“You won’t, but if you did, then a couple of things would happen. First, your power is going to rebound or resist you. Then—”
“Hold on, rebound? What does that mean?”
He smirks and I narrow my eyes. “There have been times in my life where I’ve been, let’s call it curious, and I’ve attempted to take a peek into the future for the hell of it. That’s a realmly no-no. My power knows that, I know that, so it rebounds. Snaps back into me and leaves me with a raging headache.”
“Okay, so that’s a natural consequence of you doing something you know you shouldn’t?”
“Exactly. Then if you decide to push through that resistance, over time, the power is no longer consequence, it’s judgment and punishment. Your power becomes…”
He trails off, giving me a sad smile and my mind races to finish his sentence, but it isn’t coming to me.
“Corrupt,” Creed grumbles.
Yeah, not what I thought, but I understand that.
“Well, then. So how do I actually use this power then if I’m not deciding or enforcing consequences?”
Amick trolls to the tree line and grabs a stick. When he returns and passes it to me, I stare in utter confusion.
“You don’t bear the responsibility of deciding what someone does or doesn’t deserve. You don’t decide what happens. You decide whether reality is allowed to answer. Draw a line in the grass, right there.”
My eyes track down to where his finger is pointed. He gives me an encouraging push on my lower back and I exhale.
I literally have no clue what a damn line in the grass is about to do.
Regardless, I do as he says. Then I split the blades even more when he tells me to make the line more visible.
“Now what?”
He places his hands on my shoulders and turns me around to face my line.
“You’re not deciding what happens if someone crosses this. You’re only telling reality that this threshold now exists. Focus on that line and call your power forward. When it’s in your grasp, I want you to create a rule for that line.”
“What do you mean a rule?”
“No one is allowed to cross that line.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
Well, okay then.
I gently shrug him off and shake my arms and legs out. My shoulders continue to bounce as I work the energy out of my body, then take a deep breath.
Okay, Consequence, work with me here.
My tongue literally tingles, and I instinctively run it across the back of my teeth to ease the strange sensation. That doesn’t help.
Ugh. I don’t think I like that at all.
I control my breathing as best as I can and ignore the way my whole mouth is humming. Not in the way that it’d make a melody if I forced sound through my lips, but from the consistent vibrations. It’s spreading across not only my tongue, but the flesh in my cheeks and the back of my lips.
That sensation builds to the point I’m positive my teeth are going to rattle.
It’s only when I feel like I can’t take it anymore that I speak.
“No one is allowed to cross that line.”
