I finished eating and sat at the table for a while.

Staring at my empty plate.

Thinking all of this had to be a lie.

But Bel’s mom was staring right at me like she could see the depths of my soul.

“Saleena, is something on your mind?”

She got up and picked up my plate along with hers before walking toward the kitchen.

When she reached the doorway, she turned her head back toward me.

The room felt oddly safe before she spoke.

The motherly aura around her, outside of those scary eyes, forced me to listen.

“Excuse me for being rude to my husband’s daughter,” Saleena said. “Please don’t take what I am about to say as offensive, Princess Sophia.”

When she said princess, something in me switched.

Not into nurse mode.

Not into scared little girl mode.

Into Malphas’s daughter.

I nodded and gave her a serious look.

The markings on my cheeks flared with a heavy, hazy purple glow.

Like someone else was listening.

“I’m listening, Saleena.”

She turned around and sat in the chair across from me before setting the plates to the side of the table.

Then she rested her hands on the tabletop and took a deep breath.

“Stop trying to act human.”

The words hit me so hard that I almost flinched.

“Belzagus accepted that a long time ago. Ever since he became conscious enough to speak, he stopped trying to return to something that no longer existed.”

She folded her hands together.

“Everything he told me sounded impossible. Too strange. Too large for a child born from me to understand.”

Her black eyes remained calm.

“But he understood it anyway.”

I looked down at my hands.

Bel was already on another level.

He wasn’t trying to go back.

He wasn’t trying to hold on to who he used to be.

He had already moved forward.

“So what’s your son’s goal with knowing all of this?” I asked. “You’re being way too understanding. Everyone around here already accepts that I replaced Lysandra’s daughter.”

Saleena smiled.

Not offended.

Not angry.

Just patient.

Her gaze drifted toward my cheeks.

The markings beneath my eyes began to flare softly under the weight of her endless black Abyss.

And for the first time, it felt like she wasn’t looking at me.

It felt like she was looking at whatever was waking up inside me.

“The fact that Belzagus is already attuned to the Abyss tells me I have nothing to worry about.”

Saleena covered her eyes with both hands.

Tears slipped through her fingers and fell into her lap.

The sudden change in emotion caught me off guard.

I got up and walked around the table.

Even though her eyes terrified me, something pushed me forward.

I wrapped my arms around her shoulders.

“Hey… what’s wrong?”

She whimpered softly.

Like she was remembering something she never truly recovered from.

“He was supposed to disappear from me.”

My body froze.

Saleena’s hands trembled.

“For years, I watched him grow up knowing there would come a day when I wouldn’t be able to protect him anymore.”

Her voice cracked.

“I counted every birthday.”

My heart tightened.

“I watched him learn to walk. Learn to read. Learn to smile.”

A tear rolled down her cheek.

“And every year, I kept wondering if it would be the last time I saw him.”

She lowered her hands.

Those endless black eyes looked smaller somehow.

Not weaker.

Just tired.

“When the day finally came, I thought I lost my baby boy.”

She laughed through her tears.

“But he came back.”

Her fingers tightened around mine.

“He walked through that door covered in blood and carrying the head of the thing that was supposed to take him from me.”

She smiled.

A broken smile.

“And the monsters bowed to him instead.”

She wiped her eyes.

“So when I look at you, Princess Sophia…”

Her gaze drifted toward the markings on my cheeks.

“I don’t see something to fear.”

She squeezed my hand gently.

“I see another impossible child.”

She gave me a big hug, and I returned it because I honestly didn’t know what to say to her right now.

Only that everything seemed to be happening for a reason.

We eventually pulled away from each other.

Saleena stood and gathered the plates.

“Belzagus should be working out in the yard,” she said. “Your father made sure to bring his training equipment along with his gym gear.”

She carried the dishes into the kitchen.

I remained standing there for a moment.

Like Belzagus was somehow about to change the entire atmosphere of my own home.

Outside, Noxx barked loudly.

Then I heard it.

Heavy metal clanked.

Machines moved.

Punching bags were being abused in a steady rhythm.

My eye twitched.

“No, no, no.”

I immediately started walking toward the exit.

“Not my cute home.”

The sounds got louder.

“He’s gotta be out of his goddamn mind.”

I sped through the hallway until my dress caught under my feet.

The fabric dragged across the floor and nearly made me trip.

I stopped.

Then stared down at it.

“She said I need to stop acting human and be more attuned to my demon side.”

I grabbed part of the skirt and lifted it.

Then sighed.

“Just like Belzagus.”

I scoffed, remembering how aggressive and blunt he was back in the hospital.

The man literally made my father physically restrain him.

“He really is so annoying already.”

My mother appeared from the opposite hallway with my aunt walking beside her.

Lysandra immediately noticed my struggle.

A smile formed on her face.

“Sophia, darling, it seems you’re in a hurry.”

I lifted the dress.

“This thing is trying to assassinate me.”

My aunt snorted before continuing down the hallway.

She clearly wanted to see whatever disaster Belzagus was creating outside before it became everyone’s problem.

“These clothes were made to be controlled through magic,” Lysandra said. “Try channeling some of your own magic through the dress.”

I blinked.

“So how am I supposed to do that?”

I raised my hand.

“Like… point at it or something?”

Lysandra walked closer and gently rubbed one of the markings on my cheek.

A beautiful smile appeared on her face.

“Being so beautiful and yet so afraid to stand among your own kind.”

Her hand lingered for a moment.

Then she looked directly into my eyes.

Almost like she was looking at someone else standing behind them.

“I understand that you were human once.”

My body froze.

Lysandra continued.

“The medical knowledge. The way you think. The way you speak.”

Her smile softened.

“That told me long ago that you weren’t the same Sophia I gave birth to.”

The words should have hurt.

Instead, they felt oddly warm.

“But the day you saved Scorin’s father, I stopped worrying about why.”

She gently touched my shoulder.

“I believed there was a reason for it.”

Her smile widened.

“So don’t worry about what I think, darling.”

She leaned forward and kissed my forehead.

“As long as you’re here, I don’t need to worry about losing you.”

She snapped her fingers.

Black mist wrapped around my dress.

The long skirt shortened and tightened into something I could actually move in.

Something I could run in.

Fight in.

Kick someone in if necessary.

I stared.

“Okay… that’s actually useful.”

Lysandra giggled.

“Now.”

She stepped aside and gestured toward the door.

“I believe it’s your first day of training with your half-brother.”

I looked toward the yard.

Then back at her.

Then toward the yard again.

The punching sounds somehow got louder.

“Go have fun, darling.”

She walked past me and continued down the hallway.

I stood there in silence.

Trying to process the fact that she had apparently known everything for a very long time.

The mirror.

The questions.

The way I acted.

The way I grabbed my horns.

Looking back now, she had probably been suspicious for years.

Yet she never cried.

Never hated me.

Never treated me differently.

“What the hell…?”

I heard Noxx barking constantly and Bel shouting at him to scram.

I marched toward the front door with my fist already ready to punch Belzagus for speaking to my dog like that.

The moment I peeked outside, I stopped.

Noxx had Bel cornered.

Bel was holding a twenty-pound weight plate in one hand while trying to keep the giant mutt away from him.

I smiled.

Noxx clearly didn’t appreciate the forceful entry or the random gym equipment invading his front yard.

The same yard he used to poop and pee in.

“Stop! Alright! Relax, you mutt!” Bel shouted.

Noxx barked louder.

“Whoever created you clearly knew how to piss me off!”

Bel finally noticed me standing there.

Relief immediately appeared on his face.

“Hey,” he said. “Can you get your dog? He clearly doesn’t like me moving in.”

I walked down the stairs and grabbed one of the weighted bats lying nearby.

Being a nurse back then really made handling equipment easier.

I rested the heavy bat over my shoulder.

Noxx instantly ran behind me after hearing his name.

Giving Bel just enough space to breathe.

If we were both from the Bronx, then he already knew I wasn’t in the mood for games.

He might have been my favorite author.

But clearly, we were on a deadline.

The morning sun cast a warm glow across the yard.

Fresh-cut grass filled the air from the workers who had passed through earlier.

Echo sat quietly on a branch beneath the shadow of a massive oak tree.

Watching.

Waiting.

“So,” I said.

I shifted the weighted bat slightly across my shoulder.

“What exactly is this training about?”

Bel gave me a dead look, like his mom had already given me the rundown and everyone was done hiding things from me.

He smiled while walking slowly toward me.

Then he waved one hand across his chest.

A pitch-black cloak formed over his body.

His eyes changed.

His pupils disappeared into full darkness, just like his mother’s.

No light reached inside them.

Not even the sun.

Bel circled around me, studying the changes my body had just gone through.

Then his eyes settled on the markings beneath mine.

“Seems like things are going smoothly,” Bel said.

I narrowed my eyes.

“What is?”

He pointed toward my cheeks.

“Grace finally left her first marks.”

I blinked.

“Grace?”

Bel looked at me like I was stupid.

“The kitten.”

I stared at him.

“The what?”

He sighed.

“Those aren’t scars. They’re not normal demonization marks either.”

He pointed again.

“They’re Grace Marks.”

My hand immediately moved to my face.

“The whiskers?”

“Yeah,” Bel said. “The moment those appeared, it meant Grace finally woke up.”

I stared at him.

“The cat gave me whiskers?”

Bel crossed his arms.

“She’s a kitten.”

“That doesn’t make it better.”

I looked at him like I should put a straitjacket on him.

Annoyed.

Already tired.

And now my nose was starting to itch because of the pollen from the garden.

“Just tell me already, OoooOOoO wise one.”