by Cara Wylde
“Why is he so terrifying?”
“His job is his life. He lives to reap. Men who are obsessed with one thing and one thing alone are terrifying.”
I nodded. I might have known a thing or two about obsession. I wondered if that would make me scary to others one day. Then I laughed internally. Mila Lazarov scary. Ha! Right.
“I don’t know what to do,” I said.
“What do you mean?”
I shrugged. “The prophecy… He’s my father. How can I retire him? Especially if you’re saying his career is everything to him.”
“Mila,” he turned to me, and his mossy green eyes sparked in the night. “Are you showing compassion for a man who abandoned you and your mother?”
I bit my lower lip, looking up at him through my long, dark lashes. “I’m being stupid, I know.”
“No.” He smiled, revealing perfect white teeth. “It’s times like this when I wonder… maybe you’re not VDC at all, and the test got it all wrong. It’s in your name, too. Mila.”
I blushed and averted my gaze. I didn’t know what was happening. All I knew was that I couldn’t possibly be attracted to a guy who sacrificed young women to keep his youth and immortality. I was wrong in the head. The drink Paz had given me had had too much alcohol in it. It was the only explanation.
“I’m VDC, Francis. The way I completed the test… I don’t know what mercy is, trust me.”
I didn’t like to think about it. How I’d chopped her head off with the first scythe I got my hands on. The blue-haired girl who was me. A copy of me… It struck me then that I didn’t love myself much. It was highly probable that I didn’t love myself at all. And a girl who doesn’t love herself cannot attract decent boyfriends in her life. At least, that was what Cosmopolitan said.
“There you are!” Paz came out of nowhere. “Is he bothering you?” He furrowed his brows at Francis, who took a step back and shook his head.
“N-no. We’re friends.”
“Friends?” A mix of disbelief and surprise flashed in his eyes. “Since when are you and Saint-Germain friends?” He turned to Francis. “Dude, you better back off. It’s quite enough that I have to share her with jerkface Apis.”
“Paz!” I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him toward the open door to the dance, shooting Francis an apologetic look over my shoulder.
Once inside, the demon wrapped his arms around my waist and drew me to his chest, possessively.
“Mine,” he whispered in my ear.
We moved in the slow rhythm of the music, my arms around his neck, my fingers playing with his longish dark hair, his cheek resting against my temple, our bodies pressed together. The world faded, and it was just the two of us. I inhaled his intoxicating, exotic scent, and wondered whether Cosmopolitan was right and Paz was bad for me because I was, essentially, bad for myself. He’s a demon. Of course he’s bad for me. I wonder if they have Cosmopolitan for supernaturals. I could already imagine the articles. Is your boyfriend a demon? Here’s what you need to know. Rule number one: don’t make him share you with a false god. They are mortal enemies. I chuckled to myself stupidly.
“What’s so funny?”
“That you’re here, with me.”
The music stopped, and everyone gathered in front of the stage, where the queen and king were to be announced. Mrs. Morgan was doing the honors, which made all the sense in the world, since Headmaster Colin was too old and serious for such nonsense.
I leaned in to whisper to Paz: “And you’re not with Pandora.” We stole a glance at the beautiful demoness dressed in a gorgeous red dress, with her red hair pinned up in a fancy hairdo. She was getting ready to go on stage, knowing Professor Morgan would call her name.
“Nah. Prom queens are overrated.”
“Plus, you’re a goddess, not a queen.” GC sneaked an arm around my waist and pulled me away from Paz.
Annoyed, the demon took me by the hand and pulled, too. I rolled my eyes and murmured: “This is my life now.”
Mrs. Morgan called Pandora’s name, and the demoness gracefully got up on the stage and accepted her crown.
“And our prom king is… Sariel Gracewing.”
“Oh, you must be kidding me,” I groaned.
Lorna cheered louder than everyone. Sariel got up next to Pandora, his stern look saying he couldn’t care less he’d been crowned prom king. Pandora gave a heartfelt speech, but my brain didn’t register one word. My eyes were fixed on the archangel. I couldn’t look away. I’m the only one who knows your secret, I thought. Why did you tell me, Sariel? Was it because he was going to try and kill me again? Make sure I took his secret to the grave? Oddly enough, now that I knew Sariel Gracewing was a fake, I didn’t fear him as much. Rationally, I knew he could still do many horrible things to me, even if his latest plan had failed. He caught me staring, and to my own surprise, I didn’t look away. I held his gaze, and he held mine. Blue got lost into blue. We would have stayed like that forever, looking into each other’s eyes, me trying to guess his thoughts, him trying to… I don’t know. Figure me out. Understand what made me better than him, what made me VDC while he was the Merciful one.
“What the hell?” Paz growled, displeased. “Don’t tell me you’re friends with Sariel too, now.”
“Don’t even joke about that. He tried to kill me. Twice.”
“Twice?!” GC exclaimed a little too loud.
Oh, right. I hadn’t told them about the cavern. About Sariel’s illusion and Francis’s monster.
“Story for another time.” The music started again. I took them both by the hand. “Let’s dance.”
Book Two
Slaying Year Two
CHAPTER ONE
I couldn’t believe I was here. Hazard, Kentucky. The name fit the place. I threw the backpack over my shoulder, pulled my hood over my hair, and got ready for the forty-minute-walk to Lena’s Diner. I could have taken a cab, but I didn’t want to. As stupid as it might sound, I’d missed this place. That didn’t mean I wanted anyone to recognize me, hence the hood, even though it was freaking hot outside. One week until school started, and I’d made the decision to visit my mom at the very last minute, but at least I’d made it. It said something about how far I’d come after my weekly therapy sessions with Mason Colin.
Yeah, that was right. After the finals, – which I aced, by the way, – practice started, students were assigned to their mentors, and the Academy became deserted. It was Christmas vacation all over again, except this time there was no Paz in sight, either. I was the only student left. Headmaster Colin hadn’t given any explanation to anyone as to why he hadn’t assigned me to a Violent Reaper, which left me to deal with the clusterfuck of having to tell Klaus, Patty, GC, and Paz something. Anything. Thank God I didn’t have many friends, or it would’ve been a major pain in the ass. At least, the ones I did have, I trusted. I couldn’t possibly lie to Klaus and Patty. So, I told them the truth. I was the daughter of Valentine Morningstar. Apparently, because he was a nephilim, – so only half supernatural, – and my mother was human, I had turned up human. That was the only thing that really did make sense in all this shit-show. Patty was over the moon. Klaus didn’t know how to feel about it, so even though we kept in touch all through practice, and then all through the summer vacation, we didn’t talk much about it. He wanted to pretend like nothing had changed, and I was fine with it. Actually, I was more than fine. I was grateful.
Okay, my friends were one thing. My boyfriends were another. I couldn’t lie to GC and Paz, either. I told them. Paz was taken aback. GC was even more excited than Patty. I guess, in the end, it did matter to him whom he dated. Dating a human was fine and all… Something new and interesting. But dating Valentine Morningstar’s daughter?! Suddenly, I wasn’t a normie goddess anymore. I was a goddess in my own right. Sometimes he proved to be so shallow that I didn’t know what to think of him.
Paz had an entirely different reaction, though. Since he’d told m
e about the prophecy and how he didn’t particularly believe in it because prophecies were superstitions for the poor and the less fortunate, he’d gone through a one-eighty, and started talking about conspiracy theories. What the fuck?! A demon suddenly addicted to conspiracy theories?! Jesus! That was the last thing I needed in my life! After practice was over, he spent the summer digging for more prophecies, trying to find out where the one about the human retiring Morningstar had originated, and… – oh God, this was the craziest part, – and working on putting my genealogy together. He even traveled to Bulgaria, and now he had a tentative family tree to show me once we got back to school. Honestly, I wanted nothing to do with his new hobby. It was almost like he was obsessed with me and the history of my supposed family, and that made me feel uncomfortable. Even after so many sessions with Headmaster Colin, I still wasn’t ready to find out who I was and where I came from. And Paz… Ugh! Pazuzu had made it his mission to turn every unturned rock.
I was dying to see them after a long, tedious summer vacation, and at the same time, I dreaded the moment of our reunion.
My phone buzzed, and I pulled it out of my pocket to glimpse at the screen. A smile tugged at my lips.
“Mis u goddes take care, mkay”
GC had no respect for grammar or spelling when he texted. Sometimes I didn’t even understand what he was saying, and it was a good thing Pazuzu was online twenty-four seven to translate.
“Idiot, learn how to spell! *angry emoji* Dearie *heart emoji* do take care, though. You shouldn’t have gone alone.”
I rolled my eyes. Maybe creating a group text for me, Paz, and GC hadn’t been my most brilliant idea.
“I’ll be fine, guys. Chill.”
A bunch of heart emojis from Paz, too many kiss emojis from GC, and a fuckton of poop and angry emojis they exchanged between themselves. I switched my phone off. Paz had spent his summer vacation in Hell, at his mom’s place, and GC had traveled to Egypt, India, Thailand, and a bunch of other places with Andromeda and Apis Senior. When he didn’t travel, he lived on his parents’ luxurious boat. Oh, how I wished I’d gone with him. Andromeda had invited me, in fact, but I was forced to refuse. For one, Pazuzu would have never let me hear the end of it if I spent the summer with GC and his family, and two, I’d made a promise to Headmaster Colin.
The diner was in sight, just across the street. I chewed on my lower lip anxiously, not feeling quite ready to face my mom. My adoptive mom, that was. Headmaster Colin had told me it would be healthy for me to make peace with my past and my parents. They did the best they could.
“But did they?” I’d asked him in one of our therapy sessions. I’d pulled my shirt up to show him the cigarette burns on my abdomen. They were faded now. “He did this to me. I was three! He stopped when I told my mom, but that didn’t mean the abuse ended there. He found other ways.”
The Headmaster had sighed and nodded. “I know this is hard to accept, but whatever he did to you, it was never personal. In his head, he wasn’t hurting you, he was hurting someone else. He was taking revenge on someone who’d hurt him in the past. You were just a reminder of that pain.”
“That makes no sense. I’m not his daughter, and I’m not my mother’s daughter. What’s the connection between my real parents and them?”
“You should ask them yourself. You have all these questions, all these things left unsaid… You’ll have to face the Lazarovs sooner or later. Why not sooner?”
“You could just tell me, you know. You’re a mage.”
“There are things no one else can do for you, Mila”
So, here I was. Back home. Lena’s Diner. Thanks to the unbearable heat, there weren’t many customers today. I crossed the street and looked through the window. My mother was behind the bar, nursing a cup of coffee and watching some new girl she must have hired recently. From my mother’s expression, it was clear the new girl wasn’t doing great. But it wasn’t like she had many options. People didn’t exactly flock to get a job at Lena’s.
I wonder… Did you look for me when you saw I was gone?
She turned, and I stepped away from the window before she could see me. What’s the point? I should have stayed at the Academy and minded my own business. They weren’t my parents, so why was I here? Headmaster Colin had said I needed closure. That it would make me feel better to talk to them, confront them, tell them what I knew, and have them fill in the blanks that kept me up at night. And then, I could get out of their lives for good. Forever. Or just out of my dad’s life. Maybe it was worth keeping in touch with the woman who’d raised me. She’d done a piss-poor job of it, but at least she’d done it.
I took a deep breath and went inside. The chirpy sound of the bell that announced a new customer didn’t impress anyone. No one looked my way, not even my mom, now busy admonishing the new girl in a hushed tone.
“You always ask them if they want extra sauce. Always.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll remember.”
I stepped up to the bar and removed my hood.
“Mom?”
She turned to me, and her blue eyes filled with tears. She was naturally pale, and her skin still managed to turn even paler. She rounded the bar quickly, smashed her hip in one of the bar stools, cursed under her breath, and threw the thing aside.
“My baby! Oh God, thank you for bringing my baby home.”
She wrapped me in a warm embrace, and I resisted her for a second. Just a second. Then I let out a deep sigh I didn’t know had accumulated in my chest, and hugged her back, relaxing as I inhaled her familiar scent.
“My baby. Where have you been? Why did you do this to me?” She was crying now. “Why would you ever do this to me?”
The whole diner was staring at us. I felt uneasy, so I pushed her away gently, and looked into her beautiful blue eyes.
“Mom, we need to talk.”
She cupped my cheeks with her trembling hands, pushed my blue hair away from my forehead, took a step back to look at me better.
“You’ve grown.”
“Mom, come on. I look exactly the same. Let’s go to your office.”
More tears streamed down her wrinkled cheeks.
“Why did you leave, baby? Why did you leave me? Was I so bad to you?”
I forced a smile. “N-no. Come on, everyone is looking.”
“I looked for you everywhere. I went to the police. I… I did my best. They said…” She shook her head and sniffed loudly. “Because you’d packed some of your things and we couldn’t find the suitcase, they said they couldn’t do anything. That you just ran away, and it wasn’t a missing person case. They refused to help me.”
“Yeah, Mom, because they have better things to do than to look for someone who doesn’t want to be found.”
“It doesn’t matter now. It doesn’t matter.” She hugged me again. “You’re back.”
“Mom.” I struggled to push her away, and it wasn’t easy. “Mom, please. Come on. Mom, I’m not staying. We need to talk.”
She furrowed her brows. I tipped my chin toward the customers at the tables, and she finally understood we were putting on quite a show, and it was all in bad taste. She took my hand and pulled me behind the bar, in the cramped room she called her office, and closed the door.
“What do you mean you’re not staying? Mila, you broke our heart! You left without a word, without a note… Your father and I have been worried sick!”
I laughed bitterly. “Dad. Yeah, I bet.”
“Mila, don’t be so disrespectful. He has his flaws, but he cares. You’re our baby. Our only child.”
I dropped my backpack in a chair and ran my hands through my long, blue hair. I hadn’t trimmed it in a while, and it was driving me crazy. Having long hair in summer was such a bad idea. I shrugged off my tattered hoodie, too, and remained in an old tank top and my new wristbands. Yes, I’d finally bought new ones.
“Mom, I know everything. I know you and Dad are not my real parents.”
That took her completely aback. As if her knees had suddenly turned to jelly, she sat down behind her desk.
“Baby, I don’t know…”
“Stop calling me baby! I know, okay? I know everything!”
“You know what? You have to tell me where you’ve been all this time. It has been almost a year. You were gone for a year!”
“Does it matter? Don’t change the subject.” I took a step toward the desk, placing both my hands on the edge, looking her straight in the eye. “Katia. I know my mother’s name is Katia. It’s time for you to stop lying and start telling the truth. Lies never helped anyone.”
“Baby…”
“You say you care about me. So, prove it. Who is Katia? Where is she? Why did she give me away?”
She placed her elbows on the desk and covered her face with her hands. I could hear she was breathing heavily now, as if she was on the verge of a panic attack and she was trying to keep it at bay. I pulled up a chair, sat down, and crossed my arms over my chest. I felt sorry for her, but I couldn’t back down now. If I had to, then I’d apologize later. Right now, I needed answers. And, apparently, I had to press her for them. Fine. I could do that. I was VDC. There were few things that scared me, and this woman’s panic attack caused by her own lies sure wasn’t one of them.
“I’m waiting,” I said. “Take all the time you need but know that I will not move from this spot until you tell me the truth. The whole truth. It’s the only reason I came back.”
“The only reason you came back,” she said in a weak, defeated voice.
I swallowed hard. “That and… I missed you.”
She looked up at me. “I missed you too, baby. I missed you so much. And I just couldn’t understand why you’d…”
“Mom, please. Understanding why I left isn’t rocket science. Honestly. It’s not like I was happy, or like Dad wanted me around. Let’s move on, okay? Katia. Tell me about Katia.”
She took a deep breath and released it slowly. She reached out under the desk, opened the mini fridge she had there, and pulled out two glasses and a bottle of what looked like… gin? Really?! My mother drank at work?! Wow! Since when? This woman was full of surprises.
