I grimaced. “Fine. I’m coping.”
Dayna handed Liz the spare cup and tilted her head to look at me. “You wear the cloak of death.”
“As I’ve always done.”
“No, Abaddon’s power is divine and the link to the veil. Your ability to cross people over is a birthright. This new power is bigger, stronger, a brush with the world that rules the dead. It existed before Heaven and Hell and will endure long after those constructs fall.”
Silence settled around us as we absorbed Dayna’s words.
Aunt Sophia twisted her lips to the side. “She’s out for your blood, Cora. You not only stole what she believes is rightfully hers, but you wield it in a way she can only dream about.”
“Because she has twisted it to control souls, which isn’t what the source is about. If you try to manipulate it, it will retaliate. In another few weeks, the power will hollow her out, much like she has done to the army of elementals.”
“Do you think the trapped souls are elementals?” Dayna asked as she stroked a fertility statue.
“It’s a high probability, yes. They felt more than human. Don’t get any bright ideas,” I said with a pointed look at the artefact.
She smiled. “You don’t need any help in that area, Cora.”
Save me now.“A little privacy would be fantastic,” I uttered. “Between the attention from every faction, the stupidly large wedding and the preparations for it, and the impending war, I hardly think you can look forward to the pitter-patter of tiny feet.”
“If wars stopped children, then the population wouldn’t be at eight billion,” Liz said.
“I won’t be bringing a child into this world,” I reiterated before they started redecorating one of the rooms as a nursery.
“That’s not what Stella said,” Sophia mumbled.
I tipped my head back and closed my eyes. My Aunt Stella saw the world and the future in ways we couldn’t comprehend, but she was never wrong
“Stop catastrophizing,” Liz snapped. “She didn’t say right now.”
“Does it feel different?” Dayna asked. I opened one eye in question. “The power from Donn that you’ve accepted. I know on paper what I’m seeing is different in your aura, but if you can’t feel it, then you can’t use it.”
I swiped a hand down my face and straightened to face my family. “I feel connected.”
“To what?”
“To death and to what is beyond the veil. Angelic power gives me dominion over the soul at the point of death. It grants me a vision of a person’s life, their greatest triumphs, and their worst sins. Donn’s power is like stretching a hand through that which divides us. An ancient and absolute force that doesn’t rule but entwines the universe’s bonds.”
“Wow,” Dayna whispered. “That is... wow.”
“It is,” I agreed. “But I don’t know how to use it.”
“You do,” Sophia corrected. “You just fear it.”
I scowled at her. She tutted and rolled her eyes.
Fearing death was not unreasonable. In fact, it was an instinct buried deep in our brains.
“Fine,” I conceded. “I don’t know how to use it without losing myself.”
“See?” Sophia said with a smile. “That is growth.”
Yes, yes, I’m all aligned now that I accept the fear. The war is won. Sound the trumpets and contact CNN.
“We can tell you’re thinking up a super-sarcastic response in your head,” Sophia said.
I folded my arms and huffed, but kept my silence. I was a grown woman with the weight of the world on my shoulders, but a scary aunt who used a crochet hook as a weapon of mass destruction could still chastise me.
