Page 42 of Eat, Slay, Love

I tap my sternum. “My forte senses something more.”

The room goes still.

“I’m not sensing thoughts. I’m not reading minds or souls or deciding whether someone is good or evil. I still sense the same demonic signature all of you do. But there’s another pattern underneath it. Intent. I can feel when that energy is directed toward harm.”

Gabriel looks down.

“And sometimes,” I say, watching him, “you feel something different too.”

His jaw flexes, but he doesn’t deny it.

“That static. That shift you told me about. I think you have the same forte.”

His head lifts sharply. “No.”

“You said it yourself.”

“I said sometimes the current feels different.”

“So does mine.”

“That doesn’t mean we have the same forte.”

“Well,” I concede, “at the very least, it means we should figure it out.”

Silence stretches between us.

Raf breaks it first. “Difference doesn’t mean good.”

“No,” I agree. “It doesn’t. My forte doesn’t tell me good. It tells me intent. And Jonah’s is different from Belvedere’s.”

Leo scoffs. “You’re basing all of this on a feeling?”

“I’m basing it on my magic. The same magic we’ve trusted our entire lives when it tells us a demon is standing in front of us. The blond demon I killed?” I continue. “My magic was sharp around him. The demonic signature was there, and beneath it, so was the intent to hurt me. No static. No hesitation. Everything aligned.” I take a breath. “Jonah doesn’t feel like that.”

Andres stares at me. “Because you’re sleeping with him.”

“I felt it before I was sleeping with him. I felt it when I was trying to kill him.”

Another silence.

“And this isn’t just about Jonah,” I continue. “Demons feed differently. We were taught that feeding means consuming a soul, but that isn’t always what happens.”

Leo’s expression hardens. “What the hell does that mean?”

“There’s a core to a soul—identity, memory, will. The things that make someone who they are. A full feeding destroys that. But Jonah doesn’t touch the core. He feeds from the outer layers.”

“Outer layers,” Raf repeats.

“Things that accumulate around it. Rot. Violence. Rage. Jonah feeds on what’s poisoning someone and leaves the person intact.”

Andres stares at me like I’ve suggested we adopt a demon as a pet. Which I suppose I’ve done with Batibat. Or did she adopt me?

“That’s insane,” he says.

“I watched him do it.”

Gabriel finally speaks. “You’re telling us the demon you’re fucking doesn’t consume souls.”