Hidden Blade (Soul Eater, #1)

by Pippa DaCosta

“Slippery things, souls.” I lifted Alysdair and wrapped both hands around her handle, letting the sword pull on my magical reserves. “They’re surprisingly easy to lose and damned difficult to get back.”

As a soul eater, Ace has an intimate relationship with souls. He drains them of power, ending their eternal journey. As a child, he swam among them in Duat's river (against Osiris' command). During his short stint alongside his surrogate Mother, Ammit, the Great Devourer, he abuses his power and overdoses on the souls he's meant to judge fairly, thus seeing himself tossed out of the underworld and cursed to walk the Earth with the worst soul of all bound to his: Shukra. Ace has spent the last few centuries trying to atone for that sin, but... as you'll see in the series, he's not doing too well.

“Demons and dead bodies I can deal with. It’s the ex-wife who did me in.”

Ace's sardonic attitude makes him lovably grousey most of the time, like the streetwise alley cat who has seen it all at least once (fitting perhaps, as his ex-wife is Bastet, the Goddess of Cats). His relationships with the women in the Soul Eater series range from protective to wary, with some he really should avoid-at-all-costs but just can't help going there anyway.

“This isn’t like you.” “Clearly this is exactly like me. Who else would I be like?