kip and Emma. My fingers closed around Kip’s
ankle as the earth beneath me split in two.

The Privileged

Besançon, France

Two Days Before the Vote

“
What’s happening? What
did you guys do?” Lyla’s frantic shouts from the level two
observation deck were barely audible over the screeching siren
filling the cavern.

Hands over her ears, Cressa tried to dampen
the noise, to no avail. Both Daphne and Hartley were wide-eyed and
terrified.

“
Breach in the Observation
Catacomb. Breach in the Observation Catacomb. All available
personnel, please respond immediately. Breach in the Observation
Catacomb. Breach in the Observation Catacomb.” The message played
on repeat, the pleasant female voice at odds with the high-pitched
shrieking of the alarm.

“
Run!” Cressa screamed to
Daphne and Hartley.

Without waiting for a response, she sprinted
for the staircase. When Cressa reached the landing, she saw the
twins and the Jacobs were already on the move. Taking the stairs
two at a time, she reached the first floor landing before checking
behind her to see if Hartley and Daphne were following. Hartley
nearly collided with Cressa when she abruptly stopped. Daphne, who
had much shorter legs, had yet to reach the second flight of
steps.

“
Save yourself,” Hartley
shouted as he sped by Cressa.

Shooting furtive glances between Daphne and
the entranceway, where Shyla’s ponytail was disappearing through
the opening, Cressa was torn. Daphne was obviously the weak link,
and would probably slow Cressa down. Still, she couldn’t leave the
younger girl behind, even if it meant being caught herself.

“
Come on, Daphne! We need
to hurry,” Cressa called.

Still halfway between the first and second
floor landings, Daphne leapt, attempting to take the remaining
steps all at once. Her back foot left the stair at an odd angle,
causing her ankle to twist. The little canary smacked the handrail
with her hip. In horror, Cressa watched Daphne tumble over the side
of the staircase, as if in slow motion.

“
Daphne!” Cressa shrieked
the girl’s name as she ran to the edge of the landing.

Like a rag doll, Daphne somersaulted
ungracefully through the air, screaming like a banshee.