noticing that she’d stopped breathing. “Have you ever heard the theory that sometimes a thing can be more than the sum of its parts?”
“Of course. Yeah.”
“That’s you. At least it’s what I fear.” She shook her head to indicate that she was getting more lost the more he talked. “You might be the prophesy we all hoped it was the product of a soothsayer with too much imagination, too much time on her hands, and too many shots of whiskey disguised to look and smell like nectar.”
“Lally. We’re not getting anywhere. I…”
“We’ve kept a lid on exploring your capabilities because we’re scared shitless, Rosie.”
“Of what?” He gave her a look. “Not of me!” His look remained unchanged. “That’s impossible. I’m a lamb.”
“Really.” She nodded. “Remember how you felt when Carnal died?” She stiffened and went instantly somber. “You wanted to commit genocide. Simply wipe away all trace of a whole race. And, if I hadn’t stepped in and redirected, that’s exactly what would have happened.”
There was no way Rosie could argue that. At the moment Carnal was killed, she would have sent all trace of the Rautt into oblivion, as if they’d never existed.
She spoke quietly, slowly and deliberately. “You’re saying that you think I have the power to do such a thing.”
“I’ve hoped we never have to find out for sure.”
“Alright. Let’s back up. What was it that happened that led you to this… apprehension?”
“You fit the prophesy.”
“In what way?”
“You’re human, elemental, and hereditary from the most powerful line of witches. You absorbed not only your parents’ genetics but all their experiences and memories. At the end of your time with the Exiled,” Kellareal didn’t want to speak of Carnal’s death again, “you knew you could travel back in time. You didn’t ask if you could, you just knew. You were planning to go back and change the events. Fortunately, you agreed to rewind the clock for a day and leave it at that.”
“You managed me.”
“That would be putting it in the worst light. None of us knows what would have happened if you had interfered with a major event like…” He looked away.
“I see.”
Rosie’s head was buzzing. The angel was right. In the heat of emotional upheaval that was soul-crushing, she’d known that she could travel back in time and thought she might have been able to change the outcome. Yet she’d never tried changing clothes or conjuring tea.
“What’s the worst you foresee?”
He decided there was no point in holding back. “Something that causes you so much pain you want to end everything.”
“And you really think I’m capable of that?”
“People do dumb things when they’re hurting. Things they regret later. Sometimes those things can’t be undone. And that saying about absolute power? It’s a real danger to anybody who bothers with such things as morals, ethics, good, evil, and the like.”
“Absolute power,” she repeated. Her eyes glazed over as she got lost in thought.
As they sat in silence, each occupied with their own thoughts, rain began pattering against the ancient windows of Rosie’s office. The sound was melancholy, but comforting at the same time.
“What about Micheal? Do I have power over him?”
Kellareal shuddered at that. “See? The very fact that you’d ask that question worries me. It’s an incredibly slippery slope.”
“Do you know?’
“No. And let’s not find out.”
Rosie sat up and trained all her focus on Kellareal. “Are you an angel?”
“Why do you ask?”
“You ducked the question. It occurs to me that assumptions were made. Largely because that’s what my mother calls you. But come to think of it, sometimes she calls me angel and I’m not one either.”
“Does it matter? What’s in a name?”
“You don’t want to say. You know that will only set fire to my need to know.”
“I’m an elemental. I don’t work for Micheal, but he is powerful. I don’t know if getting you out of there has started something. Maybe. Maybe not. What you need to know is not what species I am, but that I always take care of you first.
There was no way Rosie could deny that. She trusted Kellareal with her life and everything she held precious. Sinking back into deep cushions, she said, “And I love you for that.”
“You know you shouldn’t have been able to follow me.”
“I think I got that message.”
“How did you do it?”
“I was, um, indignant? That you just left when I was talking to you? Flying after you was kind of like acting out a growl.” That explanation didn’t seem to make him happier.