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He nodded. “I know it doesn’t lessen your grief, but if it’s any consolation, Grace wasn’t okay after what she did to your aunt. She’s not a violent person, and she deeply regrets her actions.”

“If only that brought my aunt back.”

“At the time, she was only acting on instinct. Gracie didn’t know what her father had done to you. If she could take back her actions, she would.”

“She told you that?”

“She, uh…didn’t have to.”

Juniper frowned. “What do you mean?”

He pointed to his head. “I can sometimes glean impressions from others. I’m really not that good at it compared to the immortals, but Gracie has always been an easy read for me, which further proves her goodness.”

“You can read minds?”

“Mostly just children. The more innocent a person’s mind, the easier it is for me to sense what they’re thinking. Gracie has a lot of regret about that day.”

“If you feel all that for her, why were you with that Magdalen chick?”

“Maggie’s like me—like us. She’s a half-breed. She taught me how to feed, and we kept each other company. It passed the time.”

She shivered, recalling how time never seemed to move in that place. “You were lonely.”

“Yes.” He set the tomato aside. “What I feel for Grace is different.”

It was clear he loved her very much. “How do they know half-breeds can’t get called?”

He shrugged. “The elders said so.”

“And they know everything?”

He shrugged again.

She hated the elders. “I don’t think they’re as all-knowing as everyone makes them out to be. If they were, they wouldn’t have been so afraid of little old me.” That was why they kept her muzzled and tied, why they did not let her look atthem. “Or maybe they know more about me than I know about myself.”

“Aren’t you curious? Feeding can be incredible. It’s like a switch going off in your brain. Every cell in your body comes alive, and you feel—limitless.”

“No one’s limitless.” Juniper would eventually experience what he described, but she didn’t want to think about it now. “What if Gracie gets called to someone she hates?”

“It doesn’t work that way. I’ve seen it with Adam and Annalise, and Larissa and the Bishop. The bond between mates is unbreakable.”

“Bullshit. If that were true, Adriel wouldn’t be running from Cerberus.”

“You shouldn’t speak his name.”

“I have the whole property spelled.” She studied him for a moment. “Do you feel anything toward him, as your father?”

“Fuck no. I care about Adriel. He’s nothing to me.”

He was one more person Dane would lose. Not a terrible loss, but a loss all the same.

“I don’t know my dad either,” she confessed.

“Do you wish you did?”

She shrugged. “Not really. I only recently discovered he existed. My aunts didn’t know much about the calling stuff, but I assume that’s why my mother abandoned me.”

“Wait, she was called?”