Inescapable (Talented Saga #7) (59 page)

James glanced lovingly down at Kenly. “She
wants to do this for you. No,” James corrected himself. “She needs
to do this for you.”

A number of reassurances were on the tip of
my tongue. Kenly didn’t owe me anything for saving her from the
Poachers. Neither did she owe me for letting her go at Walburton
Manor. But I felt Kenly’s guilt as acutely as if it were my own.
She understood the risks of walking into UNITED’s trap, even
invisibly. And she was prepared to suffer the consequences, because
I’d done the same for her and spent a month in prison for it. So
against my better judgment, I relented.

“
Okay. Tell him I love
him.” I swallowed around the lump in my throat and attempted a joke
to lighten the mood. “And give him a kiss from me.”

Kenly laughed. “I don’t feel that guilty,
Talia.”

The Privileged

Besançon, France

Two Days Before the Vote

“
So Gracia’s gone?” Daphne
asked in a small voice.

“
I’m sure she’ll be back
soon,” Cressa assured her.

“
Actually, no, she wont,”
Dina retorted, rolling her eyes at Cressa’s ignorance. “She became
Natalia so that UNITED won’t realize that their most powerful
player has come over to our side. For all intents and purposes,
she
is
Natalia.
So, Gracia won’t come back until the Privileged take control.
Anyone with a brain knows that.”

“
Madame Brink has
arrived,” Suzu announced, just in time to save Cressa from saying
something to Dina that she might later regret. “Space is tight in
the commons, so I need the boys to relocate to the
atrium.”

The segregation of the sexes was greeted
with moans and groans, with a lot of the disappointment stemming
from the group still surrounding Kev Leon. Even Cressa had to admit
she was disappointed that he was leaving, though for reasons
entirely different from the fangirls. Kev seemed to know an awful
lot about the inner workings of the Institute, and Cressa wanted
time to pump him for information.

I never would’ve guessed
that it would come to this,
she thought
with a wry smile, marveling at how things had changed in less than
twenty-four hours.
That I’d want to talk
to Kev Leon solely for his knowledge.

The boys obediently collected their lunch
trash and filed out of the commons, Kev bringing up the rear. The
vid star had upped his acting game, adding random twitches and
moist eyes to his already stellar zombie performance.

Why?
Cressa wanted to know.
Why is he
pretending to be so scared?

It didn’t make sense, unless…no, she didn’t
even want to think it. But once the seed of doubt was planted, it
began to grow. What if the playacting wasn’t for the eyes of the
Institute, but was for the cadets, instead? To see how they’d react
to another student exhibiting obvious signs of an adjustment
disorder? Was Cressa supposed to report him?

But that didn’t make sense either, not
really. In the tunnels, Kev had dropped the act. He’d saved
Daphne’s life and helped both girls escape the guards. And whenever
he thought no one was listening, Kev spoke normally to Cressa. He
even fed her information about the Institute.

Maybe that’s part of the
ruse,
she thought, feeling extremely
paranoid.

Cressa didn’t know whom to confide in, who
was trustworthy. Quite possibly no one. She’d assumed the alarms
were activated when Daphne touched the glass viewing window, but
what if that was just happenstance? What if Ritchie was the mole?
Maybe she ran back and reported the others to Leslie.

Cressa glanced at the magenta-haired girl,
then let her gaze wander over the rest of the 2Ps. Who could she
trust?

Nydia,
Cressa thought,
she’s
safe.

Her roommate had lied for her. And even
though Nydia wasn’t currently speaking to Cressa, she still hadn’t
ratted her out. That, at least, counted for something.

Daphne, too, seemed to be on the level.
She’d been with Cressa the entire time in the tunnels, never once
leaving her sight until they parted ways in the bathroom. She’d
been just as close to wearing a red jumpsuit as Cressa. There was
no chance Daphne had double-crossed them.

“
I think the three of us
should stick together,” Ritchie suggested.

Cressa looked around the commons and
realized all the girls were partnering up. Dina had migrated over
to another group, and was exuberantly recounting her tale about
Gracia, Dr. Masterson, and the Dame to them. That left Cressa with
Ritchie and Daphne.

“
Yeah, of course,” Cressa
replied, plastering on a fake smile. “Is it cool if Nydia joins us,
though? She looks like she needs a partner.”

“
We won’t be able to talk
about, you know,
stuff
with Nydia around,” Ritchie said, wrinkling her
brow.

That’s the point,
Cressa thought, then called out Nydia’s
name.

Her roommate wasn’t thrilled about the
prospect of working with Cressa, but clearly didn’t want to cause a
scene. So Nydia agreed, albeit reluctantly.

Her roommate’s presence had the desired
effect. The girls chatted very little, and even then only about the
lesson. Until Cressa knew for sure she could trust the pink-haired
girl, she wasn’t going to take any chances. If Ritchie was a spy
for the Dame, Cressa wasn’t going to dig her own grave any
deeper.

“
Dinner tonight will be
served in your individual rooms,” Suzu announced at the end of the
afternoon session. She was standing in the archway, voice pitched
so that both those in the commons and in the atrium were able to
hear her. “Then, you may read, play strategy games, or do something
similarly quiet until lights out. No one leaves his or her room,
except to use the facilities. Since Cadet Beaumont is not
available, Cadet Abbot and I will continue to cover her duties.
Girls, please return to your rooms now. Boys, line up by the
elevators. Cadet Ivan will escort you to your floor
in groups.”

The girls began to clean up their area,
replacing the practice objects in bins and carrying them to the
front of the room.

“
Nydia, will you take ours
up?” Ritchie asked, handing the bin to her without waiting for a
response. Once Nydia was out of earshot, Ritchie turned to Cressa
and Daphne. “Let’s meet tonight, during shower time.”

“
Why?” Cressa asked. “I
mean, what’s left to discuss? We haven’t been hauled to
interrogation yet, so it’s a pretty safe to assume the others
haven’t ratted us out. Clandestine bathroom meetings will look
suspicious.”

Ritchie sighed impatiently. “We don’t know
that for sure, Cressa. We need to get Shyla to talk. We need to
know what she told the Dame.”

“
So, you want to meet and
make a plan to pry the information out of Shyla?” Cressa huffed.
“Last time we saw her, she wasn’t really in a talkative mood.
Besides, she’s still in med bay, or wherever Leslie and Gregor took
her. We should just play it cool, stay under the radar.”

“
Actually,” Daphne spoke
up. “She’s right there.”

Cressa spun on her heel toward the archway,
where Daphne was pointing indiscreetly. Sure enough, Shyla Towers
was shuffling into the commons. The twin did look calmer than she
had earlier, though just as dazed as when she’d returned from
interrogation. The sight filled Cressa with dread.

“
Okay,” she relented. “But
if we do this, we meet in my bathroom. Shyla and I share one, so it
will be the easiest way to get her alone.”

“
What about Nydia?” Daphne
asked.

“
She won’t be a problem,”
Cressa declared. “In a way, Nydia has as much to lose as we do. She
knew we were going down into the tunnels, and covered for me with
Leslie.”

“
It’s a plan, then,”
Ritchie agreed. “Daphne and I will sneak over to your bathroom at
shower time, and we can question Shyla.” She tapped her chin
thoughtfully. “We should probably do something to our bathroom so
that we have an excuse to use a different one.”

Daphne smiled mischievously. “Leave it to
me. Pranks are my specialty.

Erik

London, England

One Day Before the Vote

Hungover and exhausted, I wasn’t sure
whether I’d dreamed, or hallucinated, Kenly in my hotel room when I
woke later that day. Only the presence of a second glass on my
nightstand made me think she’d been real. Or maybe I just wanted
her to have been real, because she’d told me that Talia was safe.
She’d explained a lot about a lot of things, all of which seemed
fuzzy and hard to remember in the light of day. She’d mentioned
Nightshade in her diatribe and something about a Teleporter named
Kip or Vip or something. I really regretted not remembering that
part of the conversation; at least if Talia knew about Nightshade
and the fact that they were after her, then she’d be more
careful.

Who was I kidding? If my girlfriend knew
about the mercenaries, she was probably out hunting them at that
very moment.

“
Ready for your adoring
public?” Miles was standing in my doorway, clean-shaven and fully
dressed for the day.

“
Please don’t yell at me,”
I groaned, and covered my throbbing head with a pillow.

“
Shit. Kid are you drunk?”
Miles’s footsteps sounded like a stampede inside my
head.

“
Drunk was last night,” I
mumbled into the pillow. “Today, I’m hungover. Just let me sleep
for another hour or two.”

“
No time.” Miles ripped the
covers off of me, stealing the warm air along with the comforter.
“You are scheduled for several interviews before the rally. The
reporters are coming here. The first has already arrived. You need
to shower and do something about this.”

By “this,” I assumed he meant my lackluster
state. Or maybe the alcohol seeping from my pores. That couldn’t
have smelled nice.

“
Can I have a minute alone
with him?” It was Penny’s voice. She sounded as awful as I
felt.

I poked my head out from beneath the pillow
and saw her wringing her hands in my doorway. Brand stood directly
behind her, scowling.

“
Not alone. I’m staying,”
Brand said firmly.

“
Okay,” Penny agreed with a
shrug.

Miles looked from the duo at the door to me
and sighed. “Sure, if you think you can get his ass into gear, go
for it, girlie. I’ll be in the living room, distracting the
reporter.”

The door had just clicked shut behind Miles
when Penny rounded on me.

“
Do you think it’s all
true?” she demanded.

“
True?” I sat up and
reached for the bottle of clear liquid beside my bed. Sniffing to
make sure it was water, I downed the contents in one swallow.
Better. Much better. Who had put the water there? Oh, right, Kenly.
She’d been pretty pissed to find me inebriated.

“
I know Kenly paid you a
visit,” Penny said, speaking just above a whisper. “I was awake and
listening. At the door,” Penny added when I stared at her
doubtfully. “My mental powers were shot until like two hours ago.
Just in time for me to feel your nasty headache.”

Not a hallucination. That was good.

“
What do you mean by
‘true’? Talia is really with her, whatever that proves,” I
said.