by Sophie Davis
I smiled, relaxing slightly. At least where Talia was concerned, there was no animosity or ill will. Her feelings towards me hadn’t changed in the last thirty minutes.
Let Erik Kelley hate you, I thought bitterly. It’s not like you two were ever friends to begin with.
Except, I didn’t really want him to hate me. For Talia’s sake, I wanted us to get along.
For heaven’s sake, it’s not like I’m even holding the whole choking-the-life-out-of-me thing against him.
With a final tug, Talia pulled free from Erik’s grasp and rushed towards me, arms open as if inviting a hug.
“Kenly,” she called, “I’m so glad you’re safe.”
Safe. Wow. How long had it been since I was safe? At the Monroes’ home, I’d accepted the fact that I’d never be safe again.
Except, I actually did feel safe just then, I realized.
Sure, I was about to enter a UNITED safe house. Which should have been a terrifying prospect. But…it wasn’t. Having James by my side, knowing that no matter what came next, he would be there too, chased away all of my remaining fears about the future.
Stumbling from James’s grasp, I practically fell into Talia’s waiting arms. She was so petite that it felt as though I was hugging a doll, but strength and power radiated from her small body. I felt stronger just being near her.
“I’m so sorry we couldn’t get there sooner,” Talia whispered as she stroked my hair.
The last vestiges of adrenaline from our escape ebbed away, replaced by a bone-deep exhaustion that made it hard for me to hold my head up any longer. Several tears leaked from beneath my eyelids and onto the strap of Talia’s teal dress. She hugged me tighter and rubbed my back. Now, instead of power, she exuded calm and reassurance. I let it wash over me, soothing my decimated nerves.
After several long moments, Talia gently extracted herself from my grip. Holding me at arm’s length, she gave my ruined dress, bandaged leg, and general state of dishevelment a once over. The sadness and worry in her eyes became a smoldering purple flame as she was overcome with anger and disgust. I watched the emotions play on her face, knowing that the latter ones were directed at the Poachers, not me. When Talia noticed me watching, her jaw tightened and she forced a smile.
She opened her mouth slightly, a question on the tip of her tongue. After a brief struggle played out over her features, she shut it again, seeming to change her mind at the last second. Then, an unnervingly-familiar tickling sensation began in my brain. It was the same feeling that resulted from fingers brushing the inside of an elbow, except for the fact it was in my skull.
Talia was reading my thoughts.
“You could just ask,” I said quietly, more annoyed by the intrusion than I should have been. I knew Talia’s Telepathy was as second nature to her as my Higher Reasoning was to me.
At the note of irritation in my tone, Erik instantly darted forward to stand between us. He’d been standing two steps behind his girlfriend—far enough to give the impression of privacy, but close enough to reach Talia should I try to inflict any harm whatsoever. If I’d never been on the receiving end of his wrath, I might have found Erik’s devotion endearing.
Talia’s gaze never left mine. She must have sent Erik a silent message to back off, because he retreated just far enough that I could no longer feel his breath on my face. I was both complimented and terrified by how big a threat he found me.
Erik’s hard turquoise stare shifted briefly over my shoulder to James before he dismissed the other boy as harmless. Well, maybe not harmless, but definitely not the threat me found me.
Considering that I honestly knew she didn’t mean any harm, was only trying to spare me from recounting the details of my ordeal, I wasn’t actually angry with Talia at all. Or even annoyed.
Talia had no way of knowing that the tickling sensation I’d felt when she read my thoughts had sparked a memory, taking me back to my meeting with the Duke in his study. Where Libby Monroe had mentally tortured me. Where her father’s goons had physically tortured James. After having my brain first ransacked, and then sliced, diced, and sautéed like a frigging onion, I just wanted people out of my head.
With that thought, an all-consuming rage instantly washed over me. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t contain it.
Too much. It’s too much. Need to let it out.
I felt ready to explode. I needed an outlet for my fury. And I chose the guy who was glaring at me as if I was something the dog had regurgitated on the kitchen floor.
“You—” I pointed an accusing finger at his chest—“told me to run. You told me to go somewhere no one knew me. This is your fault. The Poachers, the auction, all of it—it’s your fault.”
I screamed the accusations at Erik, knowing good and well that I was playing with fire.
“Kenly.” James’s hand snaked around my stomach and he pulled me backwards against his body.
I didn’t struggle. My fight wasn’t with James. Truthfully, my fight wasn’t even with Erik. The acid burning a hole in my gut was because of the Poachers. Not just over what they had done to me specifically, but because they existed at all. I hated that no one stopped them, that not even UNITED cared enough to fight the people wishing to enslave my kind.
“It’s not that UNITED doesn’t care, Kenly,” Talia said, once again taking the liberty to read my mind.
“Then why haven’t they done anything?” I demanded.
Talia hesitated, appearing uncharacteristically unsure of herself.
“I can’t answer that. Until your friend, Riley, contacted us, I didn’t even know the Poachers existed. I did everything in my power to—”
“Exactly,” I cut her off. “You did everything in your power. What about the rest of UNITED? You’ve been an agent for what? A month? Where have they been for the last seventy-five years? Why have they allowed these auctions to keep happening?”
“Kenly,” James said calmly. “Maybe we should talk about this after you’ve had a rest.”
I rounded on him.
“You mean once we are on a hovercraft over the Atlantic? Or once we reach the Isle of Exile? Or maybe you mean once they have me under a microscope. By then it will be too late! Don’t you see, James? Don’t you get it? UNITED has more important matters than the Poachers.” I spun to face Talia. “Isn’t that right? UNITED hasn’t deemed the enslavement of Talents important enough to stop?”
“Right now we do have more pressing matters,” Erik said dryly. “In case you haven’t heard, the Treaty that allows Talents to live in harmony with the rest of the world is about to be overturned.”
“So, what? We just forget about all the people who have been, are still being, bought, sold, and traded to the highest bidder?”
My outrage morphed to amazement as my gaze traveled from Erik to Talia. They were both disgusted by the Poachers, yet neither was on my side. I turned to find to my friends.
“James? Willa? Honora? Riley?” I said beseechingly. “Francie?” Sympathetic smiles were all I received in return.
“I do agree with you, Kenly,” Talia said softly.
“Then why don’t you make UNITED stop them?” I demanded, my tone dangerously close to a whine.
She ignored my question, talking right over me as if I had not spoken at all. “I, we, won’t stop you. But you do understand how dangerous what you are considering is, right? If the Treaty is overturned….” Talia trailed off, the unspoken reality of the situation I was facing left hanging in the air between us.
I smiled impishly.
“More dangerous than surrendering to your enemies? More dangerous than breaking your boyfriend out of prison? More dangerous than hunting down the Created? Tell me this, Talia, are you going to quietly into the night? Are you going to willingly go live in exile? Because there is no way that the same girl who brought down TOXIC will allow that Treaty to be overturned. And when you succeed, I want our people to be able to live in a poacher-free world. Don’t you?”
Talia smirke
d. “I think you overestimate my powers of diplomacy.”
“Maybe,” I agreed. “But not your powers of manipulation.”
“What is she talking about? What are you considering doing?” Francie was the one who had spoken, but all of my friends had moved closer during the argument.
“I’m in,” Willa said before I could answer. “So is Riley.”
My eyes flicked to Riley.
“Truer words were never spoken,” Riley said.
My heart suddenly felt much lighter. I wasn’t alone. With the help of my friends, the bold statements I’d made to Talia might even come true.
“I’m sorry, Kenly,” Francie said, her voice wobbling. “I-I-I–”
“It’s okay, Francie,” I assured her. “I understand. Go to the islands. You’ll be safe there.” I didn’t know whether that was true. The islands meant containment, and containment was only one step above captivity.
“It’s not as bad as you think.” Talia’s voice filled my head.
Startled I jumped a little. During our training sessions she’d used this mental communication to walk me through difficult maneuvers, but I’d never been all that comfortable having her in my head.
“I promise. I’ll look out for her.”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
The others exchanged confused glances, unaccustomed to private mental conversations taking place right under their noses.
I turned to Honora. Her eyes were downcast and I was prepared for her refusal. I wanted to make the situation as easy as possible for her. I hated putting her on the spot. “It’s okay. Go,” I said, reaching out to place a hand on her shoulder.
She lifted her gaze to meet mine. “No,” Honora said decisively. “I want to help. You’re right. We need to do something. If UNITED won’t, then we have to.”
I pulled her into a tight embrace, wrapping my arms so tightly around her shoulders that she grunted.
When Honora and I broke apart, I turned to the one person whose agreement I needed to even have a prayer of pulling off this crazy mission: James. Not because he was an excellent fighter, an exceptionally gifted Talent, or any other purely tactical reason. No, I needed James onboard with the plan because it would break my heart to watch him walk away from me after everything we’d been through together.
“James?” His name was a whisper on my lips.
“You want me to help you take down my family, do you?”
Audible gasps from Willa and Francie threatened to pull my gaze from James’s. But I ignored my friends. There would be time for explanations later.
“I do,” I agreed. “What do you say?”
“I say,” James paused, “I’d like to see you bloody well try and stop me.”
My arms were around his neck, guiding his mouth to meet mine. Someone, most likely Riley, whistled loudly, and then started applauding. I didn’t care. I pressed my body closer to James and smiled against his lips.
The kiss gave me strength. It gave me power. It gave me hope.
In two weeks, UNITED would fight for the future of our kind in the political arena. That gave me fourteen days to destroy a decades-old organization and bring justice to those the legal system would not.
No sweat, right?
TOXIC wasn’t built in a day, but it did burn in one.
The same would be true for the Poachers. I’d make sure of it.
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