"Find me and I'll grant your every wish."

As a child left to wander the Earth alone, upon every shooting star, Kane wished for a family. He wished for a mother that would tuck him into bed every night and read him stories full of warmth, kissing him goodnight when his eyes began to close. He wished for a father that would carry him when he couldn't stand on his own anymore, reminding Kane that he wasn't alone. Most of all, he wished to be loved.

But every time Kane thought he was closing his eyes to pray, in reality, he was dying because of starvation, his body torn apart from the inside. Unfortunately, every grateful last breath was an illusion he painted to believe he could finally be free. Every time the darkness consumed him whole, Kane knew that with the next sunrise, he would be alive once again.

Over the years, Kane's wish changed. It died and resurrected with him, stained black with every cruel awakening. And then, his hopeful wish turned into poison, the words mutilated until their meaning was different.

Now, Kane didn't wish for a family. He only wished for death. Swift and permanent.

But just like before, there was no one who could grant him his deepest desire.

That was until Kane met Aria Pierce.

Rolling onto his side, Kane stared at the wallpaper of the dingy motel room he had woken up in, his captors nowhere in sight. Even though his instincts demanded he runaway, his logical mind noticed the spell cast around the room. One-step and Kane would be dead again. For now, he had no choice but to wait.

With time on his hands, instead of plotting his escape, Kane's mind kept wandering back to the cold eyes that had followed him back to the real world.

"What are you?"

While Aria's voice was drenched in curiosity, her body language welcoming, her eyes stared at Kane as though he was insignificant. For someone who had been abused and bullied throughout his whole life, Kane had never thought that one look would be enough to make him feel so small.

Trained to lie, Kane's only response should have been to shrug and avoid the question. But under Aria's piercing gaze, he found himself blurting out the truth, scared for reasons he couldn't understand.

Maybe it was because Kane didn't understand why he kept running into a stranger when he died. For years, he had spent every moment, alive or dead, in solitude. But now, here Aria was, following him into death.

Or maybe it was because the link between the two of them had become stronger than before and Aria's emotions rained down on Kane, cold enough to freeze his bones. For someone so expressive on the outside, presenting an attitude of shooting first and asking questions later, on the inside, Aria was calculative, her real thoughts never correlating with the words she spoke.

Kane could think of a million reasons to avoid Aria, just as long as he didn't have to accept the truth.

Concerned for her own safety, Aria had asked a simple question: "There must be something that can kill you for good."

Just like before, Kane had answered.

"The blood key."

Happiness pierced through Aria's body as her once cold eyes lit up, lips pulled into a wide smile. She looked delighted, radiant.

"I'll grant your every wish."

"You won't even remember me."

"Then, you'll remind me."

Like a moth to flames, for reasons he couldn't fathom, Kane believed every word, drinking down each promise like it was ambrosia, Aria's voice his siren's song, putting him under her spell. Thankfully, before he gave himself away completely, Kane's heart finally began to beat and the forest of the dead started to fade. He was saved before he drowned completely, pulled out of the water but not before Aria's hook's dug deep into his skin. For someone who had been hunted his whole life, it was only now that Kane knew what true fear felt like.

Whoever she really was, all Kane knew that he never wanted to cross paths with Aria Pierce again, terrified of the hold she had on him. But deep down, he couldn't shake the feeling that he needed her to finally be set free, a part of him still in love with the promises she had made.

As Kane tried to forget the cold brown eyes that had been imprinted in his mind, chasing him into reality, the door swung open and the man from before, the one who had shot him stepped in.

"Good, you're awake," he droned, his voice reflecting his boredom. "My name is Dave and I-"

The tall, brunette had just begun introducing himself when Kane shot to his feet, uninterested in being friends. There was only one thing that was important to him right now and that was to escape. Whether Rose had betrayed him or not could wait. With the way life had been treating him, he had many years and deaths to find the answers that he needed.

Dipping deep into the pools of his magic, elements being forced into his soul, Kane called forth a creature he knew mastered speed, allowing a vampiric essence to wash over him. Senses heightened, he took a step forward, a blink of an eye enough time for him to be out the door. But just as his feet neared Dave, she emerged from behind him, a shadow that Kane hadn't noticed before, her leg connecting with his stomach hard enough to send him back into a wall.

Pain shot through Kane's back as the sound of a bone cracking echoed in his skull and he was left to lie helplessly on the floor until his body healed. The young girl that had cornered him in the parking lot, whoever she was, she wasn't human, of that Kane was sure.

"I honestly can't blame you for trying to run," Dave said with a shrug as he threw an arm around the girl's shoulder, looking at Kane with pity. "But just because you're a monstrosity that created from different supernatural creatures doesn't mean you can get past my little Eve."

At the compliment, the girl named Eve puffed out her chest, green eyes alight with happiness that she was desperately trying to keep off her face.

"Well, now that you're down for a while, let me introduce myself. My name is Dave and as you guessed, I'm a hunter and this little squirt," the man motioned to the girl. "Is my apprentice Eve, begrudgingly."

"Your excitement to be my teacher is heart-warming," Eve said dryly.

Kane couldn't care less about who these people were. From the moment they had arrived in his life, everything had been turned upside down, forcing him to question the one genuine relationship he had in his life. Rose was family, the only one that Kane had ever known. But the fact that she had sent hunters after him made him wonder if the years he had spent by her side ever meant anything to her.

Had she given up on him the way he had given up on himself?

As Dave and Eve began to bicker among themselves like a pair of siblings that were forced to get along, Kane's anger grew by the second, hating the sight of them and everything they stood for.

"What the fuck do you want from me?" he finally asked, his raspy voice cutting into their fight.

Despite the way he looked with his wide shoulders, tall stature, and mature face, Kane could only guess that Dave wasn't that much older than him, still surfing through his early twenties. Eve, on the other hand, was still very much a child, probably someone who had just entered her teens, despite the commanding atmosphere that surrounded her.

Releasing Eve from the chokehold he had her in, Dave finally focused his attention on Kane. "Despite the agenda my other colleagues run, I couldn't care less about you. I simply owed Rose a favor and she decided to cash in."

"Bullshit," Kane spat out.

Sighing, Dave pulled out his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans and shoved a couple of dollars in Eve's hands. "Go get me a pack of cigarettes from the convenience store across the street and a bar of chocolate or something for yourself," he ordered, steering her to the door. "Keep watch and don't come back until I call you."

"This isn't enough money for what I want," Eve said, literally standing her ground and no matter how hard he tried, Dave couldn't get her to budge.

"You'll do as I ordered."

"No. I'll pretend to follow orders but instead stand outside and eavesdrop. We both know how good I am at that."

For a while, Dave stared at Eve and she stared back, unblinking.

"Pain in my ass," Dave finally muttered, handing his apprentice more money before shutting the door on her smug face.

Once Eve was gone, Dave walked over to Kane, hauled up his still-healing body. "Word of advice, never have kids. They're demons," he said before ungracefully throwing Kane onto the bed.

"Now, I know you hate hunters and I can't really blame you. As an organization, we aren't really likable," Dave started after staring at the door for a few seconds as if waiting for something or someone before explaining his motivations to Kane. "But at the end of the day, we are all that's left to protect humans from creatures that would eat them alive."

"The High Council," Kane started, feeling his spine set into place.

"Do you really think your High Council gives a fuck about humans? They can barely reign in the supernatural creatures and keep their secret hidden from the world. If a few humans are drained by vampires or mauled by wolves, it's not much of an issue for them." Dave snorted and fished out a cigarette from his pocket. "Do you mind?" he asked but never really waited for an answer before lighting it.

If he had to be honest, Kane didn't really know much about the High Council except for the fact that they were the supreme authority in the supernatural world, setting the rules that were meant to be followed without question. Whether they were effective or not, Kane didn't know. Rose had never really spoken of them and when she did, it was never in a good light.

"Hunters are shit when it comes to their morals, refusing to change with time, unable to understand that not everything different is bad. You saw Eve. You saw what she can do and you've probably guessed that she's not entirely human." Dave tilted his head towards the door through which the raven-haired girl had left. "Apparently, some great-grandparent of her fell in love with a siren thus 'polluting' their bloodline as one of the older hunters would say. The siren blood skipped her father but then, there aren't any male sirens, to begin with. Eve wasn't that lucky."

"How strong is she?" Kane found himself asking even though he wasn't supposed to care.

"Can't really tell," Dave sighed, frown lines setting in. "She moves faster than humans and is just as strong as a siren her age would be. But whether that's the extent of her power, we won't know until she turns eighteen."

Eighteen was the age when Siren's learned their first song, the words, and melody pouring into them like air. It was also the time when they made their first kill, knowing or unknowingly. Despite his utter hatred for the hunters, for the sake of a young girl's future, Kane hoped that Eve would never sing.

"Her parents are strong people and the higher-ups in our organization. Sending her away with me was the only way they knew how to keep Eve out of sight and protected. If the other hunters knew what she could do, they would have her killed," Dave explained, his voice emotionless but the anger in his eyes was evident.

"She's just a child."

"So were you when they started hunting you, right?"

Those words were enough to put the hunters and their whole organization into perspective for Kane, reminding of how they had turned his whole life into hell just because he wasn't normal.

"When Eve had just started exhibiting her abilities, I ran into Rose. Actually, it was more like Rose approached me, in my dreams. That was weird." Dave made a face and Kane could understand how he felt. "She laid out Eve's future for me, a way to keep her safe and change the way the hunters worked. All of that for a simple favor."

Kane took in a deep breath, his fingers gripping the sheets of the bed. "To kill me?" he asked.

"What? No!" Dave exclaimed, staring at Kane like he was insane. "She wanted me to find you and take you to her brother, someone who can keep you safe."

Kane couldn't believe the relief he felt knowing that Rose hadn't turned her back on him. The love she had given him, every smile and every word had meant something, promises to keep him safe kept even in the afterlife. If he could, Kane would cry, out of guilt, out of happiness but despite Dave's intentions, he couldn't trust the man enough to be so weak in front of him. Instead, he bit his tongue and pretended that his heart didn't ache.

"Maybe have a little faith in the woman who hid you from the hunters for five years," Dave said before putting out his cigarette. Then he pulled out his phone to shoot a text. "Once Eve is back, we're heading out. The sooner I get you to your destination, the better."

"If you were supposed to keep me safe, why'd you shoot me?" Kane asked, blinking away the tears.

Dave shrugged. "Don't know. Rose said you needed to die so I did as I was told."

While most people could only weave dreams of an ideal future, Rose could see the end of every path so very clearly. Every high and every low, the successes and failure, the roads that led straight into Death's loving arms, the future had always been hers to unravel but never to speak of. The oracle, born once in every generation, could only nudge people in the right direction without revealing the truth to them. If the future was exposed before it could play out, it would only curse the bearers of such knowledge with the worst possible end.

Rose was already dead so her words didn't hold such power anymore, free to speak as she wished. Even so, she only ever dropped hints, ensuring all the pieces were in the right place at the right time. Kane never understood why but he no longer questioned her, knowing that despite the smile on her face, her past was anything but happy. If she had wanted Kane to die in that moment, it could only be for one reason alone: Aria Pierce. Whoever she was, Rose felt that the raven-haired girl was important, her words more than just empty promises.

"Where will you take me?" Kane asked as memories from his short time with Aria came back, her location revealed with an easy smile.

"Rose's brother, Adam, works at this academy for supernatural creatures," Dave said as he opened the door to let Eve in. "I believe its called Hell's Gate Academy."

"Come find me."

It seemed that even though Kane wanted to run as far away from Aria as he could, destiny was hellbent on driving him straight into her arms.