Page 6 of Bound By the Moon

“When I was there, it was common knowledge that theydid horrible things to the girls in that room. They were used indifferent ways than we were.” Natalia confirmed.

“How do you know she was there?”

“I found her bracelet. My mother gave each of us onewhen we young, and bid us never take them off.” Natalia saw me lookto her wrists for the telltale bracelet, but there wasn’t one.“Antoine had a lady friend of his take mine off of me. She had toput some special sauce, um, not sauce, but special lotion maybe onmy arm to make it fall off.”

I looked at Evan, oddly curious about the importanceof these bracelets now, and making note to share this informationwith Serena. Perhaps she could make sense of it.

Evan nodded his head, and pulled Natalia in closerto him. “Nat, lost it. She fell to the floor, crying, and when shedid this glow erupted from her. All around us, the neglected deadplants just kind of blossomed and started coming back around. Theyheld the same faint glow she did at first, and then it would fadeaway, but the healthy blossoming plants remained.”

“I don’t know what happened, or why I can do thesethings. You have to believe me.” Natalia’s eyes rose to meet myown, and all I saw there was fear. “I didn’t try to hurt your baby,only bless her like our people always do.” Tears were streamingdown the girl’s face as I went to her and put my arm around theside that wasn’t held tightly to Evan.

“It’s okay. We’ll figure it out.” I whispered toher. I know just the person to ask for help.

“We tried,” she told me. “There was a lady, Layla,she was like walking moonbeams to me, so beautiful. We tried totalk to her about what was happening to me, and she helped me getcontrol of it, when it was obvious I couldn’t stop the light fromcoming.” Natalia looked over to where Mikael now held Willow. “Idid not mean for the light to leak out around her, but I don’tthink it will hurt her either.”

I spoke to Evan then, “this Layla, she was awitch?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know anything else about her, that might beuseful?” Something about that name was niggling at the back of mymind for some reason. I just couldn’t pinpoint why.

“She told us she would much rather consult with oneof her sisters, because she wasn’t that great with creation andhealing magic. She said the most she could do was teach Natalia tocontrol it, so that it wouldn’t overwhelm her and show itself atinopportune times.”

“What did the other sister say, when this Laylaconsulted her?” I asked.

“She didn’t say anything. I wasn’t about to trustyet another witch after what I watched you go through with Sophia.I told her not to contact anyone else, and just to teach Nat how tocontrol it. It was a good place to start anyway.” Evan’s cobalteyes stared into mine pleadingly. “Jess you have to believe thatshe didn’t mean any harm.”

“I believe you both, but we still don’t know whatthe light means, or what it might lead to.” I shivered a littlewhen I thought about all the possibilities. “I’m going to callSerena. If she’s still close by, maybe she can stop in and have alook at Willow, then take a peek at what’s going on with Natalia.You never know, she may be more forthcoming with an explanation, orknow of a better way to help since what you’re doing isn’t workingvery well.”

“Thanks, Jess.”

“Yeah, just don’t be offended when I ask you to staywith someone else while you’re here. No one seems to know what thehell is going on with Natalia’s glowing abilities, and until weunderstand it, I can’t have her around my daughter.”

“I understand.” Natalia said quickly, as she grabbedmy hand in an apologetic gesture. I didn’t mean to, but everywherethat her skin touched my own began to tingle, so my initialreaction was to snatch my hand back immediately. Natalia lookedhurt, but said nothing. Evan’s look was less forgiving.

“We’ll go see if Asi has room for us.” His curtannouncement bespoke his irritation.

“No!” The word left my mouth before I could stop it.I knew the moment it came out that it would sound as though I wasgiving them a command, but there was no way I meant for it to comeoff like that. “I mean, I would really like it if you’d stay withmy parents for now.”

“Why the hell would we do that, Jess? Are weprisoners of the pack now?” Evan’s anger was getting the better ofhim, and he wasn’t trying to keep it contained any longer.

“Guests, Evan. My mother’s skills…” I stopped shortof telling him that I thought my mother could tamp down anyoverflowing magic that Natalia was putting off. I honestly didn’twant Natalia herself to know what my mother was capable of.

“Your mother’s skills, what? Could possibly keep usin check, keep us held hostage until your witch of agreat-grandmother gets here to tell you if Nat is safe or not?”

“Stop right there, brother.” Mikael’s sharp tonecaught everyone by surprise, as he had been mostly quiet duringthis exchange. “You are going to remember your place here. Jess isthe White Wolf, the ruler of our people, whether you like it ornot. She is trying to help.”

“Help? She just snatched her own hand away from Nat,like she was burning her.”

“Maybe she was,” Mikael noted. “Did you even thinkto ask?”

“What?” Evan’s shock couldn’t be hidden, neithercould Natalia’s.

“Did you bother to ask Jess why she snatched herhand away?”

“There’s no need. It’s obvious why she did it. She’safraid of what she doesn’t understand.” He sneered at me then, indisdain. “The one person I thought would understand when strangethings started happening to another person.”

“It tingled,” I whispered. Everyone grew quiet,except Evan who was still railing about the injustice of me beingafraid of the unknown. I hadn’t even realized I had been rubbing myhands together for warmth since I pulled away from Natalia’shold.

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