Free Bound by Prophecy (Bound Series Book 3) by Stormy Smith Page B

Bethany Jackson.
    She mimicked the women’s complaints and I couldn’t stop the laughter from coming. Soon, tears leaked from my eyes. I wanted Bethany to keep making me laugh and telling me stories, but we both knew that wasn’t why we were in here.
    “I appreciate the distraction, B, and I needed to laugh more than I even realized, but this doesn’t change anything,” I said as I met her eyes, keeping my tone level. “I’m a danger to these people. Even without the Keeper, I don’t know what I’m capable of. I can’t be out there among them. It’s reckless. And the women with babies…what if I hurt their kids? I’d never forgive myself.” I was shaking my head as the “what if” thoughts swirled around and the worst of the worst ended up planted in my mind.
    When I looked up at Bethany, I expected her to be nodding and giving me the appropriate amount of sympathy. Instead, I met one sculpted eyebrow and a scowl.
    “What?” I asked, my tone a little more screechy than it should have been. I reached for Cole’s power. It had become instinct over the past day to call on the pilfered magic now floating in my veins alongside my own.
    “You actually believe what you’re saying, don’t you?” she asked as she shook her head.
    “Yes, B, I do believe it,” I said. I could see she didn’t understand, so I continued, allowing the calm inside to stretch into my tone. “Okay, let’s play this out. I go out there and start interacting with people. Someone touches me, or we’re attacked, or I just get scared…I have never had my own power without the Keeper being a part of me. I don’t know how I will react to any of those situations. I could hurt someone, don’t you understand?” I paused, and added quietly, “I stole my brother’s power. I changed him forever.”
    I was shocked when she leaned in and in the most patronizing tone, said, “No, you didn’t. He gave it to you. He told you to take it. He told you it was yours and you needed it and it was the reason your mamma gave him all that power anyway.”
    My head shot up as she continued. “Do you know how I know that? I know because he told me so . And do you know what that means, Miss ‘nobody likes me, I should go eat worms’? That means he doesn’t hold this against you. And if he doesn’t hold it against you, you damn well can’t hold it against yourself .” With each of those last words, she tapped me in the middle of my chest and then sat back, crossed her arms, and silently dared me to argue.
    I stared at her, opening and closing my mouth as I tried to find the right words, but nothing came. Finally, I snapped my mouth shut and Charlie snorted, an amused little grunt that came with a wave of emotion that said I told you so .
    “Oh, shut up, dog. I don’t need to be tag-teamed.” I threw the words over my shoulder as I crossed my own arms and scowled at Bethany’s growing grin.
    “Just because Cole doesn’t hate me doesn’t invalidate the rest. I could hurt people. Those women and their babies. I still don’t know what’s inside me.” My head bounced back and forth in time with my quiet retort, but she just rolled her eyes.
    “You don’t even understand what’s out there, Ame. All those Mages and AniMages have crazy special abilities and he has been out there cataloging them all,” she said, absently waving her hand toward the door Micah stood behind.
    “We’ve also got Baleon here, and Elias, and even Aidan. Who knows what’s locked up inside Mr. AniMage King out there? Everybody here is in the same boat. Nobody knows who’s got what, what they are entirely capable of, or what’s going to happen to them, but you know what they all do know?”
    She waited for me to respond, her smug smirk making her impatience clear. “What?” I finally asked with a sigh.
    “They know they’ve been hearing ‘bout this ‘prophecy’ their whole lives and now the two people clearly called out in it are within fifty feet of them