I didn't know what she meant by that, but I tightened my grip on Aden's body and shut my eyes. The silence hit first. Mind numbing, ear-ringing silence, followed by white-hot searing pain. I felt like I was being torn out of my body. I struggled against it. I had to hold onto consciousness, had to hold onto her. Along with more searing pain came the knowledge, floods of it, decades. I was a million different people, I was no one. I was everyone.

I am Lucas. I repeated it to myself, chanted it over and over as the fluid rush of the knowledge threatened to overcome me. I was determined to remain conscious of who I was, of who I held in my arms. But it was amazing, the knowing that flooded me. I was Benevolent. The earth, its people.

I can feel my head tip back with the force of it. My eyes flicker shut, the gasp that passes my lips.

 My last breath.

I am the earth. I am the sun. Now I knew every last person, their hopes and desires, and I had power to grant it. I could feel it, it raged through me suddenly, begging to be used. All I had to do was tap into the knowledge and I could use it to do anything. It was intoxicating.

Something shifted. I became aware of my physical body with a jolt. The her in my arms had slipped forward as my body relaxed. 

A moment of confusion.

My body. My...body. Lucas' body.

Morgan's words rang in my mind again, "Hold onto her and don't let go."

Aden!

I tightened my arms around her. She was my anchor against the torrential flood. I had to hold on. 

More knowing and more, until my head felt read to burst, and I drifted in and out of my physical body like a ghost. At last the knowledge broke into two streams, some of it bypassing me for another destination, and slowly I became aware of a second me, someone beside me receiving the same, someone joined to me. 

My mother was becoming Death.

Finally it slowed, trickled to a stop, and I sagged to the ground, still holding Aden. The warm presence of the connection stirred, awakening, and I opened my eyes. I stared at the woman who used to be my mother. She was different now. Her face was smooth, the worries and wrinkles gone. Maybe with the knowledge, she'd also inherited some sort of peace of mind. She was regarding me impersonally, as you would a stranger. That would probably have hurt the old me, but I could see the whole picture now. It didn't matter anymore.

Something stirred in my arms, and I looked down to see Aden opening her eyes. I felt joy then, fierce joy, and a new knowledge. The link I'd felt wasn't my mother, it was coming from her.

"You're here." I reveled in the fact that I could reach out a hand and touch her face. "You're alive."

"Better then alive." Aden's eyes were wide. "I feel...I feel amazing."

I stood up, helping her to her feet, and Aden stepped away from me, her hand still resting on my arm. Footsteps behind me, and she was suddenly dragged backwards, away from me. I turned to see Sloan, wild eyed, clothes torn and bloody. One arm around Aden's neck.

"Maybe I can't kill you," he rasped, "but I can still snap her neck." I stared at him for a moment, realizing I could feel every bone in his body, had access to every muscle. I allowed a smile to creep across my face as Aden nodded at me.

My turn.

I reached out and worked Sloan's arms like a puppet. His eyes bulged and he screamed as his arms snapped up, releasing Aden. He stumbled backwards, landing on his backside in the dirt.

"You can't hurt me!" He screamed. "The contract forbids it. I'm human now, you can't touch me!"

It was true. I could feel that inside me too. The same way I could feel the way the earth turned, the moon pulling at the tides, the forms of sea creatures inside, hundred upon hundreds of miles away.

But there were loopholes. I knew that too. Hundreds upon hundreds of them.

Aden came back to stand beside me, her arm around my waist. We both looked at Morgan, who was standing off to the side, hands in her pockets. She shrugged, and for a second she was really Morgan, innocent and sweet. She looked sad. "She likes you." Her face went blank then, and that reckless, imp-like smile was back. "I see nothing." She winked, turned and walked back down the path towards the church. I could hear her whistling, high and clear.

I spared a second to look after her, wondering if the real Morgan was gone for good. When I looked back at Sloan he was attempting to creep away. I exchanged a look with Aden, grinned, and threw up my hands. Sloan was sucked up skyward, legs and arms flailing, his screams of terror growing fainter as he disappeared past a layer of white clouds.