Prologue

~3 months ago~

As I ascend the stairs to our apartment, my apprehension grows. The door stood ajar, and a foreboding sensation churned in my gut. I pushed it open, and the sight that greeted me made my heart pound in my chest. Crimson stains decorated the floor, and I called out for my wife, hoping for a response.

"Bekah? You there?"

But the only sound that filled the silence was the pounding of my own heartbeat.

Knowing something was wrong, I rushed to the living room, where I found her lying on the floor, surrounded by a pool of her own blood. A knife was embedded in her abdomen.

Immediately, dropping our dinner, I rushed to her side, cradling her head in my lap as I called out her name.

"Bekah! Bekah!" I cried, my voice shaking.

Trembling with fear, I reached out my hand to check for a pulse. 

"Please don't be dead. Please don't be dead. Please don't be dead," I muttered under my breath, my heart racing as I prayed to every deity in the universe for help. As my fingers touched her neck, a wave of relief washed over me. I fumbled for my phone, desperate to dial 911 and get help, but her blood-stained hand weakly grabbed mine, stopping me in my tracks.

"Don't call for help," she said, her voice barely audible.

"They want you to do that. They've planted evidence against you."

My mind swirled as I tried to make sense of her words.

"Who? What are you talking about? We need to get you to a hospital."

She silenced me with a finger on my lips, tasting her metallic blood on my lips.

"The Court of Owls," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"They did this. They would do anything to keep their existence secret."

My mind struggled to grasp the magnitude of what she was saying. The Court of Owls? The shadowy organization that had long been rumored to control the city from the shadows?

"You will be next if you go find them," she continued, her voice urgent.

"So, promise me one thing. Promise me you won't seek revenge or search for them. Promise me."

"No, if they did this to you. I can't. I won't—" I started, but she cut me off, her eyes filled with desperation as she clutched my hand with all her remaining strength.

"I promise," I whispered, knowing it was a lie.

With a soft voice barely above a whisper, she said,

"I love you always and forever." A single tear slid down her cheek as I watched the life slip away from her eyes.

"No. Don't say that, alright? I'm going to get you help, okay?" I pleaded.

But despite my desperate attempts to shake her awake, she didn't respond.

She was gone.

No. No. No. No. This can't be happening.

My heart felt like it had shattered into a million pieces as I held her lifeless body in my arms. Tears streamed down my face uncontrollably, and my chest felt heavy with grief. The weight of her absence was overwhelming, and I struggled to accept that she was gone forever.

Every memory of her flooded my mind, intensifying the pain I felt. I could feel her absence in every corner of the room, and it seemed like there was no escape from the void that she had left behind. The thought of never seeing her again was too much to bear.

I wished with all my being that this was just a nightmare, that I would wake up to find her by my side, alive and well. But reality set in, and I knew that this was my new reality - a world without her in it.

As I cradled her lifeless body, I realized that I would never be able to tell her how much I loved her, and how much she meant to me. It was like my heart had been ripped from my chest, leaving me hollow and alone.

"I'm sorry, Bekah," I whispered through my tears.

"I'll have to break my promise this time." With her lifeless body in my arms, I vowed to avenge her death and make the perpetrators pay for what they had done. But even the thought of revenge couldn't bring me any solace. All I wanted was to have her back in my life, to be able to tell her how much she meant to me, and to hold her one last time.