“Your son is Elijah,” I say. And then I add cautiously, “He’s a good kid.”
Her eyes glisten for a moment. “Elijah is one of a kind.” She presses her lips together, taking a deep breath. “He’s safer withthe supernaturals of St. Michael Cemetery than he could be out here with me. They understand what it’s like to be…. unusual.”
Well, the way she describes the supernaturals of St. Michael Cemetery makes me want to meet them. From what I know, one of them is also a fury and they’re all extremely powerful, but I have no other information about them.
Rebella takes another shuddering breath, blinking hard at the tears in her eyes before she tips her chin at me. “What do I call you?”
I arch an eyebrow at her. “You’re a fury. How do you not know my name?”
“I know you currently call yourselfVeda.”
I narrow my eyes. “That’s right.”
She peers at me. “Is that really your name?”
What a question.
But I guess it’s valid coming from a being who can see into my soul.
“What wouldyoucall me?” I ask, genuinely curious.
She arches an eyebrow at me. “What else do you call a riddle except ariddle?”
Ha, that’s what I’d call the keeper. “Then call me ‘Riddle.’”
She snorts, but her eyes become piercing, the golden hue increasing in intensity. “Perhaps I would rather call you ‘Vulture.’”
My brow furrows. “If I’m correct in my understanding of the animal world, vultures pick over carcasses. I think I’m offended.”
“Oh, but vultures have a crucial role to play in an ecosystem,” she says, her gaze so sharp now that it feels like she’s flaying my skin from my body with her eyes instead of her whip. “They clean the bones that other predators are too lazy to clean. They consume diseased flesh to ensure the rot does not spread, enabling the good health and survival of others.”
She inches closer to me. “Vultures can tear at the rotten soul of an ecosystem with an efficiency that’s breathtaking.”
I allow myself to grin because I guess a vulture doesn’t sound so insulting, after all.
“Of course,” she continues, “they are not loved for it.”
I exhale my sigh.
But it seems she has decided to persist. “You seek to excise your father’s evil, do you not?”
I can’t help the challenge that rises to my lips. “What makes you think I’m not equally evil? I’m a dark creature, too.”
“There’s a difference between darkness and evil,” she says.
It was only a few hours ago that I came to the same conclusion.
But then… sheisseeing into my soul.
She may be deliberately reinforcing my own conclusions.
But for what purpose?
She let me live. She’s chosen to give me more information about herself than I expected, and now I need to know why.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
“What do you want from me, Rebella?” I ask.
