Chapter Fourteen
The morgue was as cold as it was during my two pervious visits, and was just as silent, and just as creepy. I tried not to glance at the cubbies filled with recently deceased animals, but my gaze slipped to them from time to time, and Annie pretended not to notice my obvious discomfort at being back in this room.
She sat down at the only table in the room and I took a seat on the stool across from her. “We’re going to try something a little simpler this time. I’m not asking you to raise anything. Instead, I want you to search inside of yourself, find your power, and use it to locate the dead animals. I have a few scattered in the storage cupboards, and I want you to tell me which ones are occupied.”
I took a deep breath before closing my eyes and searching inside myself for the power that was resting at the moment. It grew when I called to it, pulsing brightly, awaiting my orders. As my breathing slowed, I focused my attention on my surroundings.
“Good,” Annie said softly. “Now, to normal people, death is just death. But to us, every dead person or creature gives off a specific aura that is left behind. Cast your power out like a net and search those auras. Just find them and tell me which cupboards are occupied and which aren’t.”
I did as Annie told me. Sending my power outward, I force it to expand until the entire room is in my sight. I see it all in my mind, and I knew where each cupboard is positioned in the room and, even though I can’t see them with my eyes closed, a few of them stand out in my mind’s eye. They glow with a strange black aura, and I pick out four of them.
“The one farthest from the door, on the bottom row, has something dead inside of it. Then there’s one four cupboards to the left. The third one is two rows down, and the final one is seven cupboards down from that one.” I opened my eyes and looked at Annie. “Did I get them all?”
She nodded. “Yes, you did. You’re actually very good at this.” She chewed her lip for a second. “If you can do this so easily like you just did, you should be able to raise just one specific target. I’m worried that what your mother chose to do may have affected the balance of your power.”
“What do you mean?” I asked worriedly. Thinking about my mother was something I’d tried not to do since finding out from the Council that she’d used perverse magic to bring me back to life.
“Your power is greater than most necromancers ever accomplish. I realized that when you accidentally raised all the animals in here. That is not normal for people like us. Someone your age should have to be patiently taught for a very long time before raising their first animal, and you raised thirty of them all at once, without trying.”
“So you think I’m what, more powerful than normal or something?”
Annie nodded. “I know you are. I don’t know for sure, because I haven’t tested you as much as I would have liked, but I think what your mother did has given you a closer relationship with death than most necromancers. I’ve never heard of another necromancer being brought back to life and continuing to grow and live. I think you might have a more powerful affinity for death because of it.”
“That’s not a good thing,” I said. Just by hearing the tone of her voice I knew that was what she was getting at. I was powerful. I was untrained. I was dangerous, and I’d probably be stuck here at this compound for a very long time.
“No, it’s not. Ronnie, you’ll have to be careful your entire life. If you relax your hold on your power for just one second, you could raise an entire cemetery, even without trying. You’ll have to keep training. Unlike most of us, you don’t have the luxury of pretending to be normal. You’ll have to remember constantly that you’re not.”
I nodded. “I figured that last part. I’ve always known I wasn’t normal. I mean, I can see dead people. It was kind of obvious something was different about me. But, do you really think I have a more powerful affinity for death, just because of what my mom did? Can that really affect someone’s power?”
Annie nodded her head solemnly. “Yes, it can. Ronnie, our power is based off of death. Who better to control and understand it than someone that has actually experienced death, and lived to tell about it?”
“But I don’t remember being…” I couldn’t finish that horrible thought.
Her face softened. “I know you don’t, but your power probably does.”
That thought frightened me into silence, and I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the table. With my head down, I thought about everything that Annie was saying to me right now. She was right, of course. There wasn’t anyone that understood death better than someone that had died, and now I had to pay the price for my mother and her mistakes.
Annie clapped her hands together. “I think that with some more work, you could probably get the hang of your powers. Then you’ll be able to go out and live the life you always wanted. You can go to school, or get married, or whatever it is you want out of life.”
“I’m not so sure,” I said, unconvinced. “My old plans for my life included a loving husband and a couple of children. Now, I’m not so sure. I don’t think I could ever condemn my children to be like me. It would be too horrible to see them struggle with power like this.”
“Well, you know if you married a supernatural like most of us do, your children might end up with his powers, instead of yours. If you married a sorcerer, they might just be powerful spell casters. You won’t know until you try, Ronnie. You can still be happy with life; it’ll just take a little extra work than it does for most people.”
“Sure.” I didn’t believe her, but arguing wasn’t going to help matters any.
“Well, we can get some more practice in right now if you’d like to. It couldn’t hurt.”
“But will it help?”
“Only time will tell.”
Dark Secrets (Dark Heritage #1) Page 19
