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CHAPTER ONE
I couldn’t believe I was here. Hazard, Kentucky. The name fit the place. I threw the backpack over my shoulder, pulled my hood over my hair, and got ready for the forty-minute-walk to Lena’s Diner. I could have taken a cab, but I didn’t want to. As stupid as it might sound, I’d missed this place. That didn’t mean I wanted anyone to recognize me, hence the hood, even though it was freaking hot outside. One week until school started, and I’d made the decision to visit my mom at the very last minute, but at least I’d made it. It said something about how far I’d come after my weekly therapy sessions with Mason Colin.
Yeah, that was right. After the finals, – which I aced, by the way, – practice started, students were assigned to their mentors, and the Academy became deserted. It was Christmas vacation all over again, except this time there was no Paz in sight, either. I was the only student left. Headmaster Colin hadn’t given any explanation to anyone as to why he hadn’t assigned me to a Violent Reaper, which left me to deal with the clusterfuck of having to tell Klaus, Patty, GC, and Paz something. Anything. Thank God I didn’t have many friends, or it would’ve been a major pain in the ass. At least, the ones I did have, I trusted. I couldn’t possibly lie to Klaus and Patty. So, I told them the truth. I was the daughter of Valentine Morningstar. Apparently, because he was a nephilim, – so only half supernatural, – and my mother was human, I had turned up human. That was the only thing that really did make sense in all this shit-show. Patty was over the moon. Klaus didn’t know how to feel about it, so even though we kept in touch all through practice, and then all through the summer vacation, we didn’t talk much about it. He wanted to pretend like nothing had changed, and I was fine with it. Actually, I was more than fine. I was grateful.
Okay, my friends were one thing. My boyfriends were another. I couldn’t lie to GC and Paz, either. I told them. Paz was taken aback. GC was even more excited than Patty. I guess, in the end, it did matter to him whom he dated. Dating a human was fine and all… Something new and interesting. But dating Valentine Morningstar’s daughter?! Suddenly, I wasn’t a normie goddess anymore. I was a goddess in my own right. Sometimes he proved to be so shallow that I didn’t know what to think of him.
Paz had an entirely different reaction, though. Since he’d told me about the prophecy and how he didn’t particularly believe in it because prophecies were superstitions for the poor and the less fortunate, he’d gone through a one-eighty, and started talking about conspiracy theories. What the fuck?! A demon suddenly addicted to conspiracy theories?! Jesus! That was the last thing I needed in my life! After practice was over, he spent the summer digging for more prophecies, trying to find out where the one about the human retiring Morningstar had originated, and… – oh God, this was the craziest part, – and working on putting my genealogy together. He even traveled to Bulgaria, and now he had a tentative family tree to show me once we got back to school. Honestly, I wanted nothing to do with his new hobby. It was almost like he was obsessed with me and the history of my supposed family, and that made me feel uncomfortable. Even after so many sessions with Headmaster Colin, I still wasn’t ready to find out who I was and where I came from. And Paz… Ugh! Pazuzu had made it his mission to turn every unturned rock.
I was dying to see them after a long, tedious summer vacation, and at the same time, I dreaded the moment of our reunion.
My phone buzzed, and I pulled it out of my pocket to glimpse at the screen. A smile tugged at my lips.
“Mis u goddes take care, mkay”
GC had no respect for grammar or spelling when he texted. Sometimes I didn’t even understand what he was saying, and it was a good thing Pazuzu was online twenty-four seven to translate.
“Idiot, learn how to spell! *angry emoji* Dearie *heart emoji* do take care, though. You shouldn’t have gone alone.”
I rolled my eyes. Maybe creating a group text for me, Paz, and GC hadn’t been my most brilliant idea.
“I’ll be fine, guys. Chill.”
A bunch of heart emojis from Paz, too many kiss emojis from GC, and a fuckton of poop and angry emojis they exchanged between themselves. I switched my phone off. Paz had spent his summer vacation in Hell, at his mom’s place, and GC had traveled to Egypt, India, Thailand, and a bunch of other places with Andromeda and Apis Senior. When he didn’t travel, he lived on his parents’ luxurious boat. Oh, how I wished I’d gone with him. Andromeda had invited me, in fact, but I was forced to refuse. For one, Pazuzu would have never let me hear the end of it if I spent the summer with GC and his family, and two, I’d made a promise to Headmaster Colin.
The diner was in sight, just across the street. I chewed on my lower lip anxiously, not feeling quite ready to face my mom. My adoptive mom, that was. Headmaster Colin had told me it would be healthy for me to make peace with my past and my parents. They did the best they could.
“But did they?” I’d asked him in one of our therapy sessions. I’d pulled my shirt up to show him the cigarette burns on my abdomen. They were faded now. “He did this to me. I was three! He stopped when I told my mom, but that didn’t mean the abuse ended there. He found other ways.”
The Headmaster had sighed and nodded. “I know this is hard to accept, but whatever he did to you, it was never personal. In his head, he wasn’t hurting you, he was hurting someone else. He was taking revenge on someone who’d hurt him in the past. You were just a reminder of that pain.”
“That makes no sense. I’m not his daughter, and I’m not my mother’s daughter. What’s the connection between my real parents and them?”
“You should ask them yourself. You have all these questions, all these things left unsaid… You’ll have to face the Lazarovs sooner or later. Why not sooner?”
“You could just tell me, you know. You’re a mage.”
“There are things no one else can do for you, Mila”
So, here I was. Back home. Lena’s Diner. Thanks to the unbearable heat, there weren’t many customers today. I crossed the street and looked through the window. My mother was behind the bar, nursing a cup of coffee and watching some new girl she must have hired recently. From my mother’s expressi
on, it was clear the new girl wasn’t doing great. But it wasn’t like she had many options. People didn’t exactly flock to get a job at Lena’s.
I wonder… Did you look for me when you saw I was gone?
She turned, and I stepped away from the window before she could see me. What’s the point? I should have stayed at the Academy and minded my own business. They weren’t my parents, so why was I here? Headmaster Colin had said I needed closure. That it would make me feel better to talk to them, confront them, tell them what I knew, and have them fill in the blanks that kept me up at night. And then, I could get out of their lives for good. Forever. Or just out of my dad’s life. Maybe it was worth keeping in touch with the woman who’d raised me. She’d done a piss-poor job of it, but at least she’d done it.
