Oath Bound (Unbound) - By Rachel Vincent Page 0,109
I could answer, she stared down at the bottle in her hands and seemed to be reassessing her own question. “We should have just killed them ourselves.” She took a long swig. Then one more. “It would have been a mercy.”
Anger blazed in my chest like heartburn. “How the hell is death a mercy?” My parents wouldn’t have considered their deaths a mercy. Neither would my sister. And losing them was about as far from merciful as an act can be.
“No offense, Sera, but you have no idea what you’re talking about. That’s what makes you dangerous.” Kori’s gaze pinned me like an insect tacked open for display. I felt as though she could see what was inside me. And she didn’t look impressed. “You have more Skills than anyone I’ve ever met, but you don’t know how to use them. You have power Julia Tower would slaughter half the planet to keep for herself, but you don’t know how to control it. And you brought all that to our doorstep. Like she needed another reason to hunt us down.”
Kris stood and tried to take the bottle from her, but she pulled it out of his reach and swigged again. “Kori, back off. None of this is her fault.”
“When has that ever mattered?” she demanded, and when Ian stood for the bottle, she actually let him have it. But her frustration didn’t fade. “The whole damn thing was Jake’s fault, and he lived like a fucking king. Now Julia’s taken over where he left off, and if she’s suffering guilt or grief, she’s hiding it really well.” She turned to me then, while we all stared at her. “That’s what you don’t understand, Sera, seeing as how you just fell off the family tree into a pile of money and power. The Tower birthright isn’t just fortune and clout. No matter how you use it, it’s an obligation. A responsibility you can’t shirk. If you abuse it, like Julia, people will die. If you waste it—if you hide out with us and do nothing—people will die, because Julia will kill them.”
“Kori, that’s enough.” Kris glanced at Mitch, to make sure he wasn’t trying to pull something while they were all distracted, then turned back to his sister. “Picking a fight with your allies isn’t going to help.”
“You think I’m hiding?” I could feel my cheeks burn. But wasn’t she right? Wasn’t I hiding from Julia with them, even as I hid them from Julia?
Kori pushed Kris out of her way and took two steps toward the table. “I think that if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.”
“That’s not fair.” Kris’s jaw clenched in anger at his own sister, and something in my chest tightened. Then warmed. “Sera didn’t ask for this. You said it yourself, Kor, she fell into this mess. Not everyone eats and breathes revolution, you know.”
He was trying to help. I knew that, and it was so sweet, and I was certainly grateful, but somehow his words chafed even worse than his sister’s.
I stood and pushed my chair back, but when Mitch tried to stand, I shook my head, and he sank back into his seat with a scowl. “Is that what you all think?” I glanced from face to face, wordlessly demanding the truth. “That I’m some helpless, useless little twit who can’t protect herself or her family, or enact her own justice?”
Kris shook his head and Ian frowned, but Kori only pressed her lips together and crossed her arms over her chest.
That was what they thought. And why shouldn’t they? I’d lived when my entire family died because I’d hidden. I was still hiding.
“That’s what Julia Tower’s counting on,” Kris said softly, and Kori and Ian nodded in agreement.
“Well, then, she’s wrong. And she’s going to figure that out the hard way.” Kris smiled, but everyone else flinched when I held Mitch’s gun up to get a better look at it. A better feel for it. “If you guys can teach me how to use this and show me what I don’t yet know about my own Skills, I think we can bring the fight to her. And along the way, we can release every Tower employee we come across, until there are too many for her to hunt down.”
“Won’t work,” Mitch said, and I ignored him.
“Won’t matter,” Kori added. “If Julia isn’t already binding more to herself directly—making Kenley’s bindings obsolete—she will be soon.”