Free The Reckoning by Teyla Branton Page B

mind. He nodded as I added, But close your shield tightly just in case.
    Dimitri sat beside me and took one of my hands that were pressed against the top of the table. His touch immediately soothed and relaxed me. I stared into the healer’s face. He had dark hair, a narrow nose, a trim mustache, and brown eyes—calming eyes with a wide oval shape that I’d inherited from him, my biological father. I’d long ago come to terms with how he and Ava had used my parent’s infertility to create me, and in fact I was deeply grateful. Without Dimitri’s genetic material, I would have been seven generations removed from Ava, which meant no chance of carrying the active Unbounded gene. No chance of ever Changing. But they had interfered, giving me not only life, but a chance at near immortality. My existence was uncertain now, that was true, but it was also exhilarating.
    His calm pervaded my body. I took a slow, deep breath and let it out again. Though Ritter was behind me and I couldn’t see him, his life force was a glowing beacon to me despite his strong mental shield. I would know it anywhere.
    “Ready?” Ava asked, slipping into the chair next to me and taking my other hand.
    I nodded and opened my mind to her.
    “Dimitri,” Ava said softly, “please monitor her vitals and let me know of any change. You know what to look for.”
    I was glad someone did because I had no idea what I was doing. I felt a tremor of terror. Delia hadn’t put this thing in my head to help me. She wanted me dead. She wanted to use me first, but ultimately, she wanted me dead.
    That’s because you’re a danger to her, Ava told me. Show me the box.
    In my mind I led the way, kneeling next to the shiny black container I had created. See the two blue threads of light? I asked, hoping they were in my imagination.
    I see them. Her tone was different now. Fearful? It was hard to tell. You are stronger than she is, Ava added, and I knew my own fear was showing too plainly.
    Clamping down on my emotions, I reached out to the box, running my thoughts over it. Warmth filled me, coming from whatever was inside. I lifted the lid, opening it as if it had hinges on the back, though there were no seams.
    Instead of the short, thin, snakelike thread that I’d imprisoned inside two weeks earlier, Delia’s construct had doubled in width and now coiled in on itself, around and around, filling up all the space in the box and squishing into the corners. Ava gasped, or I did. It was hard to tell where her thoughts ended and mine began.
    The black snake started writhing as we watched. An end slipped over the edge of the container.
    Panicking, I pushed my thoughts along one of the blue lights that seemed to be more solid now. Was Delia connected at the end somewhere, or was it just a gateway she could enter later? I’d find whatever it was and sever it right now.
    No! Ava told me, even as Dimitri’s hand squeezed mine.
    “Whatever you’re doing, you really should stop,” Dimitri said. “You’re losing strength. Very fast.”
    He was right. As I pushed out my thoughts, using my ability, my energy burned like gasoline on fire.
    Look at it. Ava’s voice forced me back to awareness of the snake, which now spilled over the top of the box on three sides, multiplying at a tremendous rate. Aloud, Ava said, “It’s growing as Erin uses her ability. The box stemmed it before but now it’s spilling out, and—”
    We’ll never get it back inside, I finished her thought.
    Not as the box is now, she agreed, but you can make the box a little bigger and a lot stronger. It’s made of your thoughts so you can change it. I’ll help. Show me what you did.
    I touched the smooth sides of the container, stretching it taller. Ava followed my actions, pulling it wider and reinforcing it with her own thoughts. Now to replace the spilled parts of the snake.
    “Whatever you do, don’t touch it,” Ritter said.
    A chill spread through me. He’d closed his barrier, but