Inescapable (Talented Saga #7) Read Online Free PDF

being wiped
out.”
    Lashing out with one of her long legs, the
councilwoman caught me behind the knees. Though my legs buckled
from the blow, I instinctively kept my body from falling to the
mats. Her golden irises flashed with alarm as a warning expression
flit across Victoria’s otherwise stoic features. I hesitated,
eyeing her skeptically. The councilwoman backed away, retreating
farther towards the glass wall.
    After leaning against it for a moment,
Victoria straightened to her full height, nearly a head taller than
my paltry five-foot-nothing. “Shall we say a draw for today?”
    “ A draw?” I scoffed,
feigning incredulity. I put up my gloved hands and assumed a
fighting stance. “You’re crazier than I am if you think that’s
happening. A forfeit is the only way I’m letting you walk out of
here without another round.”
    “ Technically, Talia, you
suffer from poor judgment, not mental illness,” Victoria said
dryly.
    “ Not yet.”
    We blanched simultaneously, both hearing the
unspoken words in our minds as though we shared the thought. In a
way, that was sort of the case. The thought had been mine; one I
found so troubling that I’d unintentionally projected it to
Victoria.
    Victoria leveled a
disapproving glare on me, expression cold enough to freeze the
sweat on my face. Her mental voice flashed in my head:
“ Careful, Talia. That makes twice in the
last hour. You are getting sloppy.”
    Twice?
    Apparently I was still projecting my
thoughts, because Victoria responded mentally.
    “ You should have fallen
when I kicked you behind the knees,” she
sent.
    Realization dawned. Without even thinking,
I’d used telekinesis to keep myself upright. Using my mental
abilities to inadvertently project my thoughts to Victoria wasn’t
so bad, since the always-watching eyes of Vault wouldn’t have
noticed. But the use of telekinesis would be apparent to anyone
watching closely.
    Wow, I really was getting sloppy. My
talents were supposed to be dormant while I was a prisoner. Using
them at all, much less in a visible manner, was a huge faux pas.
One that would cause a great deal of trouble for several of us, if
it was discovered.
    “ Talia?” Victoria prompted
aloud.
    I sucked in air and plastered on a manic
smile meant to disguise my unease.
    “ I’ll be more
careful,” I sent, then quickly raised my
mental shields.
    “ I mean, if you have more
important things to do than relive your glory days down here with
me, I guess we could continue this tomorrow or whenever,” I
flippantly said aloud, unlacing my sparring gloves.
    “ Believe it or not, I do
have other matters that require my attention.” Following my lead,
Victoria began peeling off her gloves. “Which brings me to the
purpose of my visit.”
    My curiosity instantly
piqued. Yes, I was that bored.
    But Victoria didn’t usually have an agenda
when she visited me on Vault, other than blowing off steam with a
worthy opponent. Since I wasn’t permitted social visits on Level
Five, Victoria’s presence at the prison was supposedly for official
purposes only; the other councilmembers believed she spent time
with me each morning to press me for information regarding the
whereabouts of Kenly Baker. Except, Victoria hadn’t once asked me
about my former mentee.
    While there was a long list of crimes on my
rap sheet, all of which contributed in one way or another to my
arrest, my decision to let Kenly go free was ultimately the reason
for my incarceration. Like so many of us from TOXIC, Kenly had been
infected with the creation drug. According to protocol, once we’d
rescued her from her captors, Kenly should’ve been contained for
observation and eventual treatment to reverse the effects of the
drug. But after all she’d gone through at the hands of the
Poachers—an organization specializing in the capture and sale of
Talents—I couldn’t stomach the thought of Kenly contained in a
medical cube. She’d suffered enough.
    So, I’d traded