Elias hid in the cave as the wind raged outside. He had a small fire going, and he was cold. This storm spanned an impressive area of land, and he still hadn’t hit the edge of it. He had gone down the road for miles before he found this cave, and he was cold and miserable.

He didn’t want to leave. He did not want to leave. His whole childhood had been full of moving from one place to another, hiding from his father. They rarely stayed in one town more than a year, and his mother had been entirely unable to pursue her passion as a herbalist. She had worked at one apothecary shop after another, never able to set up her own, until they finally settled down in this town.

The only reason they had stayed was because of Hadrian. Mom said Elias needed to know how to defend himself, and Elias agreed. So, for the past four years, he had poured his blood, sweat, and tears into training with Hadrian. He had risen rapidly as a sorcerer, and he liked to believe he was good enough to take on his father. At least, to go down without a fight.

Mom disagreed.

All he could think about was the other half demon in town, Hadrian’s son. What was his name? Hadrian rarely talked about him… Kaz. It was Kaz, right. Elias had met him a handful of times, and he knew Kaz was leagues ahead of him in terms of magic control. He was on the level of a palace mage, and had been training since he was four years old. Most people started training in magic around the age of twelve or fifteen. Four was unheard of. He had to be a prodigy, from a much more powerful lesser demon.

Elias huddled down and shivered. He had to figure out how to escape. He was on his own now, with four years of training under his belt, whereas his father had thousands of years to master all of the arts. He didn’t understand why demons were so greedy. Surely, his father had siphoned off thousands of his siblings in the past. Hundreds, at the least. Why did he need Elias? It didn’t make sense.

He shivered again, and a tear slipped down his cheek, landing on the ground. He was cold, and it was lonely in this small little cave. He had walked for hours, and now he was alone. He was alone. No more Mom, no more Hadrian, no more anything. He should have asked if he could run with Kaz. At least he wouldn’t be alone.

His father had probably come to town. Had he sniped Kaz’s father? Was Kaz dead, too? Was Hadrian okay? He didn’t know. He didn’t know, and he was scared. He was very, very scared.

He was also furious. There was a rage simmering in his belly, and he was shaking through it. His father had been the great boogeyman of his childhood, and he was furious with himself for running. He should have stayed behind and fought. Was Mom okay? Was his father going to kill her in his rage?

The thought made him still, and suddenly, he stood, kicking out the fire and spreading the ashes and embers all over the cave floor. He pulled his hat back on and flipped back up his hood, and then he turned to the cave entrance.

He hadn’t even considered.

He was such a terrible son.

He needed to go back now.

….

The bell tinkled as the door opened, and a gust of wind came in. Elise looked up from where she was sweeping up the store, her eyes still red rimmed and wet, and a tall man with slicked back, windswept black hair stepped in.

She didn’t know why she did it, but she froze. There was black blood dripping on the ground, and he was hugging his side.

“Where is he?” he asked quietly, and she went still before she swung the broom at his head and scrambled back. He lifted his arm, and the broom broke in two on his wrist. “Where is he, Elise? Where is my son?”

“Nowhere you can reach,” she bluffed. She used the cover of the storm to hide his trail. Storms were the domain of Seiru, and even in nonmagical ones like this one, demons had a hard time tracking anyone in them. By the time it cleared, Elias would be long gone.

“What have you done, Elise?” Cain roared, and the room shuddered with the force of his power. The light dimmed, and he approached her as she scrambled back until she hit the edge of the counter. Blood continued to drip on the floor, and he dropped down in a crouch in front of her before he reached forward and touched her forehead.

She screamed as pain lit up her head, searing and bright, and Cain rifled through her memories. Elias growing up, laughing, with skinned knees and missing teeth. He had been such a happy, bright child before she told him the truth. The way he trained with Hadrian like he wanted to live, raising his magic potential until it hit his cap, and her thoughts of sending him away in the storm so Cain couldn’t track him.

Cain snatched his hand back as if he’d been burned, and then he snarled at her.

“If I can’t have him, then you’ll have to do,” he said, and then he seized her by the throat. She gasped, kicking her legs, and then she felt the mana drain out of her body. It was like breathing your last breaths, and she coughed and kicked her legs, fighting against him with all her might, but it was not to be. He drew out her mana, and, gradually, he stopped bleeding. She saw smooth skin under the hole in his coat, without so much as a scar, and he tipped his head back and inhaled.

“Ah. That will do for now,” he breathed, and then he straightened up as Elise slumped to the ground. “I did like you, Elise. I did like you. Too bad you had to fight me.”

With that, he turned for the door and walked out, leaving Elise fighting to draw breath on the ground. The bell tinkled again, and she watched with rapidly dimming eyes as he walked out into the snow.

Elias… Elias had to get away, she thought. He had to get away. That was her whole reason for living. Nothing mattered more than that. Her son… her son had to live.

Her body couldn’t sustain itself without the mana. All beings were magical creatures. She had never had enough mana to practice magic, but she had enough to be full of life and happy. She should be grateful for that, she thought as her eyes slipped shut. She should be grateful for that.

The tension drained out of her muscles, and she took her last breath. It was too much to live.

….

Elias pushed into the apothecary and stopped short. The lights were dimmed, way more than Mom ever did, and he could scarcely see anything. With a breath of magic, he summoned a ball of light in his hand to illuminate the place. Had she already gone to bed?

The wind was rattling the shuttered windows, howling its agony to the skies, and he stepped forward at the sight of a lump slumped on the ground, shaped suspiciously like a person. He took one step forward, two, and then he rushed forward and fell to his knees at his mother’s side.

“Mom?” he asked and picked up her still body. “Mom? Wake up…”

She didn’t move, didn’t so much as stir, and went limp in his arms. Her face was tilted up to the sky, her eyes shut, and he slapped her gently on the cheek.

“Mom, this isn’t funny. Wake up,” he said as the light hovered over their heads, and she didn’t respond.

Elias’s world collapsed. He stared at his mother, barely breathing, and it dawned on him that his mother was a beautiful woman, even in death. She was… she was dead. There were no scars, no bruises, no injuries. She was simply… dead. Like she had never been alive at all, and he found himself looking around the room. There was black liquid dripped all over the floor, and it took him a moment to place what it was.

Demon blood.

Cain…. Cain couldn’t find Elias, so he took the next best thing, he realized in horror. He just… killed Mom. Tears rolled down his cheeks, and he hugged his mother’s dead body close. She was dead, and he didn’t know what to do. She was dead, and he hiccuped on a sob as he rocked her back and forth.

Mom was dead.

He had to run.

He didn’t want to leave her.

A ragged sob rose up, and he rocked her back and forth. This was his fault. If he hadn’t been born, none of this would have ever happened. This would have never happened. He choked on a sob, and he wondered if she knew this was going to happen. Probably. That’s why she sent him away, and he needed to run. Cain may come back looking for him. He may come back, and Elias… Elias wanted to go down fighting, but he also wanted to live. He wanted to live for the sake of his mother. His mother had sacrificed herself so he could live, and he needed to…

Sobbing, he came to his feet and gently laid her back down. Stumbling, he made his way to the door and gave one final glance back to her before he stole out into the howling wind. Wiping his eyes, he ventured into the storm under the cover of darkness. It was night now, and he needed to make it back to the cave. He needed to make it back to the cave, and he didn’t have a choice in it.

He needed to live, get more powerful. He needed to learn how to fight. He needed to learn how to fend for himself, and he needed to take Cain’s life in recompense for making his existence a living hell. It was him or Cain, and he was not going to lose.

First, he needed to figure out how to become a lesser demon. That was the first step. Then, he would have to… have to…

He didn’t know. He truly didn’t know. He had two knives, and he needed to join a mercenary band so he could learn how to fight. That was the first step. He would stay a few years with them. Mercenary gangs traveled, so he would be hidden that way. He would train his body, his mind, and he wouldn’t slack on his magical education. He would figure it all out from there.

He had to.

He had to.