Lexie struggled to hide her emotions. She tried to appear normal, but she had a feeling she looked like a stiff marionette.

"Hello," she managed. "Nice to meet you."

The Eldritch Lord didn't respond to her greeting. His head cocked as he stared at her.

"Your soul. It looks…different."

Lexie's heart clenched almost painfully. Then it began racing for a whole different reason. He could see her soul?

"Don't say stuff like that, Litchie," Aiden said in a warning tone. "You'll freak my daughter out."

"Ah yes, I forgot. Humans consider it rude to comment on their souls." His eyes blinked, which was an odd thing to watch. Like shuttering the night sky and opening it up again.

"You were also supposed to disappear when you heard someone approaching," Lexie's dad bit out to Naem.

"Yes, but I assumed since it was your spawn you would be okay with it."

"You assumed wrong."

"Hmmm. I will make adjustments to my assumption next time. Since we have company now, our meeting is concluded, is it not?" Litchie said.

Aiden swallowed and rubbed his hands over the front of his sweatpants as he nodded. "Yes. It was nice of you to stop by Litchie."

"As always." Although the man-demon didn't smile, he exuded his amusement. When he turned back to stare at Lexie, she was once again fighting not to show how freaked out she was on the inside. His face was angular with whisker-like marks on his cheeks. She avoided his eyes, but Lexie suspected he was staring at her soul again.

"Interesting," he said in the same tone of voice he used to describe the cookie. A swirling pool of darkness appeared behind him swallowing him into their depths. Just like that, he was gone.

Only then could Lexie breathe, just barely. That unnatural fear still had her in its grips.

"Who was that?" she murmured. Of course, she already knew who he was but it seemed like the right question to ask.

"Just an old friend," Aiden said cagily, sighing in annoyance as he looked at the spot Litchie just was. "One who should have left with less spectacle than that."

Lexie gave him an accusatory look. "You have friends in the Eldritch?"

"I have friends everywhere. Enemies too," he said with a smile that Lexie didn't return. She just kept staring at him until the smile disappeared from his face.

"Lexie–"

"You're an ex-[Villain]." She cut him off. "Getting visited at night in secret by your Eldritch friend. Do you have any idea how that looks? Do you know how much trouble you'd be in if anyone found out?" She couldn't believe he was bold enough to have the meeting at his home, even if Naem had agreed to disappear when he sensed people coming.

Lexie didn't want to be judgemental but it would not be a good look for her father to have such intimate contact with criminals. It was one thing if it was people who occasionally shirked the law like Max, or even those like Mouse who he knew from the past and sympathized with. But the Eldritch, a race of creatures widely regarded to be demons… who took over souls and sacrificed children probably and did a bunch of demonic things...

That was a whole different thing entirely.

Lexie wasn't exactly sure of the role that the Eldritch played on the Fae Planet, but from what she could surmise in Politics class, and from stories Elvira told her, she thought that they were likely something close to an organized crime family. Technically, they were openly responsible for a lot of the crime that happened on the planet and off, but for some reason, they frequently got away with it and were only apprehended on occasion. The Fae seemed to largely accept their existence.

People on earth though, perhaps with the singular exception of Bennie, hated and loathed the Eldritch. If Fae were seen as creatures of light, then the Eldritch were creatures of darkness, the stuff of nightmares, things to be feared. Lexie could see why. The two times she'd met Eldritch beings, she'd been filled with such fear that she wanted to run away and keep on running. Not that she was super brave at baseline, but she wasn't used to being doused in so much overwhelming terror.

Even besides that, everything she'd heard about Eldritch, about how they manipulated and used humans, tricked them into signing their souls away....it didn't encourage her to trust them any more than she did.

So why was her father friends with one?

Aiden didn't say anything for some time. He seemed to be weighing the words in his mind, as though trying to find the appropriate words to calm her down.

Or maybe to manipulate her. A suspicious voice crowded her mind, drowning out all others. It was like her faith collapsed and every piece of doubt she'd ever had about Aiden rose to the surface.

After all, how much did she really know him? They'd met a year ago. He was a [Villain] with a crime that was largely kept a secret but it was so bad it earned him a band around his neck and wrists. He'd hidden his friendship with the Lord of the Eldritch from her.

What if she'd gotten this whole thing wrong? She'd blamed the hero association for Aiden's suffering all this time, but what if whatever he'd done had been enough to deserve it? What if the [Heroes] were right and she'd been wrong about Aiden?

Lexie didn't know where the thoughts were coming from but they were pouring into her mind one after another, decimating every iota of trust she ever had in him. She needed to escape.

"I have to use the bathroom," she said, wanting to get away from him before she started hyperventilating.

"Lex."

"A minute!" She ran into her home and up the stairs and didn't stop until she was in her bedroom. She closed the door behind her, locking it.

She needed to leave this place, leave Aiden.

But where could she go? How would she get home? Should she tell Aiden she wasn't his daughter?

She weighed it, the consequences of coming clean to Aiden and telling him that she was actually a strange soul transferred into his daughter's body. She thought maybe he could help her find her way back. Or maybe not.

Maybe he would conspire with his Eldritch friend to destroy her.

Okay now, perhaps she was overreacting. It was probably just the leftover fear from her meeting with the Eldritch Lord that was making her panicky and frantic. Hopefully, Aiden would think so. She didn't want to have to explain to him that the real reason she was so freaked out was because she was scared that she'd been wrong about him the whole time.

It would be a heartbreaking discovery.

She went to retrieve her phone from the drawer and went through her messages again, scrolling up to find the picture of Lord Naem. It had his stats out as follows:

Name: Il Naem Y Ylitch.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Titles: Lord of Darkness, King of Nightmares, Collector of Souls

Class: S-Rank Soul Reaper, S-Rank Dream Weaver, S-Rank Meister of Darkness

Role: [Eldritch Lord].

A soul reaper? Was that why he'd been so interested in her soul? He was thinking of reaping it?

Aiden wouldn't have let him. Obviously, he wouldn't.

But would Aiden be able to stop him? Aiden was powerful for a human but she didn't think he was powerful enough to stop a triple S-Rank Eldritch Lord, who even the Fae were probably scared of. She didn't think anyone could go up against him, which begged the question why had Aiden invited the man into his home? And why did it seem like they were friends?

Had Aiden signed a contract with him?

Human contracts with the Eldritch were strictly forbidden because they usually led to the humans losing their mind, their will, and their souls to the creatures at the end. Aiden would have to be stupid or desperate to sign.

Aiden wasn't stupid.

But at that point, he had been very desperate.

Oh God.

Lexie's mind flitted about from thing to thing, and her heart wouldn't stop racing. She really was going to have a panic attack.

"Lexie." She heard Aiden's footsteps on the stairs. "If you're freaking out in there just know that your thoughts aren't real. They're a side effect of meeting that man."

God, she hoped so. She hoped that she didn't have to feel this bone-deep suspicion of everyone and everything for long.

And she hoped that she wasn't really doubting everything she knew about Aiden Sparrowfoot.

She tried to breathe through it and think logically, but her thoughts were scattered as all the panic shoved into her brain all at once. Waves were crashing in on her and her breaths were coming faster as she tried to reconcile all the information she had with what she felt.

A knock came on her door, startling her.

"Lexie," Aiden said. "Are you okay?"

"I need a minute."

He gave her a few seconds of silence. "I can hear you panicking in there."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are. I know when you're lying honey bee, you have a tell. Plus I can hear your voice shaking." He sounded so sober, so sad. "I'm sorry for lying to you, Lexie. Just come out and let's talk about it."

Lexie considered the offer. Self-preservation warned her to keep the door locked and keep away from Aiden for now. But another voice told her that she was being silly and not thinking clearly. This was Aiden for crying out loud. Her father. He wouldn't hurt her.

Besides, she wouldn't find the answers she needed by staring at a picture of the demon king on her phone. The only one who could answer her questions about why Naem was here was Aiden, and she had to trust him even though he'd told her that little white lie about the demon king only being Max's friend.

Is he going to tell me the truth now?

Only one way to find out.

She sighed and stood up, steeling herself. Then she opened the door slowly, staring at him.

The fear was knocked down a couple pegs when she saw his face. He didn't look like a scheming criminal right now. He looked apologetic and anxious as well. So anxious, as though he was scared that he might have irrevocably damaged the trust they had, the one between him and his daughter.

Except I'm not his real daughter. And I have to remember that, maybe now more than ever.

Lexie shook her head. She didn't think Aiden would hurt her despite everything. She wasn't scared of him. She was more scared of having her image of him as a loving dad, who was just trying to do his best despite things that happened in the past, shattered.

She walked out and they stared at each other for a few seconds.

"I made snickerdoodles," he said after some time. "There's still some left over."

She wasn't really hungry but she nodded. As he turned and headed down, she followed him.

They had the conversation on the dining room table with a plate of cookies untouched between them. It reminded Lexie of the first conversation they'd had a year ago, when she first went there. When he'd told her about the system and pre-awakening.

It felt like a lifetime had passed since then.

The silence between them was punctuated by a wolf howl and a responding call.

Then Aiden started to speak.

"Litchie isn't just my Eldritch friend," he began. "He's also the Lord of the Eldritch. But, I didn't know it when I first met him."

Ah. At least that was the truth. But it didn't ease Lexie much. "How did you meet?"

Aiden tapped the table and then peeked out of the window. "Did you ever hear The Fable of the Swan?"

Lexie nodded. The Fable of the Swan was a popular childhood fairytale that was a derivative of sleeping beauty. A beautiful swan shifter was cursed by her evil stepmother and fell into a deep sleep that she could not be awoken from. To make it worse, it wasn't a restful sleep, but a sleep where she was tormented by nightmares. Her father sought out all the most powerful mages in the land, but none of them could wake her from her slumber. It seemed that her soul itself had been captured by the nightmarish world and she could not wake up.

Then her father met someone, a handsome young man who claimed he was a prince from a faraway land. He told her father that he could cure her. He would reach into the dream world and pull her out of it, as long as her father would sign a contract. Her father, desperate to revive his daughter, agreed and thus the man was given information about her so he could find her in the dream world. And he did. But he fell in love with the swan in the dreams, and instead of pulling her out, he took her with him to hell instead.

Turned out that he was a demon.

"That story, like most fairy tales, is derived from real-life events, amended and dramatized for added entertainment value. Historically, there was a swan shifter who fell into a deep sleep and never woke up. It's thought that the prince in those stories was actually a high-ranking Eldritch Baron and that was how he was able to manipulate dreams. After all, that's how the higher-level Eldritch communicate and they can occasionally find human souls through dreams as well. It's how Naem found me. In a nightmare."

Lexie swallowed. "So…you were the swan?"

Aiden shrugged. "I guess in that particular scenario. Naem, at the time, was a young Eldritch Prince, preparing himself for an incoming power struggle. He had the idea to recruit young talented mages in the human world to his cause, and he wanted to do it early before the rest of his brothers knew what was going on. Naem was fortunate in that he was particularly skilled with dream magic and he had been to the human world enough times so he knew how to communicate with us. He used a Frieritch, an eldritch creature, to find me and contacted me through a nightmare." Aiden gave the tiniest of smiles. "I thought I was losing my mind when this prepubescent humanoid creature appeared, ordering me to sign a contract of servitude to him. He would always appear in the most terrifying ways too, and at the most terrifying moments. I would be having a dream about a huge ax-murderer chopping off my head. There Naem was standing beside him with the damn contract. Or I would be falling off a cliff and he would appear at the bottom right before impact. Once, I had a horrific dream where I was giving a speech naked. He was there too. Eventually, I started to get used to him and you could say we formed a friendship of sorts."

"Did you ever sign the contract?"

He hesitated and then shook his head.

Lexie didn't believe him. She cocked her eyebrow.

He sighed. "We signed a modified contract. One that said that I would help him within reason but I would not give him control of my soul or shirk my morals. I can show you the contract if you want."

"That's possible? For you to sign with the Lord of the Eldritch without signing your soul?"

"All Eldritch contracts are soul contracts by definition, but there are nuances to it," he said. "I know of the reputation of the Eldritch but Naem isn't so bad as far as Eldritch goes. He's more playful than most."

She frowned. The man didn't seem playful to her. She also realized that Aiden didn't completely answer her question. But she let him continue anyway.

"I contacted Naem again after your mother disappeared," he said. "I wanted him to try to find her soul through dreams. I kept having these…nightmares of her and thought that maybe she was trying to contact me. I thought maybe she was still alive. I asked Naem to find her but he couldn't.

"And the next time we spoke was after you fell into your coma. I reached out to healers I used to know, but none of them were returning my calls. So I called Naem again, frantic. He was the one who revealed to me that you'd sustained a soul injury and your soul was attempting to sever its tether to your body. He told me that he could help get you back healed, but your memories might be affected. I signed a contract then to allow him to perform a ritual."

"Wait." She swallowed. "You're telling me that you revived me using a demonic ritual?"

"The Eldritch aren't demons, Lexie. Humans call them that because of their biology, their pheromones and dissimilar molecules naturally instill fear in us. Not to mention their reality-bending powers."

"And their frequent robberies, and terrorizing innocents and ripping people's souls out of their dreams." Lexie pointed out cheekily. "Can't forget that."

Aiden clucked his tongue. "Yes, that too. But if you think about it, they're no more demonic than any other alien species."

"Right," she said. She was still struggling to swallow the explanation but she didn't want to be racist either. "I'm sorry for calling him a demon."

Aiden shook his head with a half smile. "It's alright. I truly don't think he would have been offended."

Lexie nodded, but stopped when it hit her.

Naem had been the one to revive her.

And he'd just said her soul was different. Which meant he could see her soul and probably knew what Lexie Sparrowfoot's soul looked like.

Oh no.

Lexie was faced with a brand new problem.

The Lord of the Eldritch may have just figured out that she wasn't the real Lexie Sparrowfoot.

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