Avril Williams and the War Everybody Wants Her to Inherit

Avril Williams and the War Everybody Wants Her to Inherit Avril spends a ridiculous amount of Coven being treated like something somebody else has a right to own. The New Crusaders want her because she's a witch. The witches want her because of how powerful she's supposed to become. People negotiate over her, imprison her, and make plans for her body while insisting that they're protecting their own side. Meanwhile, she keeps pointing out the problem they're creating. If the witches attack humans and leave children orphaned, those children can grow up to become the next Crusaders. Killing her to strengthen the coven isn't going to make that cycle disappear. Spoilers for Coven, including the ending. Dartanian initially treats the gathering she came from like a terrorist training camp. Avril describes classmates. He has been taught that witches don't have feelings, and then he's confronted with her crying. She doesn't have some elaborate mind-control spell operating on him. She explicitly says she isn't telepathic. He's beginning to question what he was told because the person in front of him doesn't fit it. That becomes one of the more interesting parts of the story for me. Avril can recognize that Liza is dangerous without accepting the Crusaders' version of witches. She warns Dartanian about Liza and pushes him to consider whether his own leader is involved in the betrayal. There's no reason she should have to choose between people who want to kill her and people who want to consume her power. The restrictions on her also keep changing. She breaks her bonds with magic, but being trapped underwater makes destructive power risky to everyone around her. Later, cuffs punish her for trying to use it. She's powerful enough to frighten people, but that doesn't mean she can safely blast her way out of every situation. When she ends up on Liza's altar, Liza expects to take her life, spirit, and strength for herself. The first attempt doesn't work. Avril's power is too much, so Liza goes looking through an ancient spellbook for a stronger way to consume her. Avril keeps challenging the logic of protecting witches by sacrificing one of them. The coven dismisses the people she came from as too moderate, as if restraint were the reason all of this went wrong. Dartanian eventually gets her free, and she refuses to simply run away. That part matters. She's spent so long being moved around that when she finally has room to choose, she wants to stop the people doing it. He gives her a rifle that can suppress a witch's powers, and explains that the effect is reversible. She needs both her own magic and that weapon in the fight. Baba Yaga urges her to use the power everybody keeps talking about, and Avril points out that she's still in school. She tries anyway, and manages to overpower Liza enough to take her magic away with the rifle. Then she makes a mistake. Liza uses the crystals around them to appear as Baba, tricks Avril into handing over the weapon, and shoots her. It's a nasty reversal after she's finally gained some control. But Liza doesn't understand the rifle as well as Avril does. Changing its setting restores Avril's power, giving her the opening to kill Liza. I also liked that winning the fight doesn't settle what Avril wants. Dartanian has died. Baba sees a Crusader paying for his past, while Avril sees somebody who was trying to change. She finds the resurrection spell in Liza's book and uses it on him. He comes back, and immediately tells her she shouldn't have done it. Now they'll come for him. The story leaves who he means unresolved. That's where I wanted another issue. Avril has spent the whole book resisting what other people think her power should be used for, and now she's made a huge decision herself. I understand why she does it. I also don't think either of them is prepared for whatever she's just brought back into his life along with him.