Read Online Captivated (Talented Saga #3.5) by Sophie Davis - Free Book Online

between Crane and
Talia before answering. “He’s alive,” she said slowly. “Our sources
confirm that he has been meeting with Dr. Wythe twice a day.” Penny
shuddered when she said Dr. Wythe’s name, and rubbed her right arm.
She was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, but the shirt moved up her
forearm when she rubbed it. Tiny, red dots lined the blue vein
running from her wrist to the crook of her elbow.
    A hollow feeling filled my gut
that had nothing to do with the fact I’d had little more to eat
than stale bread since coming to Tramblewood. The pin pricks on
Penny’s arm were identical to the ones on mine. Suddenly, I wasn’t
so sure these visions were hallucinations.
    “Do we know whether he’s divulged
her whereabouts?” Crane asked. His tone was all business, but his
dark eyes were sympathetic when he glanced at Talia.
    “Erik would never do that,” Talia said
defiantly.
    Again, my name on her lips was
almost too much. The air in my cell seemed to thin, making it hard
to catch my breath. Longing to see her in the flesh, to touch her
smooth skin, nearly pulled me out of the vision. But I didn’t care
whether the visions were real or not, being able to see her like
this was what kept me going and I wasn’t ready to break the
connection.
    “No, of course not,” Penny said
quickly. “But the drugs they are giving him are supposed to make
him suggestible.”
    Talia’s eyes narrowed to slits,
all of the color drained from her face. “What drugs are they giving
him?”
    No one answered her. Impatiently,
she repeated her question.
    “The creation drug most likely,”
Crane finally said, heaving a huge sigh. “They are likely giving
him a version of the creation drug with a viewing talent signature
so that they can use him to track you. Given the fact that you two
are so close, it would be easy for him to see you.”
    The look of horror and disgust on
Talia’s face after hearing Crane’s declaration matched my own. She
doubled over, clutching her stomach, and I worried she was about to
be sick. Then I worried I was about to be sick.
    I rolled on to my side,
dry-heaving over the side of the bed. This
isn’t real, this isn’t real, I chanted
over and over again in my head. Please
don’t let this be real.
    These visions weren’t
hallucinations at all. Talia was actually sitting in a room, in a
home on the beach, with Crane, Penny, and Brand – whoever he was.
Penny was alive. Talia had gone to Crane for help – help rescuing
me.
    “I don’t care what they do him,
Erik will not break.” Talia’s voice pulled me back to the room.
With my eyes open, I saw the scene with Talia and Crane, but
instead of the crystal clear view I had moments before, now my cell
was bleeding into the image. I saw them both at the same time, like
two pictures overlaid one on top of the other. It made my head
hurt.
    Talia and the room began to fade
as my cell became the dominant image. I wanted to scream, cry out
to her that I was okay and would never betray her. That would have
been pointless, though. Even if the visions were real, I was merely
an observer; I could hear them, see them, but not the other way
around, like a one-way mirror.
    The cell door creaked open, bright
white light illuminated the ancient stone wall, and Talia was gone.
A guard, Rigsby, stepped inside. Rigsby was one of the better ones;
he always brought beef jerky and cheese to go along with the stale
bread. And he was the only guard who didn’t serve me dirty
water.
    “You have a visitor, Kelley,”
Rigsby said in a gruff voice. His tone caused my muscles to tense
and my adrenaline to spike.
    “Who is it?” I asked, my own voice sounded scratchy
from lack of use.
    “Mr. McDonough.”
    My hackles were up as I swung my
legs over the side of the mattress. The Director hadn’t paid me a
personal visit in my cell since my first day at Tramblewood, and
the encounter hadn’t been pleasant. The pain that shot through my
knee made me wince, but I gritted