PROLOGUE: LOVE AND CURSES

Lightning crackled violently through the sky and the little red-haired child clung fearfully to her father’s left leg. Boris Rynders, her father, looked down at his only daughter, with her wide hazel eyes and the innocence that was like a second skin to her beautiful frail face. How could he possibly believe the words the Diviner had just told him? That his daughter was a curse to all werewolves? It was impossible!

Angrily, Boris glared straight into the Diviner’s white eyes, watching the elderly wolf carefully as he made chants into the night air. They were in the woods of Silver Dawn pack with the moon subtly illuminating the whole area, amidst the charcoal fire they’d made between them.

“You’re a liar!” Boris thundered. “My daughter is sick and she needs your healing. I didn’t come all the way from Whitefang pack to waste my time with your nonsense talk on a nonexistent curse. She’s dying, Daqen! My daughter is dying and I need you to save her.” He cried out, letting out more emotions and desperation than he’d willed. 

Daqen suddenly fell quiet, the raging wind hushing instantly with the tone of his voice. “Don’t be a fool, young man. Your girl is fated to belong to darkness. Look into the fire.”

At the moment, the fire had began to burn furiously, vivid more than ever. Boris had an argument right on the edge of his lips but when he looked into the fire, the words disappeared. The flames began to morph, forming pigments of ash-filled silhouettes. In it, he saw a girl, one he assumed to be his daughter.

“Why are you showing-”

“Your daughter has been cursed to fulfil an ominous prophecy, one that will lead to her own destruction and ours as well. At the age of 19, she’d meet him, a man born of pure evil and chaos.” Right there in the fire, Boris saw his grown daughter in the arms of a handsome man. He watched as a certain darkness seemed to envelop them in the fire. “She has been given the cruel fate of falling in love with this monster and believe me when I say that it never ends well when you dance with the devil.” The fire began to burn more turbulently, rising higher into the sky and spewing ashes. “Death. Blood. War. This darkness is doomed to consume her and everything else that lies in the path of their cursed love. The damned prince and his cursed princess, a story that must never be told. Do you understand this, Boris?”

By then, little Venus was crying, the sight of the growing fire was terrifying. She hid behind her father. And Boris, stunned to silence by what he’d just seen, dropped to his knees, his heart constricting in pain. “My daughter is not a curse! Venus is not destined to be a problem. She’s an angel!”

“For now. Wait till she’s of age. Wait till she meets him. Wait till the curse consumes her.” The Diviner threw a single stone into the fire and it dissipated instantly, smoke fading off quietly into the wind. “But, there is one solution.”

Hopeful, Boris looked up with eager eyes. “What? A solution? I-I, tell me. Anything at all to stop this from happening to my angel.”

Daqen pulled out a dagger from within his garment. The razor-sharp edge glowed, even in the darkness - causing Boris to draw back cautiously. “We have to exorcise your daughter to death.”

“What!” Boris shot up from his knees and was quick to grab Venus protectively. “I will do no such thing, Daqen! You expect me to kill my daughter. How does that solve anything? She’s all I have left!”

“You will be doing the world good by killing her right here, Boris. Trust me on this. It’s a full moon, the dagger of truth is here and I’m here to seal this chapter off for good. There’s nothing stopping us.”

“Never! I would never let you lay a finger on my girl! How could you think of killing off a little child that easily? You’re the real monster, Daqen! You are!”

The Diviner cackled wickedly into the night. He shook his head at Boris in sheer pity. If only he knew what the future held. “What a coward. You just have to make one sacrifice for the sake of our general good, but you’d let your pathetic emotions get in the way. Very well then. There’s another way but hopefully, I pray bitterly that I wouldn’t get to live long enough to see how this ends.”

Boris only paid mind to a single part of his words. “What…other way is there?”

Daqen sighed exhaustively and shook his head one more time. Right there, he began to utter chants and soon, the fire was back to life, roaring violently with the wind. This made Boris eye the Diviner, his guard up. What was the man doing again?

The Diviner shot his hand into the fire and took out what looked like a forged talisman. 

“Take this,” he said gruffly, stretching out the strange ornament to Boris. 

He took it, staring at the charming necklace that seemed to be thrumming with power, confusion washing over him.

“It will absorb every supernatural power in her, including that of the curse, as long as she wear it. However, it’s only a temporary answer to a permanent problem. Venus is just one side to the hideous tale. There’s no telling what would happen if she meets the other part of it.” His white eyes seemed to darken in torment. “Put it on her. And for your daughter’s sake and for the rest of our kind, make sure she never takes it off, or lest we all bear the consequences of your catastrophic actions.”

Boris’ heart thrummed in relief and hope as he clenched his fist around the talisman and gazed at his beautiful daughter. She wasn’t a curse. She was his little angel. “I’ll try my best.”