by Sophie Davis
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.
“About that,” Penny said. “I’m not positive that she is, with Kenly I mean. Talia has been spotted all over London. UNITED has been chasing down leads all morning.”
“So?” I needed more water. Spotting the mini-fridge, I summoned two bottles of cold, glorious H2O. They sailed into my outstretched hands, and I drank them both with only a breath in between.
“So, if Talia was running around the city, why would she have sent Kenly instead of coming herself? It doesn’t make sense.”
Penny had a point. That did sound fishy.
The water cleared the fog from my brain enough that I was able to think straight.
“Not Talia,” I said after several moments of contemplation. “She’s too smart. She sent Kenly to me because Kenly is a light manipulator. She came here invisibly.”
Penny stared at me blankly. I wasn’t making sense. I knew that. Taking a deep breath, I started again. “The girl people keep seeing must not be Talia. It’s probably the same girl that was with Anya in Nice. Have you actually seen any footage of this supposed Talia?”
“Nothing clear. Bus cams and café surveillance footage show only half of her face or the image is blurry,” Penny admitted. “But Erik, do you trust Kenly? She does hate UNITED.”
“But she cares about Talia,” Brand interjected softly.
“She’s also the one leaking sensitive UNITED information to the public,” Penny shot back angrily. “She’s compromised agents. She’s responsible for a number of lost lives. She’s also responsible for several of the Created incidents, since she intercepted the communications before UNITED received them. Kenly isn’t innocent guys.”
My head was spinning again. Information overload.
“How do you know this?” I asked.
“Kenly isn’t the only expert hacker in the world. In case you’ve forgotten, I did fake my way through being a Brain for several years. I actually do know how to do quite a bit of crypto stuff. Good thing, too. Victoria asked me to take a look at the hacks on UNITED’s classified files. Since none of her trusted Brains were able to trace Kenly’s intrusions, she asked me to give it a go when I had time. After overhearing what Kenly had to say to you, I decided to make time.”
“She’s been at it all day,” Brand added dryly.
“Kenly’s good, I’ll give her that. I wouldn’t have been able to trace her if I hadn’t known exactly what I was looking for. Knowing the intruder up front makes a world of difference.” Penny sounded reluctantly impressed.
Even though she was dumbing it down for me, I didn’t really understand what Penny was saying. I had created Higher Reasoning abilities, same as Penny. But I didn’t know how to use all that brainpower. Computers were like magic in my mind. I typed messages into my comm unit, and I got one back in return. I pressed buttons on the keyboard, and all sorts of crap appeared on the screen. Magic.
“Have you told Victoria all of this?” I asked Penny.
“No.” She glared at Brand. “Somebody seems to think we should give Kenly the benefit of the doubt.”
“She isn’t being malicious,” Brand argued. “Besides, she didn’t tell you guys where she and Talia are hiding. We can’t take the chance that UNITED finds Talia before Ian’s people, which they might if they suddenly make finding Kenly a priority. With the crypto work you’ve already done, they have a good shot of pinpointing Kenly’s location.”
“You don’t even like Talia,” Penny wailed, throwing her hands up in exasperation.
The vice closing my head between its pinchers returned. I wanted to tell Penny to lower her volume, but Brand started yelling, too.
“No, I don’t, Penelope.” He called her by her real name—bad sign. “In fact, I sort of hate her. She’s a manipulative, entitled—”
“Careful, Brand, that’s my girlfriend you’re talking about,” I interrupted calmly. I didn’t like him insulting Talia in front of me, but he’d said worst to her face. Also, despite his words to the contrary, Brand didn’t hate Talia. He didn’t like her exactly, but he definitely didn’t hate her.
Brand huffed. “That girl is more trouble than she’s worth. But she means a lot to you.” He reached out and stroked Penny’s cheek with the back of his, his expression softening with the caress. “She’s also important to Ian. And drunky over here.” Brand nodded in my direction. I ignored the dig. “I promised you all that I would help keep her safe, and I intend to do just that. I’ve already told Ian about Kenly. He will tell Victoria when he deems the time is right. He also agrees that Kenly is disgruntled, not vindictive. She believes what she is doing is right. Kenly isn’t part of some underground cult or mercenary group. She isn’t working for anyone who wants Talia dead.”
Penny remained unconvinced. I was on the fence. Kenly wasn’t my favorite person, but she genuinely cared about Talia. The moments they’d spent together outside of Walburton Manor, before Talia let Kenly fly off into the sunset, had shown me that fact. Still, Kenly had tried to kill Talia while under some sort of mind control. How deep did those tentacles of manipulation run? Was it possible that Kenly was still under TOXIC’s control? If so, who was pulling the strings?
You’re paranoid, delusional—a paranoid delusional.
I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stretched.
“Alrighty, guess there is only one way to learn the truth: Tonight, I’m going to find Talia,” I declared.
“How?” Brand demanded. “Your track record isn’t exactly stellar, man.”
I glared at him. “The old-fashioned way, Brand. Legwork. It’s time I had a sit down with Bryn Wellington.”
“Bryn Wellington?” Brand and Penny echoed in unison, both so stunned their annoyance with each other was temporarily forgotten.
“Bryn is James’s sister,” I said calmly, searching the bedroom for my discarded clothes. At some point in the night, I must have gotten hot and stripped down to my boxers, because that was all I was wearing.
“Right,” Brand agreed, still not understanding.
“And James is Kenly’s boyfriend. James and Kenly are hiding out together. I vaguely remember her mentioning that fact.”
“Yes, she did, several times,” Penny confirmed.
“Well, doesn’t it make sense that Bryn knows where her brother is? And if she knows where James is, then she knows where Kenly is. And if she knows where Kenly is—”
“She knows where Talia is,” Penny finished for me.
I grinned and tapped my temple, then immediately wished I hadn’t. Eve
n that small amount of pressure was painful.
“I’m going with you,” Penny insisted.
“So am I,” Brand added.
“I hoped you guys would say that. Now we just need Miles onboard, since he won’t let me out of his sight for very long.” Hands on my hips, I blew out a long alcohol-laced breath. “Let’s get the bullshit over with, and then go find my girlfriend.”
The interviews were tedious, with each reporter asking me the same questions over and over and over again until I wanted to rip my hair out. Variety, however, was even more aggravating. When a reporter from Teen Rampage asked me what I thought of Caro Cato’s new fall line, since I’d apparently been wearing the designer’s suits at my rallies, I flipped.
“Clothes? You want my opinion on clothes? Are you fu—”
“Interview’s over,” Miles interjected before I reduced the reporter to tears.
Thankfully, that was the last one. From there, a limo whisked Miles, Penny, Brand, my security detail, and me to Hyde Park for the rally. Henri and Frederick followed in a different hover. They were helping with crowd control, since UNITED expected the rally to be heated.
I’d already set up the meeting with Bryn Wellington for that evening. Getting in touch with her hadn’t been easy, but after a lot of virtual digging, Penny had learned that Bryn frequently spent her nights at one of her family’s clubs, Pure Bliss. I’d called the club to see whether Bryn was expected that evening, and found out that she was. So when I said that I set up the meeting, what I really meant was that I planned to ambush her.
Bryn had been feeding UNITED information on the Poachers, including her own family, but was steadfast in her assertion that she didn’t know her brother’s whereabouts. I didn’t believe that for a second. Bryn had risked too much over the years for her brother, more than even he knew, to not know where he, and by extension Kenly, were currently.
Surrounded by my security team, I exited the hover limo to a waiting crowd of supporters and haters alike. Giddy with the knowledge that one way or another I would see Talia soon, I waved placidly to the crowd but didn’t break stride once. No more photo-ops for innocent looking children. That hadn’t turned out well the last time.
This rally was not like the others, a fact I learned as soon as I stepped onto the makeshift stage. The entire Joint Nations’ delegation was seated on the platform, every one of them anxious to hear my final plea for coexistence.
“You’ve got this,” Penny told me encouragingly as we waited in the wings for me to be announced.
“It doesn’t matter what I say anymore,” I muttered.
“You never know,” Penny replied. “Some of the delegates are still undecided. You may be able to sway a vote or two.”
“True,” I admitted.
It felt like this was the final quarter of the game, and I was sending up one last Hail Mary shot for the win. Unfortunately, I didn’t know the current score. So I had no way of knowing whether sinking the three-pointer would even make a difference.
On stage, Victoria Walburton was just finishing her speech. The councilwoman had flown in for this to show UNITED’s support. Which, in the grand scheme of things, meant very little to most gathered, including the delegates.
“You have all seen him. He is Created, and he is powerful. He, like so many of you, believes that if we work together, the gifted and the norms can live together in harmony. He plans to use his abilities to make a safer world for us all. Now, without further fanfare, I give you Erikson Kelley.”
Her words were met with overwhelming applause with only a few audible boos.
I walked confidently out to the podium as Victoria took her assigned chair among the Joint Nations’ delegates. Placing my hands on either side of the lectern, I grinned down at the thousands of people who’d come to hear what I had to say. Many returned the smile. Others flipped me the middle finger. One guy screamed obscenities. I wanted to tell him that I’d been called a lot worse than “Satan’s effing pawn” but held my tongue.
The speech Victoria’s minions had prepared especially for this rally was in my jacket pocket. I started to reach for it. Screw it, I decided. There was no point in pandering to the crowd. They didn’t matter, not really. It was the delegates I needed to sway. I had to convince more than half of them that coexistence was proper.
My wife will never forgive me. Can’t let her die. One life not worth millions. But she’s my wife.
I didn’t know where the stream of consciousness was coming from, but I felt the delegate’s fear and confliction. Whoever it was, his or her thoughts were so powerful that they’d broken through my mental barriers. I took a deep breath and blocked them out, even as I caught Penny’s alarmed expression out of the corner of my eye. She’d heard the thoughts, too.
“Let me deal with this. I’ll figure out what is going on,” Penny sent.
I nodded subtly, and then refocused my attention on the crowd.
“Hey, guys.” I waved. “I see a lot of familiar faces in the crowd tonight. A lot of you have been to numerous of these rallies. You have heard me preach about how the Created are harmless, and how we deserve the same rights as the norms.”
“Erik,” Victoria hissed behind me. When I ignored her, the councilwoman screamed inside my head. “What are you doing? That is not the speech I had prepared.”
“I’m being honest. Like you should have been with Talia from the start,” I sent back, and then blocked Victoria from my mind.
Talia was never going to be safe as long as Nightshade was after her. Alex, Beth, and the others would never be safe as long as Nightshade’s client was out there hunting down strong Talents in order to make more of us. Talia had gone toe-to-toe with Mac and destroyed TOXIC to stop this type of experimentation and exploitation. UNITED had given me a soapbox to stand on, and I was going to take advantage of it.
“Well, I’m here to tell you that we aren’t harmless,” I continued. The murmuring started as slow hum, growing to a full-on buzz by the time it reached the edges of the crowd. I spoke louder to make sure I was heard. “I possess so many abilities that I lost count. I have killed in war and because TOXIC told me to. Sometimes, I wonder if I truly know right from wrong anymore, because my entire life has been lived in very dark shades of gray.” I paused and surveyed the crowd. People were nodding in agreement, as though I’d said something profound. Odd. “But the thing is, no matter how far south my moral compass dips, there are worse people out there. People with an agenda. Yeah, you could argue that every politician has an agenda, and they do. But I’m talking about an organization willing to kidnap and torture children to influence the way the world spins. They lurk in the shadows. They are puppeteers, and we are simply their marionettes. Currently, they are working with an unknown group to make more people like me. But as where the thoughts in my head are my own, the next generation of Created isn’t likely to be able to say the same. Danbury McDonough used mind control on his operatives prior to the Battle of D.C. Whoever has taken up his mantle is likely to do the same.
“Whether or not the treaty is renewed, I do not plan on hiding on the islands. I will fight for freedom for all of us. I believe that those of us with abilities and without can coexist peacefully, as we’ve done for decades. My kind is not the enemy. We never were. We are all allies in the war against subjugation. I feel your doubt, and that is okay. Doubt me. Hate me. Curse me to the ninth circle of hell. Just remember that even in exile, my friends and I will continue to fight for a free world. We will take down that elusive enemy. No matter the costs.”
Miles and my other guards surrounded me as I spoke the last words. The crowd was silent, captivated by my speech. Even Victoria and the delegates were transfixed. Guilt wafted off of many of them. They understood that I was really speaking to them. I hoped they also understood that if any of them were working with Nightshade or the mystery client, I would stop at nothing to destroy them.
“Jeez, kid. You’ve really made a mess of it,” Miles grumbled, tu
gging on my sleeve. “Move. We need to get you out of here before things get ugly. And I ain’t talking about the protesters. Once Victoria comes to her senses, she’s gonna beat yours out of you.”
It was that last glance into the crowd—that was when I saw her: Talia. Standing in the center of a group of people wearing t-shirts with my image on the front. A baseball cap was pulled low over her curls, but those piercing violet eyes found mine.
I yanked my arm free of Miles’s grip and opened my mind.
“Erik. I’ve missed you so much. I love you.” The voice that filled my mind wasn’t Talia’s. It sounded like Talia’s, but the presence sharing my headspace was not Talia’s. I squinted into the crowd, desperate for a better look at the girl with the purple eyes and freckles that was a carbon copy of my girlfriend.
“What are you doing here?” I sent back.
“I had to see you. I just love you so much.”
Wow. If I’d had any lingering doubts, they were definitely quashed. Talia did frequently tell me that she loved me. In more intimate moments, she even shouted her love openly. But this outpouring of love was mushy and sickeningly sweet, and very definitely not coming from my Talia.
“Kid, come on,” Miles urged.
Penny and Brand started to rush forward. I shook my head. I wanted the girl inside my head to keep talking. Seeing Penny might scare her off. Casting my mental net wider, I attempted to rope Penny into the conversation. I’d been part of a three-way communication with Talia as the connector, but doing it myself was a lot harder than she’d made it seem. Which was saying something, because my girlfriend had been pretty drained after our practice sessions. Also, I wasn’t a radio with different channels. Having both Penny and the imposter inside my head at the same time meant that they could both hear everything. There was no way to warn Penny to keep her trap, or rather mind, on mute.
“Aren’t you happy to see me?” the fake Talia asked.
