Page 166 of A House of Gold
I'm cycling through all seven sins, using them as weapons, and the archangel is actually struggling.
"Impossible," he gasps. "You're human. You can't."
I pull harder on the bonds. Channel more power. My body is screaming, it's too much, I'm not meant to hold this, but I don't stop.
Can't stop.
The archangel swings his sword. I catch it with golden hands, turn it to metal, shatter it with heat.
"What are you?" he demands.
Through the bonds, I feel the seven angels watching. Their power flowing through me. Their emotions mixing with mine until I can't tell where they end and I begin.
"I'm more than human," I snarl, and my voice echoes with seven different tones. "I'm–"
The archangel's eyes widen. He's staring at the bonds, the seven threads of light connecting me to seven points in the shadows. Seven deadly sins tied to a single mortal vessel.
"No." His voice is horror now, not anger. "No, you fool."
"What?"
"You have no idea what you've done." He's backing away now, his burned arm hanging useless. "What you've allowed to happen."
"I'm surviving. That's what I've done."
"The bonds." He's staring at the threads inside me, and there's genuine terror in his burning eyes. "Seven bonds to a single vessel of their bloodline."
I pull on all seven bonds simultaneously, preparing to finish this.
"The Morningstar—" he gasps. "The reunion, you've begun it."
What?
But I don't have time to ask. Don't have time to understand. He's raising his remaining hand, divine fire gathering,
I channel everything. Every sin, every bond, every ounce of power flowing through me.
I don't just hit him.
I unmake him.
Gold and fire and power, all seven sins focused through me, tearing apart his divine essence. He tries to scream, but his voice is already scattering.
His final words, whispered as he dissolves: "She's begun...the reunion... Gods help us all..."
Then he's gone. Truly, completely gone. Divine energy scattering like dust in the wind.
I did it.
I stand there, shaking, as the power drains out of me. Then fall to my knees as if my body doesn’t have the power to hold me up any longer. The bonds are still there, still connecting me to the angels, but they're not blazing with power anymore.
It feels like a heartbeat only when the seven angels emerge from their portals again, appearing around me in flashes of light and shadow. They must have felt my collapse.
Croesus reaches me first, catching me before I fall back to the ground. "Raven!"
I'm burning from the inside. My veins feel like they're filled with molten gold, my skin is too hot, and I can't stop shaking.
"What did he mean?" I gasp through the pain. "The reunion? The–"
