Inescapable (Talented Saga #7) (38 page)

Erik.

That damned squid was the same beautiful
shade of sea green as my boyfriend’s eyes. Once again, I cast out
my mental net, calling his name.

“
Erik? Can you hear
me?”

“
Tal…cutoff.
Something…weird going on.”

Just like before, the reception was fuzzy,
with bursts of static overpowering some of Erik’s words. Never one
to give up without a fight, I tried again.

“
Safe. I am safe,”
I sent. I repeated the phrase over and over again
in my mind, praying the simple message would get through to him. I
didn’t want Erik worrying about me.

A hand came to rest on my arm.

“
Talia? Are you okay?” Emma
asked.

The white noise, as well as Erik’s garbled
words, ceased abruptly. I sighed, annoyed and despondent. What was
it about this damned island that made mental communication so
difficult? Was it too much to ask for a couple of minutes of
uninterrupted conversation with my boyfriend? Just enough to let
him know that I was alive and well.

I shook my head to clear thoughts of Erik.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I assured Emma. “I just spaced for a minute.”

She studied me closely for several long
moments. “Okay. If you’re sure. We can always go back if you’re
tired.”

“
No. I’m fine, really.” I
smiled. “Promise. We can stay.”

“
Good,” Ross interjected.
“You definitely don’t want to miss this.” He pointed to the line of
fisherman standing at the cliff’s edge.

To distract myself, I directed my gaze to
the fisherman. I watched as one of the fishing lines went taut. The
woman manning the pole struggled to reel in the line, the thin
shimmer of rope bucking and twisting as the two opponents at either
end fought mightily to win the game of tug-o-war.

“
A little help here!” the
woman shouted to no one in particular.

The man standing beside her rounded his pole
and leapt effortlessly over the side of the bluff, disappearing
from view. I gasped but no one else seemed the least bit phased.
They all continued on with their individual tasks with little more
than a glance towards the roaring ocean.

“
It’s not a far drop,” Emma
assured me. “And the water’s calm here.” She pointed to the left,
to a point far off in the distance where the bluff jutted out into
the ocean. Then she drew an invisible line in the air with her
finger that traced the curve of the rock face, ending at another
sliver of land on the right that also extended fairly far out into
the ocean. “The cove keeps the wind back.”

A moment later, the man who’d jumped into
the water scrambled back up over the bluff nimbly, a knife clutched
in one of his gloved hands. Both the knife and his rubber glove
glistened red with blood.

“
Pull ‘er up, Dot,” he told
the fisherwoman.

Dot reeled in a now lifeless emerald green
fish with curved horns like a ram and two pointy fins protruding
from its back. It was enormous, easily longer than I was tall and
probably weighed twice as much. But now that the fish was unable to
fight back, the fisherwoman had no problem hauling it over the edge
all by herself.

“
Ohhh, a horned tuna!” Emma
exclaimed knowledgeably. “They’re hard to catch but so worth it. I
better tell Dad to get down to the butcher shop first thing to get
a few pounds.”

“
Is that thing safe to
eat?” I asked.

“
The horned tuna? Of
course. Why wouldn’t it be?” Emma replied with a laugh.

I shrugged, feeling stupid. “I don’t know. I
mean, we eat fish where I come from. But they don’t have horns or
compete in the synchronized spelling bee.”

“
Well, we eat all types of
sea creatures here. That tuna isn’t even the strangest looking fish
you’ll see at the butcher shop,” Emma told me.

I was doubly glad that I hadn’t inquired
about the meat on stick we’d eaten for lunch. In life, it had
probably had pink skin and antlers or eight eyes and a spiked tail.
The thought gave me chills.

We returned to the village with the sun
still high in the sky, though it had to have been fairly late in
the day. On the walk, Ross told me all about how he was an
apprentice hunter and usually spent his days learning to trap and
kill a slew of animals I’d never heard of for food and
clothing.

“
Have you ever been
hunting?” Ross asked me.

I smiled wryly. “Yeah, you could say
that.”

“
What’s the largest animal
you ever caught?” he challenged, as though he didn’t believe
me.

Before I could find a delicate way to
explain my hunting experiences had all been a lot less noble than
his, Emma interjected, “Stop pestering her, Ross.”

The young boy’s face fell at his sister’s
rebuke. But, as I was quickly learning, Ross wasn’t one to stay
down long. His smile returned as fast as it had vanished.

“
You want to see something
really cool?” he asked, a mischievous twinkle in his dark eyes that
reminded with a pang of the one Erik wore when he was about to
suggest something naughty or overtly sexual.

Since Ross was only eleven—a fact he’d
proudly announced when telling me about his apprenticeship—I
doubted he was about to make a lewd comment.

“
Is it as cool as the
frozen fish ponds?” I asked, trying to match his enthusiasm, but
failing miserably now that Erik was once again in the forefront of
my thoughts.

As the day wore on, it seemed as though more
and more things reminded me of Erik. I had to speak with him again.
Like really talk to him. The brief snippets that broke through
whatever barrier was interrupting our mental communication channel
were not sufficient. I wanted him to know I was headed to London,
eventually anyway. And I wanted to make sure Anya had made it to
safety. Since they’d hatched the elaborate escape plan together,
Erik must have known her final destination and a way to contact
her.

“
Oh, way cooler. Like
tripod cryptid cool,” Ross answered solemnly, pulling me once again
back to the present.

“
Ross
,” Emma warned, his name sounding like a hiss when it left
her lips.

Ross stared at his feet, pretending to be
appropriately abashed. But I caught the smirk he couldn’t hide when
his sister turned away.

Curious but reluctant to cause strife
between the siblings, I decided to change the subject for the time
being. And as much as tripod cryptids sounded fascinating, my time
alone with the duo was running thin, and I needed some answers.
Once Jeb was back in the picture, I had a feeling the only way I
was going to get any would be by force.

The more time I spent on Pelia, the more
confident I became that this was an island of extremely gifted
individuals. Normally, I was able to pick a strong Talent out of a
crowd. I’d thought Emma might be Talented because of the vibrations
she was giving off. But I was starting to think that it wasn’t just
Emma giving off those vibes. The entire island called to me in a
way no other place had. Despite nearly freezing to death, I’d felt
safe there since the moment I crashed-landed.

I was starting to understand what Ross had
meant about the energy surrounding Pelia. It was eerily similar to
the energy that surrounded me.

“
So, when is the next storm
supposed to hit?” I asked aloud.

Tipping her head back and closing her eyes,
Emma paused and let the sunshine warm her face. She drew in a deep
breath that caused her chest to expand and her nostrils to
flare.

“
By midnight, I’d say. The
conditions will grow steadily worse through the day tomorrow and
the brunt of the storm will come,” she filled her lungs a second
time, “around dinner tomorrow evening,” Emma finished as she
exhaled. “But, Mr. Pimms can give us a more accurate time
table.”

She began walking again as though nothing
out of the ordinary had just occurred. Stunned, it was a moment
before I hurried after her.

“
Emma, are you—what’s your
ability?” I’d been about to ask if she was a mind manipulator, like
me, but remembered she and her family weren’t familiar with the
classification terms UNITED used to describe the various
talents.

“
She hasn’t got one,” Ross
answered for his sister.

“
Neither do you,” Emma
retorted irritably.

Ross shook his head vehemently. “No. That’s
not true. Brady says I’m super strong for my age. I can uproot a
tree all on my own,” he boasted.

“
That’s not a real gift.
Loads of people can do that. Come on, Dad will go through the roof
if we’re late for dinner.”

Emma increased her pace, practically running
the rest of the way through the village and only slowing when she
reached the steps of a comparatively large cabin.

Dinner was indeed already on the table when
we filed inside. Wonderful aromas filled the home, and my stomach
grumbled loudly. It had been hours since we ate the mystery meat
skewers, and I was still calorie deprived from my flight. Not to
mention the gruel on Vault wasn’t exactly filling.

Following Emma and Ross’s lead, I shed my
outer layers of borrowed clothing and hung them on wooden pegs
protruding from a wall by the front door.

“
Dad, we’re home!” Emma
called as she deposited her muddy boots in the corner with several
other pairs of equally dirty shoes.

“
It’s about time. Hurry up,
Andromeda has out done herself tonight.”

Jeb appeared in a doorway on the right, his
large frame filling the entire space easily. He smiled tightly at
each of his children, but when his gaze landed on me, there was
nothing but suspicion lurking in his expression.

“
Natalia Lyons.”

It felt as though one of the many icicles
I’d seen that day pierced my chest. I was positive that I had not
told them my full name, which meant—

“
Escaped convict,
considered highly dangerous. Does that about cover it?”

Erik

Eden, Isle of Exile

Three Days Before the Vote

“
Sorry to have kept you all
waiting,” Victoria said by way of greeting, striding into her own
office with none of her normal grace and polish. Her golden-amber
eyes swept the room as she performed a quick headcount. “Good, it
seems all but one person is here.” The councilwoman turned to her
assistant. “Hank set up the connection.”

Hank gave a small bow before retreating to
the outer office.

I looked around the room impatiently. In
addition to Frederick, Penny, Miles, and myself, Penny’s other
half, Brand Meadows, Henri Reich—my and Talia’s former teammate and
longtime friend—and a man around Victoria’s age with an expensive
suit and snooty accent were already seated inside the office. So
whom were we waiting on?

A moment later my question was answered. Ian
Crane appeared as a hologram sitting in a comfortable looking
armchair next to Victoria’s desk.

“
Ian, thank you for taking
time out of your—”

“
No need to thank me,
Victoria,” Crane cut her off. “I am as eager to find Talia as you
are, though likely for a very different reason.”

I smiled appreciatively at Crane, grateful
he at least cared more about Talia’s wellbeing than the public
relations nightmare her escape had created. Or, well, rather would
have created had UNITED informed the media. Thus far, everyone
wanted to keep her disappearance quiet, just as they’d kept her
incarceration quiet, to prevent mass hysteria.

“
We are all on the same
side, Ian,” Victoria said sharply. She gestured around the room.
“Every single person in this room has a vested interest in finding
Talia Lyons, one that goes beyond our organization.” The
councilwoman paused and stared pointedly at first me, then
Frederick, and finally Penny. “And at least three of you are
capable of tracking her from a distance.” Focused back on me, she
continued, “The truth, Erik, have you been in contact with
Talia?”

Nine sets of eyes bore down on me. The
combined weight of their love and concern for my girlfriend made my
throat constrict.

“
Erik, I know you must be
very worried about her,” Crane began. “And I know you want to help
her. The best way to do that is to tell us where she is. It
probably feels like a betrayal—”

“
I don’t know where she
is,” I snapped angrily.

Miles put a hand on my shoulder and guided
me back to my seat. Until that instant, I hadn’t realized I’d
gotten to my feet.