Aunt Dayna tilted her head. “I have an affinity for healing psychic pain.”
“Plus, it’s not like I can just spill my darkest secrets to anyone,” I reminded him, before turning back to her. “I don’t think I have a spare guest room for you.”
I would, if my stables hadn’t been flattened by my father proving a point. Maybe he could rebuild them as a present, instead of, you know, a beating heart. At least the glitter was gone.
“Oh no, that’s fine. I have somewhere to stay.”
Dave peered out of the window. “There’s a house on your lawn.”
I strode past Dayna onto my porch to find her house in place of the stables. That explained the wards. I had a sentient home on my grounds, and my wards were testing its intent.
“I could have found you somewhere to stay,” I told her.
“No need. Besides, he gets grouchy and lonely if I’m gone too long.”
“The house has feelings?” Dave muttered. “Just when I thought we’d hit our weird shit meter, you go and take it to another level.”
I glanced at him. “In all fairness, this isn’t my weird shit; it’s hers.”
“Aunt Stella and Anita will stay with me,” Dayna said.
“You guys have lives. I don’t expect you to drop everything.”
She snorted and crossed her arms. “Cora, one: we love you. Two: this isn’t just your mess. Eloise is our mother. This is a Roberts mess.”
A tiny amount of weight lifted from my heart at those words. I didn’t realize I had been carrying around the pressure. I couldn’t do this alone. It was bigger than me. However, first I needed to get healthy.
“Where should we do this?” I asked. It was time to stop running from the nightmares haunting me.
I saton my sofa in my apartment, with Dayna on one side and Hudson on the other. Dave balanced on the arm of the chair Aunt Liz perched on, and Rebecca took up the other chair. Sebastian leaned against the wall, while Harry floated next to him.
“Tell me again why everyone is here to witness my pain,” I grumbled.
She took my hands in hers. “They are your grounding points. Taking a soul journey is a little tricky, and the call of the eternal plane can be rather seductive. Your soul is fractured. The nightmares, the pain, the lack of completeness, comes from it nudging you to glue it back together. Once you do that, everything will feel so much better.”
I dragged in a breath and released it. Soul journey, fractured pieces, glue. I totally got this.
“First, everyone should drink the tea,” Aunt Liz instructed.
Dave grimaced at the lukewarm herbal tea. “What does it do?”
“Opens your mind,” Dayna replied as I gulped mine down. That wasn’t too bad.
“Why?” he asked.
Dayna huffed. “We have to be open on the psychic plane to support Cora and tether her to this world.”
“Just drink the damn tea,” Hudson growled before downing his. They all followed suit.
My mind swirled as I glanced around the room. A faint pure white light with a hint of blue glowed around Hudson. I blinked, but it only got brighter. I turned back to Dayna, finding her also bathed in light, but hers was comprised of calming pinks and peaches.
“Why is everyone glowing?” Dave snapped.
Oh, so it wasn’t just me then. Cool.
“Your mind’s eye is opening, and you’re seeing people’s auras. It’s a good sign,” Dayna said. “Now shush. I need to concentrate.”
She grasped my left hand and placed it on her left shoulder, then she did the same so we were identical. “Heart to heart,” she whispered as her eyes fluttered closed. “Body to body. Soul to soul. Guide this child so that she may once again be whole.”
