“We? You’re an angel too?” My voice went up several octaves. “Geez, all I wanted was a brownie, but what did I get? Family members jumping around, telling me they’re angels.” I rolled my eyes and tossed my hands in the air. “Okay, you have my attention. Prove it. Fly around the room. Show me your angel wings.” Throwing my arms out, I spun around. “Prove you’re an angel, Grams, because I don’t believe a word you’re saying.”
Grams’ mouth pinched down at the corners. “When we leave our home to come to earth, we become mortal. We aren’t quite human, but we lose most of our angelic abilities. I can’t fly around the room. I don’t have wings stuffed in my bra that I can whip out and show you.”
I lowered my arms and huffed. “Yeah, okay, joke’s over, guys.”
All of a sudden, the lamp on the table next to me turned on. I swung around to see who else was in the room and felt a chill trickle down my spine—no one.
“I can turn it off, too.”
The light went out, and I stared at it before turning around again. “So you got one of those clapper things that turn your lights on and off automatically—big freakin’ deal. That isn’t proof of anything,” I said slowly. Trying to be inconspicuous, I looked around for the clapper thing.
But she didn’t clap. She didn’t do anything.
Grams leaned back in her wheelchair and crossed her thin arms over her chest. “Okay, try this, then.”
Every light in the apartment came on. The ceiling fans started to whir above us, and the blender buzzed in the kitchen. I jumped, a small scream slipping past my lips. My breaths came as fast as my racing heart. “What the hell…?” I looked around the room.
“Can I turn them off now? My electric bill will be outrageous this month if I have to keep turning lights on and off,” Grams said with an eye roll. Everything turned off simultaneously, just as they’d turned on.
“How’d you do that?” I stared at the floor where I’d let my shoes fall earlier, but I didn’t really see them. I didn’t see anything. In truth, I wasn’t thinking much of anything either. My mind was a mishmash of information. Angels, demi-angels, visions… My insides quivered like I was sitting on top of the washer during the spin cycle. But this wasn’t a fun kind of quivering, this was the change-your-life kind. “Angels. Angels? So, wait, if you really are an angel—”
“I am.” She folded her hands in her lap, and her gaze locked on mine.
“And angels are created, then you aren’t my real grandma? I mean, if you really were created, then we can’t be related.” It hurt to say those words out loud. My grams was everything to me. Next to Muriel, she was my best friend. I told her everything. The thought of her not really being my grandmother brought bile up my throat.
“Technically, no.”
Oh. Not the answer I wanted. Sometimes, you should keep your big mouth shut, Milayna.
“And Muriel’s not my real cousin,” I said quietly. I already knew the answer, and it was crippling. My body felt weak. If they gave me one more piece of information, I was going to crumble beneath it.
“I’m still me, Milayna! Nothing’s changed.” Muriel moved from the chair to the couch. Before I had time to react, she’d pulled me into a hug. “We are still the same people, still the same family, we were before you learned we’re angels and demi-angels.”
Grams nodded and tapped her perfectly manicured nail on the arm of her wheelchair. “It all depends on what you consider to be real, Milayna. Your relationship with us hasn’t changed. Does it really matter what title we hold? I’m your grandmother in heart. Doesn’t that count for something?”
Everything I knew to be true walking into my grandmother’s apartment had shattered in a matter of minutes. My aunt and uncle weren’t really related to me. My cousin was just another friend. My grams wasn’t really my grandmother. And my father was a friggin’ angel. Fury pounded against my veins, and like betrayal, demanded to be satisfied.
I narrowed my eyes at Grams. “Is there anyone else in our family who is an angel or demi-angel?”
“No.”
I jumped off the couch and paced the entryway hall. “So Mom is human and Muriel’s mom is human. But Muriel, me, and my brother are demi-angels.” I ticked each person off on my fingers. “Dad, you, and Uncle Rory are angels. Right? Do I have it right? Because when I came in here, I thought we were one big, happy family of humans. Now I find out we’re one big, happy sort-of-family of freaks!”
“Milayna!” Grams snapped, and flicked all the lights on and off again.
I turned and looked at her. “Yeah, I get it. One of your angel powers is becoming your very own clapper.”
Grams pointed a tiny finger at me. “I wish I had some of my full angel powers. I’d clap you right on your ass,” she snapped.
I heard Muriel suck in a breath at the same time my mouth dropped open. Grams had never spoken to me like that.
I let out a breath, and my shoulders slumped forward. Suddenly, I was just tired, and all I wanted was to go home and crawl into bed. Maybe if I pulled the blankets over my head, everything else would go away. Deflated, I sat down on the couch and put my hand over Grams’. “I’m sorry, Grams.”