He turned his cell to her, and she saw the message he’d been reading.
She could be psionic. If that turns out to be true, every demon, every evil, will be after her. That cannot happen. Her protection is crucial at all times.
“Psionic?” she repeated, her gaze locked on his phone, so sure her heart would escape her chest. He slipped the device into his pocket, forcing her attention back to him.
“What does that even mean?”
“I have something to do first. Go back into the abbey.” He entered the small outbuilding, but Nia didn’t move—couldn’t. Moments later, a hum sounded. He walked out, his brow furrowing when he saw her. “You’re still here?”
“Tell me.”
He shut the shed door. “Psionics are the descendants of the long-annihilated angels called the Watchers.”
“The…what?” She rubbed her temples, trying to make sense of what he said. “What are you talking about? What Watchers?”
He motioned with his head for her to start walking. Nia forced her limbs to move and shuffled along the snow-covered ground marred from their footprints, his words ringing in her ears.
Descendants of the long annihilated Watchers.
Shewas a descendant of the Watchers?
God!What kind of new nightmare was this?
He opened the kitchen door and waved her inside.
Nia paced to the other end of the long table and spun back. “That message was from the archangel?”
“Yes. Since you are aware of Others, then you should know that the Watchers mated with human females and bore offspring.”
She grasped the backrest of one of the mismatched chairs, her fingers curling tightly around the smooth wood. “I never studied the Bible or went much to church after my parents’ deaths, much to Nan’s annoyance. So no, I don’t know anything about them.”
“Regardless. You likely carry their blood. Even a trace of it would infuse you with their abilities, and most were exceptionally powerful. Your pyro ability could be the start of it.”
“No.” She shook her head. “No! I can’t deal with this, too!”
“You have to. It’s important.”
“I don’t want this ability—to be this descendant of those angels. I just don’t! It’s enough a demon wants my blood!”
“You cannot hide your head in the clouds.” He stood there so tall and remote, like a distant star. “If your powers are awakening, it must be faced.”
“Easy for you to say.” She glowered at him, her mind in chaos. “You aren’t the one whose entire life is changing!”
At the truth in his calm stare, her heart crashed against her sternum as if it would escape. “No, no?—”
She shot out of the kitchen, across the living room, and up the stairs to her room. A sob caught in her throat as she slammed the door shut and sagged against it. No matter where she ran and hid, she couldn’t deny that deep within, she felt the changes—the churning energy, the escalating heat.
She sank to the floor and drew her knees up, everything pressing down on her.
This can’t be happening.
She would never have a safe life, not with demons always hunting her.
Sweat beaded her brow, and she yanked off her jacket and flung it away. It landed across the room. Her thick sweater followed, her thin top sticking to her clammy skin. But the icy air from the open window did little to cool her.
With a shuddering moan, she buried her face in her raised knees as she rocked herself, the heat building beneath her skin.
Christ!Please, please, let this be a bad dream.Even as the plea formed, tingles danced across her fingertips.I can’t face this kind of life, always hiding. I just can’t…
