Five minutes later, Luckner found himself sitting at the patio of a ritzy cafe that was way above what he could afford. It was the type of place that didn’t sell anything below ten dollars. The bare minimum for tips was twenty-five percent.

The servers looked like they would take their sweet time to come to you, and the people wore clothes that racked up in the thousands. Luckner stuck out like a sore thumb, and he was pretty sure he smelled like trash.

Luckner sniffed at his shirt. Yeah. He was trashy.

Across from him, Boots sat looking absolutely thrilled.

She handled all the socializing needed to get them in, get them seated, and get them drinks pronto. When he watched her, he had a feeling she was putting on a performance that enthralled almost everyone to do what she wanted. Immediately.

He was only sitting for three minutes before a server placed down two Irish Coffees topped with whip cream, caramel drizzles, and dark chocolate flakes. A cherry topped it, and the straws were solid cinnamon cookies.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve tapped into my [Seductress] skill, but I couldn’t wait for this.” Boots was the definition of giddy now.

“You’ve been here often?” he asked. Maybe she had seen him walk by a lot and grown familiar with him from a distance.

“Nope. First time!” she chirped. “A bartender told me about this place last night. Now, hurry before the straw melts. I hear it’s lovely to drink through it.”

He watched her take the first sip. Her cherub-like face brightened, the eyes fluttering, the corners of her lips curling upward, as she gulped down some of her drink. She then crunched half the straw, humming with delight.

It was at that moment Luckner felt a little more attracted to her. And that was dangerous. This situation was bad. He shouldn’t have come here; it felt like he was rebounding into more heartache. But the other option was… depressing.

Luckner nervously slurped at his straw. The drink struggled to come up. He had waited too long. So he settled with eating the cinnamon treat and taking a traditional sip. The earthy-sweet flavors washed over his tongue and perked him up a little.

“This is way too nice,” Luckner said. “What’s the deal? What do you want?”

“To help you get what you want. Then I’ll take my reward.”

“People who talk like that leave the other person worse off.”

“It isn’t always that way.”

“But it usually is.”

She leaned back and crossed her legs. Her shimmering eyes looked off to the side as a loud hoopla burst out from a party of young professionals behind her. Framed like this, she looked like a leading woman in a world that couldn’t satisfy her.

He was starting to imagine that she was a rich girl looking for an excuse to feel altruistic. Help out some random guy down on his luck and share the experience with her fake-ass friends. A real charitable socialite getting down with those below her.

It would be easy for him to hate her.

But Luckner couldn’t bring himself to do it. He read plenty of books where the morale was not to judge someone by their cover. Books raised him more than his parents had, even before the divorce and all the ugliness that followed.

“Can we start by telling each other our names?” he asked. “I’m Luckner.”

“Lylyth, but with y’s rather than i’s.” She reached out with her little hand; he took it. “It’s a pleasure, Luckner.”

He held onto her hand longer than he should’ve. He couldn’t help it. There was a current passing through them that he didn’t want to break. Not right away. It was warm, inviting, and strong. The scent of lilacs intensified.

Then he forced himself to pull away.

Luckner took a quick gulp of his drink.

The party occupying most of the patio grew even louder. It was starting to bug him. How obnoxious could you get?

“Mm,” Lylyth hummed.

“Mm?” Luckner quirked an eyebrow.

“I’m wondering how to proceed forward. This is strange territory.”

“Um, how so?”

“You’re resisting my [Seductress] skill. I could dial it up above 1st Circle, but that shouldn’t be necessary at your level.” Lylyth swayed her head from side to side. Her platinum hair fashioned in a shoulder-length bob swished with her. “You aren’t so easily influenced, are you?”

Luckner blinked. Was that flirt-lingo? “Well, if you haven’t noticed, I’m heartbroken. So, whatever charm you’re using can only work so much.”

“I deal in hearts, especially the broken ones. And If I wanted to, I could influence you to grovel at my feet if I apply a 4th Circle [Seductress], if not 3rd nor 2nd.” She touched her fingers together, frowning. “But I would dislike myself if I abuse you in such a way, child.”

Luckner opened and closed his mouth. There was a thread in this super weird conversation he wanted her to clear.

“1st Circle, 2nd Circle, 3rd Circle? What does any of that mean?”

“Things you shouldn’t trouble yourself with right now, I suppose.” Lylyth sighed. “It will all end soon. Just like how a good song ends.”

“Which sucks. You never want the song that holds your heart to end. So you restart it from the top,” Luckner said, deciding to flow with the bend in the conversation. “That’s what’s nice about good songs. You can always restart them.”

“Yes… this is true. You sound as if you know the way of music.”

“I’m⁠—was⁠—a musician.” Luckner’s cheeks heated up. “I got a set for my bass guitar back at my apartment. I hadn’t touched it in a month since she left.”

  Luckner looked down, feeling glum. When he looked up, he flinched and scraped his chair back. The little woman across from him stared with a raptured glee so intense it made him sweat. Was it getting hot around here, or was it him?

“You’re a bard!” she squealed. “Oh, how amazing. Can you sing, too?”

Luckner nodded.

“Can… can you dance?”

“I can move with the beat and get a little creative.”

“So, no two left feet?”

“No two left feet. I move my feet just right.”

She nodded her head rapidly, swishing her hair hard. It was a funny enough sight to make him laugh. She might’ve grown up a very sheltered girl if she was acting like this. Maybe she needed just as much help in her own life as he did.

“Luckner, you’re making this hard on me.”

“How?”

“I don’t want to fall in love again.” She pouted. “I really have to kill you, child.”

Luckner chuckled. “Yeah, well, you’ll be doing me a favor. I don’t want to fall in love again, either. If you can take me out without me feeling it, go for it.”

He was joshing, of course.

She looked contemplative, though.

A creepy shiver ran up his spine. He rubbed behind his neck. He started to wonder if Lylyth was joking.

Lylyth studied him, furrowing her brow. Something important was happening in her head. Luckner was a little scared to find out what she had on her mind.

When she opened her mouth to speak, finally, one of the assholes from the obnoxious party backed into her chair. He bumped her around and didn’t bother to say sorry.

That irked Luckner considerably. He put a lot of himself into being considerate, and he hated how people wouldn’t show a modicum of the same hospitality.

“Hey, man, loosen your tie up so you can get some air to your head,” Luckner said. “You clearly aren’t getting enough if you can’t say sorry.”

“Beat it, street-rat, before I knock the air out of you.” The well-suited man was not as tall as Luckner. But he had fifty to sixty pounds on the teen. The man was bulging out of his outfit with strength.

To rise to the challenge would lead to unnecessary trouble. Luckner knew he shouldn’t engage in that since he couldn’t afford the medical bills. His roiled emotions said otherwise as he stood, the chair scraping behind him.

“Stand fast, child.” Lylyth held her palm to him. “Something’s coming along.”

“What?” Luckner blinked. “I can⁠—”

“Stand fast.”

The suited man snorted and shook his head at them. He turned his back on Luckner, which was quite the burn. It would be dangerously out of line, but Luckner wanted to chase the guy down and pull him back into a potential fight regardless of Lylyth’s wishes. Yeah, that was going overboard, but he wanted to go overboard right now.

A flying dinosaur changed his plans.

Luckner nearly threw himself backward when the reptilian crashed down from the sky. Its bat-like wings knocked aside tables and chairs. Its taloned feet peddled around, searching for something to latch onto. It left long gouges in the furniture until it attached itself to the shoulders of the inconsiderate man.

A throat-ripping squeal escaped the man while blood soaked through his clothing. The man’s party erupted into an animalistic frenzy in the meanwhile. Men trampled over women in sparkly gowns and high heels. Women crawled under the furniture, breaking their nails. The servers were nowhere to be seen. And the monster with a long metallic beak pecked at the man underneath it.

“Someone needs to help him,” Luckner said.

“Is that someone going to be you?” Lylyth recrossed her legs and folded her hands on her knee. “Do you know how to achieve such a feat at your level?”

Luckner knew the reasonable thing to do was to run. It was also reasonable to question Lylyth for acting so calm⁠—then run. It felt like his heart was going to sprint out of his chest and leave him behind if he stayed here.

But the man he was angry at earlier was being pecked and clawed up to bloody ribbons. And it was an actual monster doing it! The people on the news weren’t crazy after all!

Luckner suspected he himself was crazy because he was giving attention to strangeness in his head⁠—HUNT⁠—and asked, “How do I hunt… er.. help him?”

“Think to yourself, Hunter Script, with the full intention of seeing words.”

He did just that.

⁠—

[Hunter’s Name: Luckner Loussaint]

[Origin: Earthling]

[Sub-Species: Awakened Human]

[Rank: 1st Circle - Low Adept]

[Singularity: Enchanter]

[Skills: Empathy, Endurance, Heroism]

[Spells: Compulsion, Party Bond]

⁠—

“What spells do you have?” Lylyth said.

“I, uh,” Luckner stammered, surprised by the text that actually popped up in his vision. The monster victim’s screams made him refocus. “[Compulsion] and [Party Bond].”

Lylyth clucked. “That explains why my [Seductress] is a little dampened against you. You have the [Enchanter] singularity, don’t you?”

“Lylyth, I don’t understand what any of this means, but I need to know what I’m supposed to do.” Luckner pointed at the vividly gory scene. “Do I just point and yell [Compulsion]!”

The moment he did, Luckner felt a strange pulse from the center of his being. Something new had been unsealed inside of him. It rushed forth from his core like water bursting out of a dam. The power flooded his body, filled his limbs until they felt like they would explode, and made him seize-up on the spot.

Only when the power gathered into the hand aimed at the winged monster did it start to channel itself out. There was a bright violet light that flashed from his palm. It was nearly blinding, and it scalded the tip of his fingers a little while making his hand vibrate all crazy. As the light from his palm faded, the same light flashed in the monster’s dark eyes.

The creature lifted its bloody beak and looked at Luckner. It hopped off the flayed man and skipped closer to the teen.

“Oh shit, oh shit, uh, don’t come closer!” Luckner waved his arms.

The monster stopped.

“Um, uh, go back.”

The monster went back to standing on its former prey, eliciting a groan out of the tortured guy.

“Wait, no, I mean stand to the side.”

It did just that and stared at Luckner. It stayed put like a properly trained dog that wouldn’t mind waiting on its master.

Luckner blinked at the monster. Then he turned toward a slurping sound. He watched Lylyth finish the rest of her Irish Coffee.

She licked the foam off her upper lip. “Would you like for me to get the check?”

“Uh.”

She dabbed at her mouth with a napkin and swiftly reapplied her lipstick.

“Uh…” Luckner droned again.

“I need to go before your kin arrives, child. They tend to attack every Mythic around when one gets out of hand. Besides, it would be terrible to show you my savage side so early.”

“That’s what you call ‘get out of hand?’” Luckner yelled. “And what do you mean, my kin? And savage side? What?”

Ignoring his many questions, Lylyth glanced at the mess. “I’m impressed you decided to help the man who drew your ire. You are a good-hearted human, Luckner. You have the [Heroism] skill, I imagine, which reminds me of someone dearly.”

Luckner blinked. What the fuck?

There were so many things Luckner wanted to say or ask.  He couldn’t even comprehend how he managed to convince a freaking monster to do what he wanted (and seriously, the monsters were real!).

He knew Lylyth was at the center of all of this, too. If not, she probably knew way more than he did. But at that moment where Luckner was pulling out of his stupor, his adrenaline tapering off, he did not recognize his coming doom.

He felt a weak buzz through the hand that had channeled [Compulsion]. The feeling was like a machine powering down.

Luckner studied the hand that had cast literal magic like he was in a fairy-tale. The next time he looked up, the monster was racing straight at him. It moved like an arrow, its body blurring behind its pointy beak. He didn’t have the speed to get out of the way.

Shit.

There was great pain. There was darkness. He knew the darkness would only offer him misery, and without the ice cream and Jack. He could hear the echoes of his adoration for those he had once held close. He still held them close. How fitting for the dark to torment him with lost love he couldn’t let go.

Like a bad song on repeat.

Then he saw a lovely light. It ranged from magenta to salmon and many hues in between. It was warm and inviting. It smelled of lilac. It was way better than this darkness, and it responded to him kindly. He found himself encased in it like being covered in velvet.

“I can’t seem to let you go,” said a powerful, feminine, goddess-like voice. Lylyth’s voice.

“Why?” he asked.

“That’s for me to ask myself and for you to discover.” Pause. “Depending on if you wish to live. Do you wish to?”

Luckner thought over the question. “What will it cost me?”

“Your heart, of course. But only half.”

“Really?” Luckner considered the bargain despite the madness of trading half a heart to a bodiless voice called Lylyth. He supposed he was in for more than a pound at this point.

“I will only take half if you… assist me in the future,” she replied. “I will fill your void with my passionate flames. It can serve as the foundation to your resurrection⁠—a second chance at life. Does the offer fancy you, child?”

If he could grimace, he would. There was a lot to think about, and most of it felt negative regarding such a whimsical decision.

Luckner knew something terrible would probably come out of this. It was pretty evident that he was making a deal with the devil. That was a big no-no in the western world if the media he had read was worth anything to believe.

But he tried doing good, and bad stuff happened anyway. The cruel darkness waited, and Lylyth was a comforting force that held it back. If this was his only way to live beyond the destruction done onto him by others, then he supposed he should take it. He figured he should finally learn to live inconsiderately.

Or with his self-respect held tightly in his fist.

“Lylyth, I have some requests.”

“Let me hear them.”

“One, don’t make me a slave. Seriously, don’t. Two, I’m not a child. I pay for my own toilet paper. If that’s all good with you, I’m in.”

Lilith chuckled, her voice like crackling flames.

“I will not make you a slave. I’ll prefer you to have free will. It will make things more exciting. But if you desire to stop being called a child, you must make me stop. And you are yet the man you need to be to make me stop… child.”

Anger consumed Luckner suddenly. It irked him that he had to compromise further when he was already compromised. If the opportunity arrived, he would pick Lylyth up and spin her around until she cried.

“Fine… take your half, Lylyth. Then light me up.”

“Deal,” she purred.

A new pain hooked into his chest. A tortuous heat filled the cavity.

Luckner endured, embracing his fiery rebirth.