Exiled: Kenly's Story (A Talented Novel) Read Online Free PDF Page A

weren’t
actually touching the spoon. She was moving the spoon, stirring the
liquid, with her mind.
    Ghost Girl was a Telekinetic.
    What about her companions?
    My gaze flicked to Spikey-Hair. Slouched,
muscles relaxed, seemingly not a care in the world. It was the
constant movement of his eyes that gave away his nerves, the way
they darted around the room no matter who he was talking to. I
moved on to Platinum Eyes. His posture was military-straight, his
expression blank. No fidgeting came from him, like the other two—no
leg shaking, foot tapping, or nail chewing. His silver eyes were
fixed on the golden couple. Even though they ignored him, they had
to feel the weight of his stare. The death rays he was shooting
from his pupils would have sent TOXIC’s strongest operatives
running for cover.
    Despite a strong desire to uncover the
reason behind Willa’s heart palpitations and what had caused her
to, basically, boot me from her grandfather’s bar, I decided to
heed her warning. Better safe than sorry. Truth be told, her unease
had caught on, and I was no longer feeling confident that I was
safe at the Giraffe.
    Climbing to my feet, I pulled on my rain
jacket in a flash.
    Literally.
    Light Manipulation was one of my new,
Created, powers, and gave me lightning fast reflexes, in addition
to invisibility. In times of stress, I’d found myself using the new
Talent unconsciously. And I’d been a heart attack waiting to happen
since arriving in London.
    Alarm bells rang in my mind. The stares were
like icy laser beams, freezing dime-sized patches of my skin as
they zeroed in on their target. Too many eyes to count were
suddenly on me and I knew I’d just made a critical error. Possibly
fatal. My movements had been too fast, too jerky. Most people
would’ve simply assumed that the lights were playing tricks on
them. Even without analyzing the data, I knew that these people—the
ones no longer pretending I didn’t exist—wouldn’t buy that
explanation.
    Still, the logical part of my brain told me
that the best course of action was to carry on as if nothing had
happened. To pretend like they weren’t all staring at me.
    Don’t meet their eyes. The act will be
perceived as a challenge. Don’t panic. They can smell fear. Slowly,
calmly walk to the door.
    The last bit of my brain’s advice was
hardest to follow. I wasn’t running, not exactly. More like
speed-walking. Either way, it was the opposite of sauntering out
without a care in the world. Unease was now full-blown alarm, and
my Created Talents were becoming harder to control. As if my
earlier slip wasn’t bad enough, I began to flicker like an
apparition in one of the old horror movies my friends and I used to
watch.
    No, no, no. Calm. Stay
calm, stay alive, I lectured
myself.
    Unfortunately, my growing distress wasn’t
helping these efforts whatsoever.
    Breathe in, breathe out. Control your
Talents, don’t let them control you.
    This voice, from a distant memory I’d been
trying to forget, was not mine. Normally, it would’ve been beyond
unwelcome. Now, though, I clung to her advice and used it to anchor
my thoughts. I was in control.
    Still, as I pushed the door open, my fingers
were barely visible against the wooden slab. Once out in the watery
night, I did a cursory check of the street and, seeing no one, went
fully incorporeal. And then, I ran.

INVISIBILITY IS THE ultimate freedom. There
is no judgment, no condemnation. You hear and see so much more than
you otherwise would. Extremely perceptive people, usually other
Talents, can see a slight disturbance in the air, the faint shimmer
of an outline. But even those people have to know that you’re
nearby, to notice it.
    Ordinarily, I savored that freedom; it was
the only time I felt truly safe. Tonight, though, I wasn’t just
using my Created Talent to take a leisurely stroll through the
park, browse some high-end boutique that I had no business
visiting, or eavesdrop on whispered conversations. Tonight