by Sophie Davis
It took effort. A lot of effort. Still, I pulled from the vision.
I glanced at Brand, who was watching me closely.
“I know where Gretchen’s going,” I told him confidently.
“Where?” His concerned expression was heartbreaking. It was also a little terrifying. It was more than a fear of Penny confronting Gretchen alone.
Did she have another episode?
Instead of asking, I simply typed the coordinates into the navigation system. Then, I sat back in my seat and whispered the next words.
“The island where the man and the lady lived.”
Chapter Fifty-Two
Erik
Henri and I flew beside the pod with Talia and Brand. My girlfriend wasn’t in a chatty mood, so I pulled the details of her time with Gretchen from her head. It was hard to know who to feel sorriest for—my girlfriend or Penny’s boyfriend. Before the day was through, I was certain I’d feel sorry for all of us.
The trip to Capri, Talia’s childhood home, seemed to last a lifetime. Brand kept the comms system on, and Frederick kept us up-to-date on the latest developments from Switzerland. None of the news was good.
My youngest brother had been rushed to a UNITED medical facility in Germany that specialized in head trauma. Janelle was found mumbling incoherently about spiders with wings and red toadstools, which I assumed was the result of mind control gone awry. Three councilmembers, not including Ian, were confirmed dead: Councilwoman Prinsloo, Councilman Neumann, and Councilman Belaire.
There was no word on my brother Edmund, but he was believed to have been on the same hover as Ian. The one that crashed into the mountain. In general, our agents were not faring well against the Privileged.
Though, as the battle wore on, it seemed Gretchen’s young soldiers didn’t have the endurance or training to fight for much longer. Many dropped from exhaustion. Others simply couldn’t handle possessing or using so much power; they were their own worst enemies. The real tragedy was their ages, though. I hated that I felt sorry for them, but I did. Maybe it was because their futures were limited, like my own. Even those who survived the battle wouldn’t live to see adulthood, so I refused to dwell on it.
“We’re here,” Talia sent.
Lost in my own thoughts, it took those two words for me to see what was right in front of us: Capri, Italy. It was a gorgeous island in the Tyrrhenian Sea with pebbled beaches on one side and pink-orange sand on the other. Talia’s family home was massive, though age and time had taken their toll on the majestic stone structure.
Two hovercrafts were parked on the beach at the base of the bluffs. One bore the UNITED emblem, while the other was larger and unmarked.
“You think Gretchen knows we’re coming?” I asked Talia.
The lightning…that’s what I saw first. Twisted spikes of gold and blue shot from the back wing of the house like cannon fire from a ship’s hull.
“Erik! Watch out!” Talia screamed inside my head. A stone chunk careered toward me.
I banked right, narrowly avoiding a collision. Coughing and sputtering from the dust particles, I flew through the storm and toward a gaping hole in the roof of the house.
“Penny!” I screamed. There was no answer.
I dove, morphing mid-tumble to land amid the rubble. Penny was in the center of what had been a library. Her eyes, shiny and feverish, glowed. Electricity crackled and popped, so thick I could taste it. Blue sparks shot from her hands like lassos to coil around the necks of two people kneeling before her.
Ernest Tate and Gretchen McDonough.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Talia
Gretchen’s cackles were the first thing I heard as I leapt from the hover into the destroyed room. She struggled to her feet, brushing a strand of blonde hair aside that had come loose during the explosion. A thin trail of blood dripped down her chin from the corner of her smirking lips. It was the rope of electricity around her neck that caught and kept my attention.
“Penny?” I whispered, not wanting to startle her.
Gretchen’s eyes narrowed on my best friend’s face. Slowly, she curled the fingers of one hand around the lasso. I knew a split second before it happened.
“No!” I lunged for Gretchen, knocking her backward.
At the same time, she sent a burst of telekinetic energy that hit me square in the chest. I gasped and stumbled, falling to my knees. She fired again but not at me. The last burst of power was too much for Penny. Her bloodcurdling scream made my ears bleed. And then, silence. Deafening silence. Penny swayed on her feet. The light in her eyes winked out right before she collapsed.
Time came to a screeching halt. Those last two minutes played on repeat. It recurred over and over and over again. Like I was caught in a nightmare. Eventually, I couldn’t stand it any longer.
Stop! Please, someone make it stop!
As though my will alone was enough, time started moving again. I wished it hadn’t. Desperately, desperately wished it hadn’t. Those few seconds where Penny fell, she was still alive. I didn’t need to see Brand’s stricken expression as he leaned over her broken body afterwards. I also didn’t need to see the mix of horror and terror on Erik’s face. I didn’t need to feel Henri’s complete shock.
Because a piece of me was gone, too. One that reminded me the world wasn’t all ugly or evil. There were good people who would stand beside you. They’d fight for you and sacrifice for you, even when you didn’t deserve that kind of loyalty.
My hands were around Gretchen’s throat. Using my powers didn’t cross my mind. Leaving her a hollow, empty shell like I’d done to Dr. Wythe wasn’t an option. I wanted her to suffer. I wanted her to look into my eyes and know she was going to die.
Gretchen managed to laugh despite barely being able to breathe.
“You won’t do it,” she taunted, her face turning red. “Taking a life with your bare hands, up close and personal…it isn’t like killing from a distance.”
She was right, of course. It was much harder. Her racing pulse began to slow. Even still, Gretchen’s icy eyes still looked smug. Those eyes were Donavon’s eyes. They were Alex’s eyes. I released my hold. Gretchen started to sit up. Her lips parted as if to speak, but I never gave her the chance for one last dig. There was a lot I wanted to say to her. A lot I wanted her to know. But more than any of that, I wanted revenge.
The sound of her neck snapping was sickening yet so satisfying. Then, the darkness crept in, like at the end of a vid. The screen faded to black and the credits rolled on Gretchen’s life, detailing all her crimes once more. Guilt would come later. But regret never would.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Erik
“Are you going to kill us?” a boy asked. I recognized him but didn’t know who he was.
The girl beside him sobbed into his shoulder and kept repeating, “I thought I could save her. I thought I could save her.” Though she wore the white uniform of the Privileged, she wasn’t talking about Gretchen. She was talking about Penny.
My arms were around Talia, who sat on the floor beside Gretchen’s dead body. Her eyes were open but unseeing, her mind in a place I couldn’t follow.
“Not right now,” I told the pair uneasily. They weren’t like the other Privileged; neither seemed the least bit upset about Gretchen’s death. If anything, they were relieved.
“You’re Erik Kelley, right?” the boy asked.
“Yeah. Who are you?” I replied.
“Kev Leon.” His eyes flicked to the girl beside him. “This is Cressa Karmine. And that’s—”
“I know who he is,” I said flatly. I followed Kev’s gaze to where Henri had Ernest Tate tied up.
“What happens now?” Kev asked me.
Overhead, the sky blackened. Rain began to pour in fat droplets. Talia’s emotions were manifesting. Ten winged shapes appeared above, hovering over the hole in the roof. Adrenaline surged.
It’s not over yet, I thought.
I was wrong. Yes, the newcomer
s were wearing fliers. But they weren’t Privileged. Frederick, my father, Edmund, Kip, Emma, Kenly, Alpha, Epsilon, James, and Ian had arrived.
I wanted to apologize. Ian had asked me to kill Gretchen, so Penny wouldn’t have to. I’d screwed up. It was my fault that she was dead. His niece, Brand’s girlfriend, and Talia’s best friend was dead.
As I watched Ian kneel beside Brand, both men cried tears that would continue to fall for weeks to come. It was as though my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth.
Long, thin fingers rested on my shoulder. I looked up into Kenly’s big, brown eyes.
“You couldn’t have stopped this. It was Penny’s destiny. I saw the vision earlier today.”
She hesitated, not sure whether she should say more.
“I tried to warn her.” A sob welled up in Kenly’s throat. “I scrambled the signal, so she wouldn’t find Gretchen. When I finally reached her on comms,” she shook her head as the tears started to fall, “she told me this was the way it was meant to be.”
My gaze found Epsilon’s.
“Penny was the third person,” I said.
Even though it wasn’t a question, he still nodded.
“Why didn’t you tell me? You knew I thought you were talking about Alex,” I snapped.
“All futures are fluid. Except for hers.” Epsilon surveyed the room uneasily, and then continued. “I saw this day, this outcome in my very first vision. The details varied over the years. No matter what, even before I met Penny, I saw that her life would end today. In this house.”
His words should’ve made me feel better. They didn’t. Nothing did. It felt as though nothing ever would.
Chapter Fifty-Five
Talia
“You sure you’ll be alright here by yourself?” Erik asked. The same concern was in his turquoise eyes that had been a constant in the sixty-three days since we’d lost Penny.
Staring out at the sea, I wiggled my toes in the orange-pink sand. He wrapped his arms around me from behind.
“I’m hardly alone here,” I replied.
Erik kissed my neck. “Yeah, about that…is this commune living situation a permanent thing?” he asked, a teasing note in his question.
I rolled my eyes. “Isn’t it nice having them around? Your father and Cadence are so much better with Alex than I am.”
“Nonsense. Alex loves you,” Erik insisted. “That whole jungle gym thing was just…well, the point is, he’s fine. He fell. Kids fall. Kids get scraped knees. It was a baby tooth. It would’ve fallen out anyway.”
I smiled, and the gesture felt foreign. For two months, I’d believed I might never smile again.
“I wasn’t talking about Dad. Don’t Kenly and James want to go back to London? Don’t they want to hang out with Bryn?” Erik suggested. “I know Alpha and Phi are sort of family—”
“They aren’t here all the time,” I interrupted him, turning in his arms to look up into his eyes. “Aren’t they going to West Bank with you today?”
“Alpha is.” Erik kissed me softly. “Once the construction is complete on your house—”
“Our house,” I interjected. “It’s our house now.”
“Once the construction is complete on our house, maybe the builders could make some of them their own houses?” He kissed me again, longer and deeper than before. “Then we could swim naked and no one would complain,” he murmured against my lips.
“With your dad here?” I asked skeptically.
“Maybe he could get his own house, too,” Erik conceded.
Someone cleared their throat behind us on the beach. I turned and saw Alpha and Epsilon standing together looking more than a little embarrassed.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Alpha began. “Erik, we’re ready to go. President Crane and Brand don’t want to make the announcement until we arrive.”
“And Talia, Alex is done eating breakfast. He would like to know whether it is time to ride horsies,” Epsilon added.
“We’ll be right up,” I told them.
They both smiled politely and turned to leave.
“Duty calls,” I said, giving Erik a quick kiss on the cheek.
He caught my wrist as I started to follow the Clearwood children and pulled me back into his arms.
“I don’t have to go.” Erik nuzzled my neck, his hands running up my back. “We could do something that involves just the two of us.”
“You do have to go.” I forced a smile. “No matter what happens, it’s for the best.” Tears filled my eyes, but I blinked them back. “I can’t lose you, too.”
“What about you?” He stared deep into my eyes. “I don’t want to lose you either.”
“You won’t,” I promised him.
“Tals,” he began, shaking his head.
“Stop.” I put a hand on his chest. “It’s different for me. I was born with these abilities.”
“Not the morphing,” he countered.
I rolled my eyes. “It’s not the same. Morphing doesn’t affect people the way the mental talents do.”
“It’s the creation drug that worries me. Without the cure, you’re still at risk.” Erik touched his forehead to mine. “Is reading my thoughts that important to you?”
“You know that’s not it. My talents are a part of me.” I bit my lip, and then admitted, “I don’t know who I am without them. Besides, Dr. Patel even said that I handle the drug better than most because of my natural abilities. I just need to be careful.”
Erik’s eyes closed, and he nodded slowly. “The risk that you’ll lose your mental abilities is low,” he tried.
It was the same argument he’d been making for days, ever since Dr. Patel informed us that he had a working cure. The breakthrough was largely due to Phi’s blood and something Penny had found in Mac’s files. The only problem was nearly twenty percent of his test subjects lost their natural talents along with the created ones. Sure, the risk was sort of low. Not low enough for me, though.
Maybe it was selfish. Maybe it was stupid, especially after what had happened to Penny. But the drug wasn’t what killed her. It was ultimately the power. It was too much. My issue was the opposite. I could handle the power because I was born with it. The creation drug had caused deterioration in my brain, but nowhere near as much as others. Dr. Patel said it was because I was an oddity, an outlier.
I had a different theory.
The reason I was different was likely because of the radioactive isotope from the lakes of Paradis that my father used to make the prenatal vitamins for my mother. I was no scientist, so I didn’t really understand the how. I just knew it was the reason.
My father’s research was still in our house—my and Erik’s house now. I could’ve given it to Dr. Patel. He could’ve told me precisely the how. But no one was ever going to see that research. No one would ever get their hands on the remaining vials of water from Paradis. No one should have that sort of power.
Crane worried if anyone ever found out what my parents had done, they would come after me. Just like the McDonoughs had. My blood was the only chance of isolating the isotope ever again. UNITED destroyed the supply Gretchen kept at the Privileged Institute in France, though no one aside from Crane knew just how crucial that destruction was. The only place to get my blood now was straight from the source.
I wanted to say it was the reason I couldn’t risk losing my powers. I needed to defend myself, after all. But that wasn’t really true. I loved being Talented.
Erik and I walked back to our house hand-in-hand. His trip to West Bank was his last official duty for UNITED. Dr. Patel was more than happy to visit Capri to give my boyfriend the cure. Crane and Brand flew down every weekend, so they could’ve brought it with them. Really, Erik’s trip wasn’t medically necessary. It was symbolic.
As a continuing effort to rebuild relationships between the Talented and the norms, Crane planned to announce the cure live on international television. And Erik, as UNITED’s favorite poster boy, was going to receive it with the
eyes of the world watching.
As for me, I would do the same thing I’d done every one of the last sixty-three days. I would take Alex horseback riding on the trails near our home. We would eat lunch on the highest bluffs of Capri and watch for dolphins in the sea below. Then, we would visit the lemon orchards on the back of our property and lay a single flower on each of the three gravestones.
There, beneath the largest tree is where the man and the lady live. As of sixty-three days ago, it’s where my most loved friend lives, too.
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, this book wouldn’t have ever been completed without the unwavering support of Elise Walls. Thank you for becoming the third member of our tripod, can’t wait to see where we end up!
Thank you of course to our families. It has been a long journey since we released the first book in the Talented Saga, and we have had so much support throughout the ride. Thank you especially to Lolo for everything she does on a daily basis for all of us.
Special thank you to Doug and Lillian at the Domes Nature Retreat, for allowing us to share their slice of heaven while drafting this book. The mountains were the perfect setting, and the hospitality was unparalleled. Thank you so much for everything, we’ll be back!
Thank you to everyone at ARRIVE in Palm Springs for letting me hang out and work during the re-writing and editing stages of this book! Special thanks to Sarah, Kylie, Alanna, Cesar, Shayne, Nick and Toby- no matter how often I posted up at the bar with my laptop, everyone was always so chill and nice about it. Sorry for drinking all the Tipsy Buddha!
Thank you to our agents, Hannah Ekren and Dana Spector, for being so incredibly supportive of our books. We are so grateful that we get to work with you both!
