Page 54 of Touched By Death

I shoot up from my chair, and he follows suit, flaring his wings aggressively. The urge to back down tickles the back of my neck, but fuck if I will. Gritting my jaw, I let him see the hellfire flicker in my eyes. “I won’t hesitate to challenge you for her.”

He stares at me for a beat, then the darkness and raw fury in his gaze give way to amusement. Sitting back down, he grabs another book. “Aurelia is a weakness to us all. That’s why we’re here, preparing to derail God’s plan for revenge.”

Dari slides in beside Amenadiel and grabs a book, too, in a silent plea for a ceasefire. She peers up at me from beneath her dark lashes, and I crumble beneath the blaze that burns deep inside her soul. “Sit down, Daemon.”

Fuck it. I pull my chair back out and take a seat. Ronan follows suit, and Dmitriy soon slides in next to my uncle.

“What are we looking for exactly?” Dari asks, tapping her long nails on the desk. “Or should I ask what you’re searching for?”

Amenadiel barely spares her a glance. “I have tried to reach her in her mind when I step through the veil, but I can’t find her.”

“What do you mean, you can’t find her?”

“Think of the mind like a maze. It’s a vast space.”

“But you’ve found her before.”

“That was different.”

“How so?” I ask, shutting the book in front of me.

Amenadiel tracks my movements. “She wasn’t trapped in the shadows. The darkness has a hold on her now.”

“If she’s trapped, you should still be able to locate her.”

“Not if it’s deliberately keeping her from me.”

When I frown, he continues, “Genesis told me that Aurelia isn’t alone in the shadows.”

“She’s not alone in the shadows?” Alaric looks from Amenadiel to me and back. “Who’s there with her?”

“I don’t know,” he replies. “That’s what we need to figure out.”

Ronan sits forward. “Do you think it’s someone who belongs to the shadows or someone powerful enough to travel through worlds? You stepped through the veil. What’s to stop someone else from doing it too?”

“Like her stalker,” Dari interjects, sitting up straight. “Oh, fuck!”

Amenadiel holds up a hand, falling silent when a group of students walk past the desk. When they’re out of earshot, he says, “Very few can enter through a veil. That would take someone very powerful. It’s more likely to be a subconscious fear.”

“What are you talking about now?” I ask skeptically.

“The mind is a place of imagination. While Heaven and Earth are physical, the mind is not.”

Easing back in my seat, I cross my arms, tipping my chin. “Go on.”

“Our world, as well as the human world, follows certain laws of physics. The human world is more restricted than ours, sure, but we are still bound by laws. We can manipulate hellfire with our minds, but we can’t shapeshift. We can’t manipulate Light because we’re not of the light. We are restricted within our magic.” Tapping his temple, he looks at us all in turn. “The mind has no such restrictions. Once you enter through the veil, you better pray the person whose mind you’re inside favors you or, at the very least, isn’t aware of the power at their disposal. You can’t manipulate their magic, but they can manipulate it themselves. Why? Because the mind is magic.”

“What has this to do with subconscious fears?” Alaric asks, bringing us back on topic.

“Aurelia hasn’t learned to harness her own power yet. She’s lost in a dream, and in that dream, her own fears can take on shape.”

“Fuck, that’s heavy,” Alaric grumbles, scratching his stubble.

“The darkness can take on the resemblance of a person, even. We just don’t know what’s happening inside her mind. But we do know that if she learns to harness her own power, like she did when she defeated me by manipulating and weaponizing her own Light to mend the veil, she can defeat what holds her captive from us.”

“That sounds easier said than done,” Dmitriy says, blowing out a tired breath.

“That’s because it is. She’d have to wake up out of her own delusion first.”

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