The air was dry, and my hair was down, falling around me like a comforting shield as I tried not to focus on the looks from other students. We seemed to be catching a lot of demons’ eyes. All of them dipped their heads in respect for Daryl, but they just stared at me curiously.
I’d let him pick out my outfit because I had no clue what to expect attending an academy. He’d picked out a cream sleeveless blouse that wrapped around my neck with a black wool pencil skirt that reached the middle of my thighs. I’d wrapped my thigh with the dressing he’d given me last week, and from all of the stares without it on display, I was more than happy I’d hidden those scars.
I inhaled the faint scent of dry earth and sun-warmed stone, and as the breeze came through, I could smell desert flowers, adding sweetness tothe air. As I breathed, I could feel a hint of dust on my tongue.
“Now, you can’t eat any souls fully on the first day,” he attempted to joke.
My stomach rolled as nausea fought its way into my throat. I shot him an unimpressed glance.
“Right.” He cleared his throat. “Apparently, that was a bad dad joke I’ve heard so much about.”
“You nailed it,” I commented, pressing a hand to the bag slung over my shoulder that held Nebula’s skull. “Definitely a bad joke, and you’re my dad, so…”
“I am, aren’t I?” He chuckled awkwardly, raking a hand through his hair.
“You are.” I swallowed hard.
It was so bittersweet. I loved having a father who was interested in a stable father-daughter relationship, but I didn’tknowhim. We had no history, and there wasn’t exactly a formed bond yet. It was another thing I blamed on Mother.
As we passed a nearby building, my gaze collided with an insanely attractive demon’s. The way he was leaned back against the outer wall so casually was sinful.
I froze for a brief moment and roamed my eyes all over him. There was a faint scent of vanilla and smoke wafting from his direction, and it made my body flush with heat.
He had dangerous almond-shaped, emerald green eyes trained on me. There was a scar about two inches thick across his right eye, and I immediately wanted to know how he’d gotten it. Scars were not easy to come by for demons. I knew that firsthand…
He didn’t even blink as he drew in breath from a purple pipe. His face was heart-shaped with a sharp jaw and narrow lips. Lips I knew I wouldn’t be able to forget. He had black hair with white highlights that was parted to one side, hitting the tops of his shoulders. My fingers twitched. I desperately wanted to run my fingers through it.
Moving the pipe down, he blew out a stream of magical smoke, and his eyes rolled up as he tilted his head back slightly. He had a neck tattoo that looked like a scorpion. Snakes were inked into his arms, and there was a spider on the back of his hand that he smoked the pipe with.
They were perfect—hewas perfect.
He met my eyes again, and his lips lifted into a sardonic smile.
Goosebumps raised my flesh, and I glanced down at my ring.
It was black.
Fear funneled through my heart along with something else I couldn’t quite pinpoint.
The man tilted his head, and I jerked my gazeaway before picking up my pace to catch up to Daryl.
What the Fates was that?
Daryl groaned, steering us toward the building on the left. “Maybe wait on getting to know boys. I just found out I have a daughter, you know.”
“What?” My cheeks heated. “I wasn’t?—”
“Sure, Pandora,” he humored me, opening the door for me to walk through. “This is Reform Hall. The bottom floors are separated into four quadrants: two are lecture halls, academy counselors’ offices, headmaster’s office, and the cafeteria is on the top floor.”
“Woah.” I glanced around the building, nodding my head as he took me down a long hallway. Dull thumps of my shoes hit against the stone. “It’s so big.”
Everything was pretty much the same at the academy as it was in his manor. Sandstone buildings, earthy tones, and the scent of the desert was overwhelming.
“We’re meeting with Headmaster Blackthistle. He’s the Chaos Demon Representative for the Demon Council, so we’re acquaintances,” he explained as he opened the last door down the hall. “But he’s also the headmaster of this academy.”
An odd amber scent hit me as an older manwith brown and gray hair stood from his desk and started toward us.
“This is Headmaster Blackthistle,” Daryl informed me with a slight frown as he took in the impatient expression on the man’s face.
