Free Bound by Duty (Bound Series Book 1) by Stormy Smith Page B

apparent as he, too, couldn’t move. I closed my eyes and tried to breathe. There had been just one other time where I had done this, I was about twelve and my father caught me trying to use my power to heal a bird I had found with a broken wing. He came storming out of the house as I was gingerly holding the small bird amid the swirling violet smoke and whispering, “Heal his wing, heal his wing, heal his wing.” Even though I thought I had been hiding in the barn, he somehow always knew when I was using my power and snatched the tiny creature from my even smaller hands. Based on the look in his eyes, the frantic “hide the truth” look I always saw when he stopped me from using my power, I just knew he would kill it to stop me from trying to help it.
    I screamed as I reached out with both hands and it all stopped. Though his eyes flashed green and stayed that way, my father was completely frozen. So, I carefully took the bird from his frozen palm and ran off. I didn’t come back home for hours, terrified of how long I might be locked in my room this time, but he never spoke of it again. He did, however, give me a wide berth for a few weeks.
    I looked around at the immobilized students in the hallway, took another deep breath, and whispered to myself, “Let them go, let them go, let them go.” The only thing I could think to do was tell my rogue power what I hoped it would do. It was only a few more seconds before the noises resumed and everyone continued on as if nothing had happened. Micah, on the other hand, looked a little wary. Clearing his throat, he stammered, “Well, that was, um, interesting. You, uh, might want to reign that in if you don’t want every Immortal within a hundred miles making a beeline for you.”
    I simply stood there, feeling ashamed and frustrated, not even fully grasping what Micah had said until he walked away. Why would I be drawing anyone to me? Couldn’t everyone do this stuff?

Chapter 7
    That was two. Between the night on the cliffs and my run-in with Micah, that was two major magical outbursts and Cole had to be looped in. He’d been my constant, even when he was gone, and I always told him when I learned something new about myself. He had been mentally cataloging all of my random acts for years and trying to figure out why my power was so different from everyone else’s while he traveled the country. We knew we were Elders and that Elders were supposed to be pretty powerful, but now knowing Queen Julia killed them all, it made sense that they were another thing no one talked about. Just like AniMages. So, there were no records specifically of the female Elders’ scope of power, no stories told at school or history lessons on the heroines of our time. My violet eyes were a dead giveaway for anyone who at least knew that much about Elders, but even those people seemed few and far between. The Mages I had grown up with never saw me lose control, so they never commented on my distinctive power color.
    I walked into the gym to find Cole in his office. I didn’t knock; instead, I just dropped into the seat in front of his desk. Without even looking up, Cole said, “You have something to tell me?”
    I was standing there, mouth agape. “How do you do that, Cole? How do you always know?” I never got used to him being able to read me like that.
    He finally looked up and his eyes gave away the concern he had been trying to hide. “Ame, I felt you before you even walked in the door. Something happened that you didn’t like and it’s hurting you. I can feel it all.” He shook his head in clear exasperation. “We’ve got to find someone who can help you start to hide that stuff. I just wish I knew how to help,” he sighed, also constantly frustrated that his own power wasn’t consistent or easy to explain.
    “It’s happening again,” I said. “The random stuff I don’t mean to do. Well, I guess one of the times I meant to, but then I was blasting rocks apart and it felt