1
PANDORA
The unyielding metal chain bit into my ankle, clattering against the broken sandstone floor as a reminder of my magical deficit.
Even after twenty-two years of Mother’s intervention to make my shadow magic come out to play, I couldn’t doanything.Shadow demons fed off of pain and the negative emotions of themselves and others. I was provided a constant stream of all the pain and negativity any shadow demon could ask for, but not once had my magical reserves filled—not once had I ever manipulated the shadows.
I was a broken demon, according to my mother. Her solution was to lock me down in the cellar after my first birthday when I still hadn’t shown signs of a magical ability.
I’d been a disappointment ever since.
The smooth surface of Nebula’s skull in my palms was my only salvation. The black goo of his sealed soul dripped from his eye sockets as he manifested.
“Pandora,” his disembodied voice purred. “You need to leave.”
“I can’t,” I croaked the words, my throat burning from the permanent damage of my voice box, larynx, and lack of water. The stale taste of the air filled my mouth.
“She’s going to kill you,” he warned. “Just like she killed me.”
Flashes of when I was four years old and a kitten had wandered into the cellar slammed into me, but I pushed them away. I hated thinking about how he was murdered in my arms.
The occasional distant howl of the desert wind hit my ears as I listened for any sign that she was around. “She hasn’t killed me yet.”
My toes pushed against the uneven texture of the floor as I pressed my back against the wall for support. The cool sensation of the rough sandstone against my bare skin sent shivers through me, but I was used to it.
Dust particles floated in the air, catching the sparse rays of sunlight that seeped through the cracks in the hatch-type cellar door from above.
“It’s only a matter of time,” he hissed. “Youknow what she’s capable of more than anyone.Please.”
“There is no escape, Nebula.” I blinked my blurry, dry eyes as I stared down at his skull and tar-like soul leaking out. The manifestation of his soul was warm as it covered my palms.
Numbness had settled into my bones long ago.
“Pandora…”
A flash of light glinted off the chain that wrapped around my ankle and disappeared into the dark. It was enchanted, and I was at my mother’s mercy, just like I had been since the day I was born. The acrid odor of rust from the metal chain created a metallic tang in the air, amplifying the nauseating scent around me.
“She can’t hurt me more than she already has.”
So what if I was defective?
Mother told me that there was an instinctual predator and prey nature that all demons had and that our supernatural species was particularly vicious. Since I was weak, I’d be killed by more powerful demons; she’d said it as a promise. But how was that any different from what she was doing to me? At this point, I’d consider it a mercy.
“Hang on a little longer.” Nebula’s harsh voice bounced off the walls of the cellar as dull thuds from above caught my attention.
Panic crawled up my throat as I shifted my aching body toward the crack in the sandstone floor, ignoring the burning in my ankle as I stretched for the open crevice and slipped Nebula’s skull into it and out of view. I didn’t want to think about what she would do if she knew that I had kept his skull.
The dusty aroma of the desert choked me as I moved to the other side, careful not to make the chain rattle as I lowered myself against the cool stone, resting my cheek against the hardened blood coating it.
She didn’t come yesterday.
My eyes slammed shut as I prayed to the Fates that she’d spare me another session of trying to unearth a power I clearly didn’t have, but they didn’t answer.
Choking despair and hopelessness twisted and turned inside me as the cellar door banged open.
My throat tightened to the point I could barely breathe. The pain wouldn’t end, and there was no escape for me. Fates, Iknewthat. But the daily reminders hurtso much.
Mother’s magical reserves stayed full because of what she did to me, but it was never enough. It would never be enough until my magical reserves filled instead.
