The Change (Unbounded) by Teyla Branton

all of them in danger. If the Emporium learned anything about you at the burn center, your reappearance may give them all the verification they need.”
    I felt frozen, numb at the information. “What about the police? Won’t they protect my family?”
    “They can’t.” Ritter’s voice was clipped and hate gleamed from his eyes. “No mortal police can prevent an Emporium massacre, if that’s what they choose.” He turned on his heel and started toward the back gate, the one I’d gone through to my best friend’s backyard as a child. Max followed him, but the others hung back for a few moments, as though to give Ritter space.
    “How do you know?” I called after Ritter’s retreating back. He didn’t look around, so I turned to the others. “Will someone please tell me what’s going on? Why is he so angry?”
    They exchanged looks and finally Ava nodded at Cort who began speaking. “After Ritter started to heal from the attack I told you about, word of his survival found its way to the Emporium. They went to his house and killed everyone, including the Unbounded ancestor who’d come to protect him.”
    “Not just killed,” Ava added. “Slaughtered, in case there were any potential Unbounded among them, or anyone who might someday give birth to an Unbounded. The woman Ritter was supposed to have married was at his bedside when they burst in. Our people arrived barely in time to save Ritter.”
    Cort cleared his throat. “Ritter didn’t even know what an Unbounded was or why he’d survived the attack in the first place, but he blames himself, of course.”
    We’d reached the gate where Ritter had disappeared. Max was sitting there, brown eyes mournfully awaiting his return. To my knowledge, the old gate hadn’t been used in years, yet it opened as though it had been oiled recently and often. Ava reached down to pat Max’s head, and he licked her hand in a farewell he reserved for friends.
    “You should have told me before,” I said. “I’d never have put my family at risk.”
    Ava shrugged. “I asked you to wait, to trust me. Even now you don’t really believe. You still think the law would step in to save them.”
    She was right. It all sounded impossible.
    Dimitri motioned me through the gate to my neighbor’s dark yard. No lights gleamed in their windows. “There have been more recent occurrences similar to Ritter’s experience. Those massacres are one more reason we fight the Emporium.”
    “We’ll do our best to make sure your family remains safe,” Ava added quietly.
    I blinked. “You mean, as long as I go to New York.”
    “It’s not a bribe, Erin. It’s a promise.”
    I thought of how she’d saved my mother’s life as a child and nodded. “Okay. I’m in.” For now. Because no matter her promise, she couldn’t speak for all the Renegades, and I was willing to do anything to protect my family from all the Unbounded in this crazy world I’d stumbled into.
    We walked through our neighbor’s yard to Ava’s white sedan parked out on the street. Ava slid into the driver’s seat and Dimitri sat next to her. I climbed in the back next to Ritter, who avoided my gaze.
    “How did you find me anyway?” I asked Ava, as Cort wedged into the empty space next to me.
    “Every entrance to the house is monitored. Someone followed you on foot until you met those kids and got a ride. We thought you’d come here first—a small miscalculation.”
    “So you let me leave.”
    She sighed. “I’d hoped you wouldn’t make that choice. Living as long as I have, I sometimes forget how immediate things seem for mortals. Or those who were recently mortal.”
    It was surprisingly comfortable sitting between Ritter and Cort, but gradually my awareness of Ritter’s presence became acute. Knowing his story and how much he must have suffered watching his family being slaughtered troubled me. Besides, I couldn’t get the image of him petting Max out of my head, or how I’d felt standing close to