Prologue

*Note for this book: Anything contains in astrics is either thoughts, or to show that a scene takes place in the past. Anything contained in these brackets: {} is meant to display as the accent of one character. If it is a combination thereof:ex. *{text}* it is the thought of said character. This is done in place of italics and bolded text. Enjoy the rest of the novel.*

*My brother was born a Devoln. A mistake. Same difference. That's what they always said anyway whenever his back was turned. From the very minute he entered into the world, he changed my family's lives forever.

"I am not killing my child! He's still in there somewhere!"

My mother wildly held the baby with the ears of a wolf in her arms. The infant smiled at her, showing long canines in an otherwise toothless mouth. "I am not murdering my own flesh and blood!"

"Maeve, this is madness! You can't possibly keep him," my aunt argued, the other gathered family members nodding in agreement.

"Cedric," she turned to my father, who, being the only Inquisitor in the family, had the job of ending his life. "Surely you don't agree with her. You can't take care of that thing." But my father stood there, the sacrificial dagger trembling in his palms. My brother had his warm, grey eyes that reflected his own face back at him.

"No." The knife clattered to the floor. "This is our son. It isn't his fault that this... demon is in him. I've worked with demons before. I can teach him to control it."

My aunt just stood there flabbergasted, as my uncle pushed her aside gently with his large hand, saying, "Fine. But I want to hear what the Council has to say about this. If they approve, then I think I speak for everyone when I say that I won't bother you anymore about this. Just don't expect me to ever watch that kid."

The laws on Devolns were not as strict back then, so my parents' hopes were high as they placed my brother in a basket and brought him to the Council meeting.

"... And if anything should happen to either the village or its residents, I shall take full responsibility," my mother concluded.

"May I see his mark?" asked one of the more respected Elders, stepping forward. My mother reluctantly handed him the basket.

The Elder pulled at the thin sheet clothing him, and looked at the mark resting on his lower back. The man drew a sharp breath and nearly dropped him as he threw him back into my mother's arms, the look of disgust on his face revealing that he wished he had.

"This is no ordinary mark!" he proclaimed. "That's the mark of Tachir', the wolf demon! Do you not remember how he nearly wiped us out years ago? We're still recovering from that war."

"Yes," my mother calmly replied, "As I also recall that I was the only one able to send him to the Nether Realm. If anyone is fit to care for him, it would be me."

The Council broke into excited whispers at this. The discussion lasted for many hours, and when it concluded, it was decided that the boy would live. However, it was only because the tie-breaking vote was from a woman who happened to be very good friends with my mother, and owed her a favor for saving her life many years before.

"On one condition though," the same Elder spoke. "The boy must grow to be an Inquisitor. That way his power would be a useful asset to have, should we ever go to war."

"Thank you." My father bowed, but my mother only nodded tartly, turning on her heel to bring her baby back to the house.

As he grew older, my brother became a very hard-working, kind man, with excellent control of his powers. He gained the respect of everyone in the village over time, and even the most prejudiced humans eventually found themselves smiling in his warm presence. He was given an apprenticeship under an infamous Angel, and trained to join the Inquisitors.

Things were running smoothly, until my mother had me, Gavin, the next of her woes. I had barely been in the Mortal Plane for a few minutes when the mark of Eldrazi appeared on my left arm, the black symbol winding all the way down to the back of my hand.

"I'm not asking the Council again," my mother choked, holding me tightly, her tears dripping onto my fair skin. "They will never allow for two."

Instead, I became my family's little secret. A dirty little secret. I always wore long sleeves and gloves to cover my mark. I had been taught from a very young age not to talk too much, lest someone see my ever-present fangs, and because of this, I was often anti-social. But truth be told, I liked it that way. I was very close to my brother, and aside from Eldrazi, I didn't need anyone else. I should have known it couldn't last forever.

As Devolns, we need at least eight hours a day to transform into our true selves, displaying traits both equally Human, and Demon, which was why we always locked ourselves away in our rooms at night, so no one could get hurt. Even though my brother was always known to have had great restraint, when he was let out in the morning, his room and clothes began showing signs to the contrary. His room now held shredded curtains, and deep scratches in the furniture, while mine had none, nor had it ever had any. As we grew older, he and my parents would constantly get into fights, things would shatter, and I just tried my best to stay out of the way. At times like those, it was better to simply close the door…

The breaking point was when I was ten. My brother, now at the age of seventeen, took his final trial in order to be accepted into the Inquisitor's ranks. His challenge: to best his master in a sword duel. They both fought diligently, but eventually the Angel had him cornered and disarmed, my brother's sword stabbing deeply into the soil beside him.

His master sighed, disappointed. "Maybe, next year..."

He turned his back, believing the match over. My brother only stared wide-eyed at the sword beside him, breathing heavily. He had practiced so hard. How had he lost?

Do you want to win?

"What?" my brother thought aloud, looking around blankly. "Who's there?"

Isn't that what you desire? Wouldn't you like to win the match? Tachir' whispered in his skull.

"O- Of course," he gasped, "I would..."

Deep laughter sounded in his throat as the demon soul took control of his body. I watched as my brother silently took hold of his sword lying in the dirt beside him. Slowly, he rose up to full height, with a wry smile creeping across his elegant face. Walking a few padded steps into range, he thrust it at the Angel, slicing only air for a split second before piercing him through the heart with deadly accuracy; the Angel, now fallen from the living forever.

"Jace!" My brother turned from the bloody, feathered scene, to find me standing there in shock. I had snuck out of the house to watch his match, but this was not what I had expected to see. "What are you doing? Change back!" But he could not. He had completely lost control of his own soul, and I foolishly thought I could help. I thought that the powers I wielded could save my village, and my sibling.

I had never been so wrong in all my life.

Like humans, animals, or any other race, there are those who are good, and those who are certainly not. Unfortunately, the demon inside of my brother was the latter, wanting revenge on our kind for killing him all those years ago, and who better to take out than the one who had held the blade: my mother.

It was a massacre. Many in our village died that day. After I had ruined everything, I ran home to warn everyone of the impending danger, that a full demon was coming this way. This came as a complete shock to those I passed, considering everyone had always believed that Devolns could not possess that kind of power.

"Gavin, get in the closet!" my mother yelled as I slammed the front door behind me, shaking with fear. She gestured to the same one I hid in whenever Inquisitors came to check our house every year.

"But..."

"Just do it!"

I first heard our front door come crashing down, then my mother telling him to calm down, to try and stop the energy within him. But it was futile; he was too far gone, and it was all my fault. With no other options, my mother grabbed the sacred crystal laying on our altar, an item that had been given to her by the Council. Taking the point of the stone, she drew a circle into the air in front of her, opening a portal to the Nether Realm. But, though she was a strong woman, warrior, and mother, she did not have the heart to push her own son in. The portal closed, and I watched her get relentlessly slashed through a crack in the closet door.

I pushed the door open to a room I barely recognized anymore and ran to her side. I remember the tears running down the side of my face as I turned to my brother, who had returned to normal only in his appearance. I looked straight into his face, and said the most regretted sentence of my existence.

"How could you?"

That was enough for him to burst out of the house, and I've never seen him since.

Once he left, my aunt came rushing in to help my mother. She was the village's best apothecary, so good that everyone said that she might be the first human to use magik, but my mother was fading fast, and nothing even she was doing was helping.

After several failed attempts to save her, my mother spoke softly to her, death hanging on her every word. "Elaina," she whispered faintly. "Please take care of Gavin for me..."

"I will," my aunt promised, tears of her own dripping onto my mother's torn body.

"I have to tell you... Gavin.... is also a Devoln. Please... keep him safe for me."

Those words were her last.

"What?" my aunt screamed, her attention turning towards me. "You!" She came right up to my face, her anger at me being used to take the pain of losing her sister away for awhile. "First your brother, now you? Why did no one tell me? You're the same as your brother. It's your fault she's dead. You and the rest of your kind... You're all monsters! You should have died the moment you were born!"

Her screaming caught the attention of the surviving neighbors, then more. Before I knew it, those around me whom I had known, respected and loved since childhood turned on me. People who had just lost family and friends grabbed weapons in revenge and headed back to the house that I would never live in again.

I ran to my room, locking the door behind me. As they fought to break it down, I quickly grabbed my cloak, bow, and loaded quiver, all set for a practice that would never happen today. Just as the door tore off its hinges, I jumped through the window, shattering it, and ran towards the forest close to my house. I was halfway there when I felt a pull to go back to the house. My mother's treasured throwing knives, I needed to grab them. It would be dangerous, but she would have wanted me to have them.

I don't remember how I managed to get a hold of them, but I do know it nearly cost me my life. Back on the run, I held on tightly to my gouged open shoulder, a farewell present from the same blacksmith who had forged my bow as a birthday gift two years ago. At this point, I was too far off to be caught by the swordsmen again, and I thought I was safe 'til a black arrow with white feathers caught in my leg... *

⛤

Gavin awoke with a start, staring up at the very comfortable tree from which he had been napping under. It had happened four years ago, but the events were still fresh in his memories and dreams... or would they be nightmares? Shaking his head, he stood up, dusting off his grass-covered clothes.

*{Gavin! Gavin!}* The words pounded in his skull.

He closed his eyes so it would be easier to talk with Eldrazi. Not that it was really talking. More like directly thinking in the forefront of his mind. *What is it?* he asked.

*{Something doesn't feel right. I think we've been followed.}*

*Are you sure?* Not a moment later, an Inquisitor arrow hit the tree he had been sleeping under, a mere inch away from hitting his neck.

*{Yes,}* Eldrazi replied.

Gavin grabbed his bow and took off running, dodging swarms of arrows left and right. *Are there any places nearby where they can't follow us?*

*{We're close to the Crossroads. It's neutral territory, so unless they want some very powerful enemies, they should leave us alone.}*

*The Crossroads, huh?* It was a lucky break, considering that there was almost no neutral territory left after the Battle of Lorne. *You know how to get there?*

*{Yes}*, and Gavin didn't need to close his eyes to know that Eldrazi was rolling his.

*Then I'll leave the directions to you, and I'll take care of the dodging.*

Darting this way and that, he felt his quiver fall off his belt as it smacked into the side of yet another tree trunk. Stopping for only a moment to pick it up, he barely had time to put it back on when he heard shouts behind him, telling him to pick up the pace.

As the forest fell away around him, he found himself staring up at the intimidating presence of the Crossroad Gate. The immense wooden doors creaked open as a colorful caravan of merchant wagons squeaked by. Hidden in with them, they hardly noticed as Gavin illegally slipped into the marketplace, trying to figure out where the tavern lay.