Unbound (Unbound, Book 1) ~Formerly Casting Power~

Chapter 19

"See you later," I promised Nancy after school, just before she scurried off to her first cheerleading practice of the year.

With a sigh, I went out front to wait for my mother, hoping to get home and relax before having to check on Julian's availability and go to Nancy's. I stood by the curb, shifting my weight from foot to foot as I watched other students being picked up by friends or parents. Craning my neck, I hitched my bag over my shoulder and looked down the line of vehicles, but I couldn't see the navy Jeep Compass my mother drove. I sat down and rested my elbows on my knees, my chin in my hands.

A half-hour passed, and the parking lot grew silent.

When I was the only person left, I knew my mother had forgotten me. For what, I didn't know, but Nancy was in practice for at least another hour. At this point, it would be quicker for me to walk, and I was thankful that nightmares no longer exhausted me. Standing, I pulled my bag's strap over my head so that it hung diagonally across my chest and started trudging down the street. What should have taken ten minutes by car took me forty-five, and that was only because I was able to take a shortcut through the park.

Thinking I could avoid facing my mother—if she was home—I went around to the back of the house to enter through the back door. My hand paused as I heard voices wafting out through the screen of the open kitchen window. No wonder she hadn't remembered to pick me up. Whoever she was speaking with was angry and, judging from my mother's less-than-patient response, they'd been conversing for a while.

"I just want to know how to do it!" a girl who sounded close to my age demanded, and I heard my mother sigh.

"I won't teach you how to do something that stems from ill intent," was my mother's response. From her tone, I could tell that she was exasperated.

"Like you've never done anything like this."

"I don't—"

"I heard about what you did a couple of months ago, Vavila. With that missing girl? The Council denies their involvement, and everyone knows that means you were the only one that could have stepped in."

"I haven't left Briarville. Whoever helped that girl get home safely has my gratitude. I felt ill over the situation." My mother sighed. "Look, when you do something for the good of others, it can mean you have to do things that you wouldn't normally do. That doesn't mean you do those things to benefit yourself, so I'm sorry. I can't help you."

"Then what kind of leader are you?" the girl spat.

My mother's voice rose and, even through my binds, I could feel her authority. "The kind that must kindly ask you to leave and return only when you have your temper in check." There was a pause, then the sound of a chair moving back as my mother added, "And I must ask that you share the fact that I was in Briarville when the missing girl was located. There was no possible way that I could have been the one who helped her."

My mother obviously left out the fact that she was able to do things that were thought impossible. I wondered about the truth of what she was saying—it wasn't like she outright denied being involved. Would she tell me the truth if I asked? Now that we'd stopped learning about relaxation techniques, she had opened a new chapter into the Craft that I hadn't imagined could exist. All the things that shouldn't be able to be accomplished by any one person, but she could do—anything she thought I would be able to do except the nuances of stripping or binding someone's magic. Still, even though she told me it was possible, she never explained how to sense the use of someone else's magic.

"Whatever you say."

I exhaled as I heard footsteps and rushed to the back door, opening it just as whoever had been there was stepping out of the kitchen. All I could see was long dark hair before the girl disappeared. She was stomping so hard, I doubted she heard me, and I sucked in a deep breath as the front door of the house slammed shut with her exit.