“Yes,” I rasped.
He nodded, disappearing through the door for a moment before coming back with a cup of water with ice rattling inside. “Here you are.”
I grabbed it with two trembling hands, feeling the cold of the glass against my skin as I brought the cup to my lips and drank it. The cold water sliding down my throat felt like magic, and I greedily gulped everything down until only ice cubes remained.
I’d only ever had warm water. Cold water tastedsomuch better.
“Thank you,” I whispered softly.
“Of course.” He cleared his throat, holding his hand out to take the cup. I handed it over, and he placed it on the dresser. “You got sick.”
“Yes.”
He reached up and ran a hand through his long hair with a pensive expression. “Probably due to magical malnutrition. You’ve been asleep for five days. Our healer came to take a look at you. How long had it been since you had fed before the…woman…that was found with you?”
“Never,” I murmured, wrapping a hand around my throat as I sucked in a deep breath.
His eyes almost bulged out, but he schooled his horrified expression. “At least your regular nutrition seems to be fine.”
“She didn’t want my body too weak to try to tap into magic,” I explained, my words vibrating against my palm from my throat.
“And she was your mother?” His mouth spread into a harsh line.
“Yes.”
“What do you mean by tap into your magic?” He gestured for me to take a seat on the edge of the bed.
I complied because my legs were still wobbly. “I’ve never been able to manipulate shadows or feed off of pain or negative emotions. She said I was defective.”
“You’re not defective, Pandora. You’re not a shadow demon, so of course, there was no way you could have the power of one,” he stated before exhaling a shaky breath and shattering everything I knew. “You’re a soul eater.”
A soul eater?
I’d read a passage about them in a demonology book before. It was short and simple. Soul eaters fed off the souls of other supernaturals and humans. There were only a handful left in Kalista. They could kill with just an outstretched hand, but I had used a black fog that came from my mouth. Why was I different? Would I be a defective soul eater, too?
“What?” The word sounded like a plea from my lips. “But—how?”
“You’re the sixth soul eater in Kalista, and all of us can sense each other. It’s a unique experience made only for soul eaters, but when you awakened, I’m sure the other four felt it, too.”
“How did you know where I was?” I clenched my fists in my lap. “Why did you come?”
“It’s part of sensing another soul eater awaken. You’re like a beacon for at least an hour after. I’m the Soul Eater Representative on the Demon Council, so it’s my duty to ensure all soul eaters are accounted for. I wasn’t expecting you to be a grown adult, and I definitely wasn’t expecting what I walked in on. But moreimportantly…I didn’t expect to recognize your mother.”
“What do you mean by that?” My chest tightened as I forced another breath.
“PandoraGravesend. That’s your full name now. You are rightfully my daughter.” His eyes glistened as he shuddered. “I’m so sorry I didn’t know about you until you awakened.”
“My—father?” My heart leapt to my throat. “You’re my father?”
He nodded, screwing his eyes shut. “I recognized your mother. We shared a…drunken night about twenty-three years ago now. But I’m sorry. If I’d known about you, I wouldn’t have let your mother hurt you. You’ll be safe now. This is my manor, and this is your home now, too. How long had you been in that cellar?”
My mind whirled with so much new information that my stomach roiled again. This man was my father? And he hadn’t known about me? My mother had always told me I didn’t have a father.
“She said that after I turned one, she realized I was broken, so she stuffed me down there. She was embarrassed of me.” I laced my fingers together. “I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t chained there, though.”
“You were a baby.” His words were low, and I saw anger simmering in his eyes.
It was the very first time I saw anger that wasn’t directed at me.
