Redemption

Chapter 7

If there is war, there will be many mortal deaths. War will not end until the world has been damaged beyond repair. The ranks will be divided, the losses heavy. The burden seems unfair. Whether there is war will depend on one thing: Her strength.
~Bezalial~

We'd barely pulled away from the school when my aunt's eyes met mine in the rearview mirror. "What did you see?"

"See?" I asked, startled. Did she mean the vision?

Aunt Kyra continued to stare, her eyes moving occasionally to the road as she drove. Her mouth was tight, the lines around them stark in the daylight.

I looked away, watching as the scenery changed outside of the car window. "What's happening to me? What do you know that I don't?" There was a pleading edge to my voice that I detested.

Aunt Kyra ran over a small curb, and I realized I'd unsettled her. "What did you see, Dayton?" she repeated urgently. "You need to talk to me. This is a lot bigger than you."

What was?

Fury gripped me. "You want me to talk to you? Me talk to you? That's funny. What's bigger than me?"

Aunt Kyra pulled into the lane leading to Blackstone Abbey, her cheeks flushed in the mirror. Maybe it was anger, maybe frustration. At this point, I didn't care.

"Nothing is happening to you."

"That's bullshit!"

The car lurched as Aunt Kyra hit the brake, the force throwing me into the back of her seat. Pain shot down my arm. Jerking the car into park, she pointed at the Abbey. "You can walk from here, Dayton."

I didn't move. "What's going on?" My thumping heart was loud in the silent interior, but my determination far outweighed my fear.
Kyra's eyes flashed. I'd crossed the line with the language. She'd crossed the line with her secrecy. It was my life that was changing.

"You are a small part of something so much bigger, Dayton. The time has come for you to understand that. And you will. Until then, you respect me and you respect the Abbey. Understood?" She pointed at the door. "I suggest you walk up the lane and think about what I said."

Unbuckling my seat belt, I opened the car door. "You can't avoid my questions forever."

Her eyes met mine as I stepped from the car. "I don't intend to."

As soon as the door shut, she pulled away and sped down the lane, leaving me alone coughing up dirt and kicking pebbles with my tennis shoes. Dammit! Think about what she said? To hell with it all!

"Damn, damn, damn!" My voice rose as I approached the Abbey, the heat and humidity suffocating me. September in the South was as temperamental as its people. Hot one moment, chilly the next, but rarely ever cold. Sweat trickled down the side of my face.

"Damn!" It was childish and foolish to challenge this sacred place with words of condemnation, but I was frustrated and it made me feel better.

The door of the Abbey loomed large, and I was panting by the time I placed my hand on the wood. Pausing, I looked up at the building, the dark stone walls hovering over me ominously. Something moved in my peripheral vision, and I froze.

What was that?

Leaves rustled in a nearby magnolia tree, and I huddled against the door as a cloud rolled over the sun. The day went dim.

Spooked, I pushed at the door, cursing the old hinges. The vision from the school plagued me, and I shivered, my sweaty palms twisting the knob. Voices moved down the hall from the refectory as I forced the door open, but instead of moving toward the dining hall, I turned to the stairwell.