PROLOGUE
~Soundtrack: Guns’N’Roses – Knocking on Heaven’s Doors ~
It was one of those nights.
Sebastian could not sleep. His mind was too busy wrestling his inner demons. And thus, at three in the morning, he found himself in an almost vacant bar somewhere in Canada, trying to drown them. The demons. The soul-eaters. The kind of demons that seemed to drill holes in his head, just so they could get out, to relieve the pressure of the thoughts he could not bear.
They knocked at his bruised soul.
Knock-knock, every night.
Open up
And with each passing day, he was more willing to let them out. He needed Kira more than ever.
Three months had passed since he’d left Allymea behind, and right now, he thought it was the worst decision he had ever made. What had he been thinking? His friends were there, his family, his home. But then again, so were the memories of Kira. And those, he did not want to face again.
He gulped down a glass of whiskey. His fourth one. From the corner of his eye, he saw the bartender give him a wary look.
“Another one.” Sebastian grumbled, eyeing his empty glass.
“You sure about that, bro?” the bartender asked. God, even the way he pronounced the word ‘about’, like all Canadians did, pissed Sebastian off. It would be so easy to just reach for the knife hidden in his boot and stab the bartended in the neck.
Knock-knock
And he did reach for something. He reached for a twenty dollars bill from his pocket and slammed it on the counter.
“Pretty sure.”
The bartender, a chap that couldn’t have been older than twenty-three, utmost twenty-five, shook his head in amusement.
“Then another one it is.”
Three months. What had he thought? That he could leave Iskar, his home town, and find a brand new world waiting for him? Sure, Canada was no Allymea. They didn’t have as many rules, for example, and the supernaturals were not as hated. There were no hunters, no death-sentences, no tests, and most of all, no hatred. It was mostly peaceful around here, which Sebastian found quite difficult to understand. All of his life, he’d been used to the chaos of a world on fire, and had thought that everything was the same in every other country. And now that he saw how truly peaceful and diplomatic it all was in Canada, he could not help but envy them for the times when they’d been living here, happy in their small world, while he’d been training his ass off to become a hunter. No, he corrected himself, a killer.
And yet, the Canadians were awfully respectful and well-mannered, in a way that had Sebastian a little exasperated. But then again, everything had him a little exasperated these days, enough to make him want to take out his knife and stab everyone.
He decided. Right there, in a filthy bar, away from his home, under the influence of five shots of whiskey, Sebastian decided. He would go back. So what if everything reminded him of Kira? So what if there was nothing left for him there? There was nothing here, either. He would go back and learn to control himself. He would learn how to control that darkness, that had been eating up his soul ever since he’d come back from the death.
What an idiot he had been, to think that running away would help. Maybe he should’ve clung to those memories. After all, they were all he had left of her. And he should’ve anchored himself to that. But no, he had run away instead. As if that could’ve made it better. So stupid.
Around his seventh shot, when he’d run out of money, Sebastian decided to leave the small bar called ‘Red Riding Hood’. He was just about to get up from his seat when he saw a strange man, in a large, worn-out leather jacket, and with long, brown hair that went past his ears, watching him from a table in the far corner of the room. His eyes were following Sebastian’s every movement. That was odd. He decided to ignore it and get out of there as soon as possible, but once he got up from his seat, the man did the same, and started heading his way. Sebastian tried to make it out that door in time, before the stranger could catch up with him, but as soon as his hand touched the door’s handle, the man put himself between Sebastian and the door.
~Soundtrack: Kari Kimmel - Black ~
Sebastian straightened his back and looked the stranger dead in the eyes, letting him know he was not afraid.
“Can I help you?” Sebastian dropped his voice and used the best Kira-like neutral expression he could pull off.
The man laughed whole-heartedly at that, as if Sebastian had just told him the greatest joke he’d ever heard.
“Of course not,” he said, crossing his arms against his chest and leaning against the wooden wall. “But I can help you,” the stranger extended his hand, flashing Sebastian a smile. “Flynn Devlin.”
Sebastian kept his expression neutral, and waited for the stranger to continue, even though he was losing his patience.
“Fair enough,” Flynn dropped his hand when it was clear that Sebastian wouldn’t introduce himself, and smirked. “Now, how about I make you an offer you can’t refuse?”
Sebastian sighed. He should’ve known this was about some weird deal. For all he knew, this guy might’ve been trying to sell him drugs. He tried to slip past the stranger and get out of the bar, when Flynn blocked his way again, looking even more tall and intimidating than before.
“Look, pal,” Sebastian began, wanting so badly to just get out of this place before he would do something he might’ve regretted later. “I don’t know what you’re trying to put up for sale here, but I’m not buying it.”
“Really,” Flynn narrowed his eyes, this time dropping his annoying beam. “Not even if I told you it involves bringing someone back from the dead?”
At that, Sebastian façade dropped. His face hardened, and an actual glint of interest shone now in his eyes. But how could a complete stranger know about this? It didn’t matter. Kira wasn’t coming back. He’d told himself that countless times, whenever he would think about looking for a way to make that happen. Reality would hit hard everytime, and he’d remember that they had burned her body, and kept her ashes in an urn. Necromancers couldn’t bring a soul back from the land of the shadows without the necessary tangible quintessence. If the soul had no body to return to, then no resurrection spell could be made. Plus, Sebastian had had his fair share of coming back from the death, and knew that once you’d returned, you couldn’t be the same again. Your soul would still carry the mark of the darkness. And if he’d spent only a day in the land of the dead, and had come back tainted and damaged, he didn’t even want to think how it would be for Kira to return after three months.
But even with those arguments ringing clear in his head, it took Sebastian’s full might to say, “Not interested,” before trying to slip past Flynn. Except he blocked his way again.
“We both know that’s a lie,” he said, and Sebastian blinked at the sudden change of tension. Only now it hit him what a real threat this Flynn guy could be. He was way taller than Sebastian, with at least 3 or 4 inches, and his navy blue eyes burnt now with an intensity that had Sebastian a little taken aback. “Listen once and listen well,” Flynn dropped his voice, whispering the next part. “I can help you bring her back.” Sebastian’s eyes widened as he tried to reach for the dagger hidden on his boot, or for the gun hidden in his waistband, but Flynn caught sight of his action and shook his head. “There’s no need for that. I’m here to help you. I know how badly you want to bring her back, but you lack the method. And I can provide you with that.”
“How do you know?”
The smirk returned to the stranger’s face. “I have my ways.”
“How do you know?” Sebastian repeated more fiercely, his hand already reaching for the reassurance of his gun.
Flynn sighed and rolled his eyes teasingly. “Are you always this difficult?” Sebastian glared at him and the blue eyed man sighed again. “Fine, fine, I’ll tell you,” he looked around to check if there was anyone who could’ve been eavesdropping on their conversation, but fortunately, the bar was too deserted, and those who were present were also too drunk to care. Therefore, Flynn went on. “I’m a mind-reader.”
A small pause followed. “You’re one of the Wicked.” Sebastian stated the obvious eventually, still not used to the freedom of everything in this country.
“No shit,” Flynn rolled his eyes again. “A genie. And a talented one at that.”
Now this was a term Sebastian hadn’t heard that much about. ‘The Book of the Wicked’ said little about genies. They were included in the sorcerers’ category, and were said to be a class of spirits, more powerful than the sorcerers, but lower than the angels, capable of appearing in a human or animal form and influencing humankind for either evil or good causes. They could decipher people’s most concealed desire, and choose to either use it against them, or try to help them attain it. The stories were only lies. One could not find a magic lamp, rub it three times and be granted three wishes. Genies sought after people’s desires, not the opposite, and they either helped, or manipulated people to their liking. Yet, one thing Sebastian knew for sure. He didn’t want anything to do with a creature of this sort.
“Yes, you do,” Flynn broke his train of thought, answering as if… as if he was reading his mind, which he was. “I can hear each and every single one of your thoughts. And I can see that she’s in all of them. Kira, is it? Or should I saw ‘was it’?”
At the hearing of her name, the name he hadn’t been able to speak out loud himself, Sebastian stiffened.
“I can help you bring her back.”
The genie leaned a little bit closer, a glint of playfulness dancing in his bright eyes. He was challenging him, Sebastian knew. And there was 50% likelihood for this guy to be evil, and 50% likelihood for him to be well-intentioned.
“Don’t you wanna take the risk?” the genie scared Sebastian again, by voicing his thoughts. Gods above, this was all sorts of disturbing. He had to be more careful with what he voiced in his head.
“She’s been dead for the past three months,” Sebastian spoke eventually, and he felt that ache in his chest again. Dead. For three months. And she wasn’t coming back.
Knock-knock
Flynn nodded. “I know. You burnt her body. But what if I told you that you can still bring her back?” he stuffed his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket, looking entirely bored as he said, “There’s this very powerful coven of witches, they like to call themselves the Hades Brides. Suggestive, I know. I’ve been tracking them for the past few years, but they are too hard to find. They travel a lot, making deals with people and promising to bring their loved ones back from the dead in exchange for something. And I can’t find them all by myself.”
“Why would you help me?” Sebastian finally asked the obvious question.
“Not out of charity, trust me. I heard your thoughts, found out what you desire most, and it so happens that we might have a common interest.”
“You want to bring someone back from the dead, too?” Flynn nodded, his face finally softening a little. “But how could someone possibly raise the dead without the body?”
Flynn shrugged. “There are all sorts of spells. I’ve been searching for years, and I know you only need the ashes of the deceased, or any remaining body part.”
Sebastian frowned. “I still don’t understand how I could possibly help you.”
The genie sighed. “Look, these brides won’t help me unless I give them something they want. And I don’t have this something. But you know someone who does,” before Sebastian could ask who that person was, Flynn hurried to continue. “Do you know a certain Amelia Bethel?”
Sebastian nodded. He knew Amelia was the most powerful witch from Kira’s army, and he had gotten to talk to her a few times, back when he’d spent months in the woods with the Wicked.
“She has something these witches have been looking for, but she might not provide me with it so easily, but you –“Flynn trailed off meaningfully.
Sebastian pondered. He most definitely couldn’t trust this guy. He was a stranger, and also one of the Wicked. But then again, he didn’t exactly need him. He could go back to Allymea and check with Amelia and the others to see if Flynn was telling the truth, and also ask for Alex’s and Emmett’s opinion on this whole thing. Because it sounded almost too good to be true. He had lost all of his hope three month ago, but had also wished, deep down, to find a way to bring her back. He knew it was impossible, or more like had known, because now here he was, in front of a complete stranger who was offering him a shot at bringing her back, only if they agreed to do this together. It was tricky, Sebastian had to admit. There were so many ways on how this could go so wrong, but what if there was a chance, one in a million, that Flynn was right? What if he could actually do this? Could he be able of getting his hopes raised up for one last time? Could he be able to pour all of his optimism in this thing? Was it even worth it?
But the answer to that last question answered all of them. For Kira, it was definitely worth it. For Kira, he could team up with a complete stranger and risk everything to take this wild shot in the dark. For Kira, he was able to go through hell and back again.
“Alright, where do we start?”
