Bound - The Primori Academy

The Street Corner

A bus passed between them and just like on her birthday, he disappeared again. She made her way over to where he had been a moment ago.

She hadn't really expected to find lingering warmth or some impossible trace that proved he'd been standing there only moments before. The wall was nothing more than weathered brick and aging mortar, solid beneath her fingertips, carrying only the faint scent of dust warmed by the afternoon sun.

The bookstore door stood open behind her, releasing the comforting smell of old paper and worn leather bindings. Somewhere inside, pages turned quietly.

"Can I help you find something?"

The gentle voice startled her.

Catalina turned to find an older woman looking up from behind the front counter, reading glasses perched low on her nose. She offered Catalina a polite smile, completely unaware that someone had seemingly vanished from the sidewalk only seconds earlier.

Catalina glanced back toward the empty stretch of brick.

Nothing. No trace of him.

"No," she said quietly. "I'm sorry. I thought I saw someone."

The woman smiled kindly before returning to her book.

Catalina lingered another moment before stepping back onto the sidewalk. The crowd swallowed her almost immediately, conversations drifting around her while the city carried on as though nothing extraordinary had happened.

Maybe nothing extraordinary had happened.

Maybe she was losing her mind.

Except...

She knew she wasn't.

The creature had been real. The light had been real. The dagger had glowed in her hand. And the stranger with golden eyes had spoken her name twice now.

She walked back toward the hospital with more questions than answers, the warmth beneath her skin returning in faint, familiar pulses that rose and faded with every few steps. By the time the hospital came into view, the uneasy sensation had settled beneath her ribs again, quiet but persistent, like something waiting.

The automatic doors slid open. The familiar smell of disinfectant washed over her.

She barely reached Mary's room before she heard the alarms. A sharp, rapid beeping shattered the quiet hallway. Someone shouted for a doctor. Another voice called for a crash cart. Catalina's stomach dropped.

She ran.

The room erupted into motion before she reached the doorway. Nurses hurried toward the bed while one reached for the call button above Mary's head. The heart monitor screamed in frantic bursts as Mary's body convulsed violently against the mattress.

"Grandma!"

Catalina rushed to her side before anyone could stop her.

One of the nurses reached toward her.

"Miss, you need to step back."

She couldn't.

Mary's eyes remained closed, her face twisted with pain she couldn't even feel. Her entire body shook uncontrollably beneath the blankets.

Catalina's own hands began to tremble. Not from fear. From recognition. The same warmth she'd felt in the parking lot stirred beneath her skin. The same impossible hum.

No...

Please...

She reached for Mary's hand without thinking.

It was cold. Far colder than it should have been.

The room around her dissolved into frantic voices and hurried footsteps, but Catalina barely heard them. All she could think about was the parking lot. The creature. The light that had answered her when she'd believed she was about to die.

She closed her eyes.

Not because she knew what to do.

Because she didn't.

Please, she thought desperately. If you're real...help her.

For one terrifying heartbeat...

Nothing happened.

Then warmth flooded through her fingers.

It spread so suddenly she gasped, instinctively tightening her grip around Mary's hand. Light shimmered beneath Catalina's skin, faint enough that it remained hidden beneath the bright hospital lights, traveling in soft ribbons from her wrist into Mary's fingers.

It didn't blaze. It flowed. Gentle. Quiet. Alive. She didn't know what no one but her could see this happening. All she wanted to do was save her grandmother.

The hum beneath Catalina's skin vanished as quickly as it had come.

Mary's body stilled.

The violent shaking stopped. The alarms changed. One by one, the frantic tones settled into steady, rhythmic beeps.

The room fell strangely quiet.

A doctor hurried through the doorway only seconds later, pushing past Catalina to examine Mary while nurses checked monitors and medications with practiced efficiency.

"What happened?" he asked.

The nurse nearest the bed shook her head.

"The seizure just...stopped."

The doctor frowned at the monitor before looking down at Mary. Her heartbeat had steadied. Her breathing had evened out. Everything looked...normal. Catalina slowly released Mary's hand. Warmth still lingered against her palm.

She stared down at her trembling fingers, unable to tear her eyes away.

The doctors called it a spontaneous recovery. A seizure that had resolved on its own. No one questioned it. No one looked at her.No one noticed the faint shimmer that disappeared beneath her skin.

Catalina swallowed hard. She hadn't imagined the warmth. She hadn't imagined the light. And this time...

It hadn't saved her. It had saved someone she loved, and it had harmed a monster too. She wondered to herself, what else could she do?

She didn't know yet that her abilities were only the beginning.