Redeeming Vows Read Free Page A

reflective glass. “I think my ability to talk to animals, and make them move the way I want them to, is the beginning of something big. Real big.”
    I’m not freaking out. But her heart started to speed up, despite her internal chant. “How big, Simon. What’s happened?”
    Simon’s eyes drifted shut, his hands clenched at his sides. “I think of the animal I want to talk to.
    Think of the way their body moves, the way they breathe.” Simon stretched his neck. “I feel their hearts beat. Birds have this—fluttering rate that 10

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    moves so fast I feel like I need to run to keep up with it. When they take flight, I look down and see the world as they do. The freedom of flight.” He sighed.
    “There’s nothing like it. If I try hard enough, and stretch my arms…” Simon lifted his limbs wide, a smile expanded over his face. “I feel myself start to change. If I can focus just a little more, I’ll be able to taste it. Be it.”
    Liz held her breath and stared. The back of Simon’s neck moved in a way that wasn’t normal.
    Wasn’t human.
    I’m not freaking out, I’m not freaking out.
    Simon sighed, dropped his arms in frustration, and opened his eyes. The narrow iris of his beautiful eyes stretched vertically and blinked. They opened again and his eyes remained, elongated. Not the eyes of her son, but the eyes of the bird he imagined himself to be.
    Liz’s lip trembled.
    Simon watched her reaction. When he turned to face her, he blinked again. His eyes rolled back and finally returned to normal.
    The only thing keeping her on her feet was the uncertainty on Simon’s face. He wanted her approval.
    “Wow,” she said while dragging in one long and deep breath.
    “Yeah, wow.”
    “We knew your powers were going to get stronger.” She didn’t think they would actually change his physical appearance.
    “I know. I’ve been working on them.” He let a smile creep higher. He was proud. Excited. But they weren’t talking about an A on his report card. They were talking about her son changing form, species.
    Liz turned away, hiding the fear deep in her heart and her mind. His ability to read her thoughts would tell him just how much she was freaking out.
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    Catherine Bybee

    “Do you feel like you’re in control?”
    “Yes…and no. I mean, I know I’m making myself, change. But I can’t make it happen. Not completely anyway.”
    “When you stop trying, you feel normal again?”
    “Kind of. Sometimes it takes a little time to feel completely normal.”
    Liz forced her lips up. “Okay. Well then, is that it? Nothing else going on?”
    Simon’s brows came together. “What?”
    “You don’t have a girlfriend you’ve met in the village? No siege from Ireland pending?” If she didn’t laugh, she was going to break down.
    “No, Mom.” He rolled his eyes.
    Hiding the shake in her hand, she picked up Seventh Sense and opened it.
    Simon headed for the door.
    “Simon?”
    He turned.
    “When you practice, make sure someone is with you. We wouldn’t want you changing into…
    something, and none of us knowing it’s you.”
    He nodded, smiled, and left the room.
    Liz let her eyes fill with tears as soon as she was alone.

    ****
After drawing energy to the tips of her fingers and using it to charge the iPod, Liz wiggled the earplugs snug in her ears. She turned the volume as high as she could stand it and went through her workout routine in the far tower of the keep, the one she’d been reduced to using for privacy. The snug T-shirt clung to her frame. Sweat formed on her brow from the physical workout. She’d enjoyed kickboxing classes in LA, the one she forced herself to go to after Simon was born. The one she’d do anything to be in right now.
    She closed her eyes and pictured a long length of 12

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    mirror in front of her, other scantily clad women wearing tight leggings and sports bras at her side.
    Thank God she’d had the sense to bring extra modern