Bound by Duty

Chapter Seven

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 really good. But, today...today I froze a hallway of people. All of them, Cole."

I went from remembering the high of being out on those cliffs to the low of knowing I had affected so many people unintentionally. I know I didn't hurt them, but I shouldn't be able to just do this kind of stuff on accident.

"Oh, and after the rock blasting thing, I passed out. Like, completely dropped to the ground and lost a few hours." Those words were a little more subdued. I looked up from under my lashes, a little afraid of his response. Knowing Cole was always concerned, I wasn't shocked to find him staring at me open-mouthed.

"Just gonna toss that one out there, huh? No big deal? You passed out after blasting rocks apart on a cliff and that's just typical Amelia, right? Froze a bunch of humans on accident. Standard week, eh?" The sentence got louder with every word and he was hollering at me by the end. I shrunk a little in my seat. "It's one thing when you're trying to keep a lid on your power until we figure it out. But, really, Amelia, what do you want me to do? You completely lost control and woke up hours later on some cliffs? What if something had happened to you? How am I supposed to react when you tell me about this stuff?"

His accusing tone set me off in the complete opposite direction and I stood up to do some yelling of my own. "You? How are you supposed to react? I don't know, Cole, I'm not sure how I am supposed to react. I froze those people today in the hall while Micah was yelling at me about 'us Mages needing to stick together' for the umpteenth time and I couldn't unfreeze them. I didn't know how to unfreeze them because I didn't actually mean to freeze them in the first place. And, on the cliffs? That... that was amazing. That was the first time I've ever gotten to use my power the way I wanted to and it felt great. I felt whole and alive and real. And then, I crumpled. I couldn't even stay awake. So, you want to talk to me about what you're supposed to do? I don't give a damn what you're supposed to do. You just drop the bomb on me that I'm the last female Elder and, in all likelihood, I'm going to get used and abused by some psychopath, and I'm supposed to worry about how you're reacting?" I could only take shallow breaths as I struggled to tamp down the panic building inside me.