I shrugged. Whatever. I didn’t have to know all his secrets to figure him out. Not now, of course, but at some point in the future.
“So, why does no one seem to notice you’re carrying an honest to God scythe?” I looked at the people passing us by. They rarely spared us a disinterested glance.
“I can see you didn’t do your practice last year. Tell me, why is that?”
I swallowed hard. I wasn’t going to get an answer to my question. Instead, he had me cornered. Do I lie? Do I tell the truth? How much of the truth, though? Straight-up lying wasn’t an option, though. For one, I hadn’t prepared a good enough lie. Stupid! I should have. I should have known this moment would inevitably come. And secondly, he would have seen right through me. I’d never been a great liar. The truth it is… Some of it, at least.
“I wasn’t ready.”
“How come? You took your finals and you had a good worth score.”
“I wasn’t ready to meet you.”
I thought I saw him grin from the corner of my eye.
“You knew,” he said in a whisper. “And instead of wanting to meet me, you chose to avoid me.”
I furrowed my brows. Anger started boiling in my veins, and my heart beat faster. I suddenly felt dizzy, and I felt like I needed to pee. It was my body’s way of trying to stop me when I was about to say something I might regret later. This was usually how I felt whenever someone did a crass injustice to me and I was getting ready to confront them and put them in their place. Because I hated conflict and I’d lived my whole life trying to find creative ways to avoid it, my body fought with all its might when it sensed I was walking right into it.
“You’re my father,” I said through gritted teeth. “And unlike me, you’ve always known you had a daughter, you’ve always known I was out there, somewhere, and you never came to find me. I, on the other hand, have only found out about you recently. For eighteen years, I believed my parents were Ilena and Stepan Lazarov. I came to Grim Reaper Academy, and my whole world turned upside down. No, it was more than that. My whole world before the Academy was invalidated. Suddenly, it was all a lie. My parents weren’t my parents. They were just a sad, poor Bulgarian couple who adopted me because they had no other option. It was either that or leaving me at an orphanage. Because of me, they ended up miserable. My real mother turned out to be a prostitute, and my real father… you. So, tell me, how do you fathom I was the one who was supposed to come find you first?”
He remained silent the rest of the way. At the back of the building, there was a door that had been painted to resemble the red bricks around it. It was well-camouflaged. Morningstar held it for me, and I walked in, not before hesitating when I saw the well-lit stone staircase that led down down down, to some sort of basement. At least, it wasn’t sunk in darkness. As I descended, the space opened up, and when I reached the end of the staircase, I realized we were in a grand waiting hall.
“What is this?” A crystal chandelier hung from the tall ceiling, the floors were covered in expensive marble, and across the spacious hall, there was a row of four desks behind which clerks were answering calls, talking to clients, and signing papers. It seemed to be some sort of secret branch.
“This is our bank. It’s run by supernaturals, and only supernaturals have accounts and deposit vaults here. You might just be the first human to set foot in it.”
“Oh, lucky, privileged me,” I mumbled sarcastically. It was becoming old news. The first human to do this, the first human to do that. These people needed a new hobby. “This is what you wanted to show me?” It didn’t make any sense. For our first father-daughter day out, – and especially since he’d taken me out of school, – I would’ve thought he’d take me somewhere more… romantic.
“Yes. Patience, daughter. You’ll see why.”
“You have to start calling me something else…”
We walked to the first desk and approached the clerk. When the middle-aged woman raised her eyes from her papers, I was taken aback by how red and dark they were. What sort of creature was she?! Then I saw the wings protruding from her back. They were rather small, with rough, ashen feathers. A harpy.
“Mr. Morningstar, what a pleasure!” She smiled broadly, revealing two sets of sharp teeth. “And this must be…” She shot me a confused look.
“My daughter, Mila Morningstar.”
“Oh!” She clapped enthusiastically, then quickly opened a drawer and rummaged through it. “I believe I know why you’re here, then.” She was talking to him, but she winked at me. “Such a pleasure to meet you, young lady. I was wondering when I’d finally get to make your acquaintance.”
I looked up at Morningstar. Was he going to tell me what this was all about? Anytime soon, would’ve been nice.
“This is Mrs. Celine Barnes.” She extended a hand, and I didn’t have a choice but to shake it. “She’s been taking care of the family vault for years. In fact, since I was at the Academy, I believe.”
“No, that was my mother,” she corrected him cheerfully. “My mother opened the accounts and the vault for you, and I took over when she retired.” She turned to me. “And I, young lady, was in charge of opening your account and your own personal vault.”
What now?!
“How is your mother, by the way?”
Celine’s expression changed. She finally found what she was looking for and gave it to me. It was a bronze skeleton key.
“She passed away a few years ago, poor thing. But it was painless and peaceful.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that,” Morningstar empathized.
“Yes, thank you. I believe a Neutral Reaper was called that night.”