Free No Such Thing by Michelle O'Leary Page B

due speed past the large woman she’d been introduced to earlier. He dutifully showed her each of the blind spots, eyes alight
    with something that was as unnerving to Ryelle as it was intriguing, though he kept his thoughts and his hands to himself. They finished with another
    grav-trolley ride through the engine cavern.
    During this extended tour, they spoke of other things besides the ship functions. Ryelle discovered that he was an only child, too, with his mother as his
    only living relative. She was fascinated by this similarity between them when so many other facets of their lives were so different. When he docked the
    grav-trolley, she pretended not to notice that the ride was over, bombarding him with questions about his life in the Nine Rings. She was captivated not
    only by his accounts of life in one of the rougher edges of the colonized worlds, but also by how he related his stories—animated amusement,
    affectionate contempt, embarrassed eagerness, open and uninhibited honesty. She gathered from his experiences that some people held the Nine Rings in low
    esteem, but Declan defended his home with such easy affection in his warm honey voice that Ryelle discovered a burning need to go there.
    His accounts of how he’d lived in the Nine Rings were as alien to her as the GenTec way of life, but much more attractive. He’d had a loving,
    supportive mother, freedom to do as he pleased, friends to get into trouble with, and even enemies that he’d fought with cheerful abandon. His life
    sounded so normal. She knew that her life at the Institute wasn’t normal even for telenetics, but when he asked her about it and she began to
    describe how she lived, his frozen expression told her that it was a lot less normal than she’d suspected.
    "You’re never allowed out?"
    Ryelle clasped her hands in her lap, letting her eyes fall to the cavern below. Here it was, the part she’d been avoiding, the explanation of just
    how different she was from anyone else. Just how dangerous she was. Clearing her throat, she said carefully, "The Institute feels that frequent and
    prolonged contact with the public would be detrimental for telenetics. That’s why we aren’t seen in public venues very often. There are strict
    laws governing telenetic behavior, and if we ever found ourselves in a situation where we felt it necessary to defend ourselves, we might act in ways that
    contradicted those laws."
    "Defend yourselves?"
    "Not everyone appreciates our unique abilities."
    He was silent for a moment and Ryelle bit the inside of her cheek, hoping he’d leave that part alone. She liked spending time with him. She did not
    want to ruin the atmosphere by having a political discussion that could turn uncomfortable.
    "Yeah, I’d heard that," he said in a neutral tone and she took a peek at him. He was leaning forward with his elbows on knees and head
    tilted at a thoughtful angle, staring at his interwoven fingers. "I guess I can see their point, protecting telenetics from that sort of thing…
    But you said they never let you out. You said this was your first trip outside Institute grounds."
    Ryelle grimaced. Might as well get it over with. Enough stalling. "I am the most powerful telenetic they’ve ever seen. My abilities manifested
    at a much younger age than usual. I was a—difficult child to control. Most telenetic children are separated from their families, at least at first,
    so that they will form close bonds with their teachers and handlers. But when they tried to take me away from my mother, I…I leveled the
    Institute."
    She paused to swallow the shame of that loss of control, that five-year-old panic attack which had governed their attitudes and actions toward her ever
    since. Without looking at Declan, she finished her confession, tightening her clasped fingers until they hurt. "All seven buildings of it. They had
    enough telenetic talent around to keep anyone from getting killed, but not enough to control me at the same