CHAPTER 1

Seoul. The city that never slept. 
Anywhere you'd go, you'd find something to do. Karaoke, 24h sauna, clubs or bars.... name it and you'd find it. 
One could argue going out at night was dangerous, and it was, but of course not like you would expect. 

If you looked hard enough, you would see what was lurking in the shadows. You would see that the monsters in the stories were real. Warlocks, seelies, werewolves, vampires, angels and demons, all were living beside us in a fragile harmony. 

There was a very good reason why humans lost the ability to see the downworlders. The shadow world was something strange and beautiful, but deadly. 
This night was the first of many other deadly nights.

Since Valentine took over the Council, the faeries had closed in on themselves. They were by nature festive creatures, and Minwoo's favorite guests at his bar : now, he really saw a faerie out and about at night, way too scared to be apprehended by Valentine's men. The warlock couldn't blame them, to be honest. They were way less used to mingle with humans and shadowhunters than vampires, werewolves and warlocks…
But that didn't seem to stop the massacre that took place that night.

« How could this happen … ? »

The seelie court was a sacred land, known to be a place between heaven and hell, as the seelies were guardians of the land of the days. 
As Minwoo was a friend of the Seelie Queen, he did come here a lot before, to reinforce the wards or to participate in one of their infamous feast. Even then, he never could enter on this ground just like this, barging in without warning with a bunch of his fellow warlocks and Catarina, his best friend and healer.
They were too late however. They knew it even before entering, Minwoo still stilled when he walked in a sticky, golden puddle of pool and saw the three guards in their diamond armor laying there, eyes open and face twisted in a grimace of fear. 

The man crouched down beside them, scanning their body. They all were stabbed by something. And of course, he knew. The seraph blade he found covered in blood was only furthering his point. Fear started crippling in his chest.
« Minwoo ! » Catarina had reached the main room of the court. The ceiling was still shimmering and the gigantic table was still stuffed with a variety of fae food. He knew by experience you should not eat thoughtlessly what a faerie offered you. You could find yourself in really weird situation…

The fae people were peaceful tricksters. They didn't deserve this.
The food was already rotting away, changing into dust. Bodies of fae dignitaries were leaning around… and he didn't need to use his magic to know they all were dead. Catarina's expression was enough.
They fae were all dressed in their best suit as they probably celebrated the birthday of the Prince. The Prince….he had to make sure…
« He is not here, Minwoo... »
A sigh of relief escaped his lips. It was reassuring, until he realized it could mean anything : Hyesung could have escaped, but he could also have been kidnapped or even killed somewhere else. 
He gulped and started to recognize familiar faces : Meliorn, the High Consul, as well as many chiefs from seelie tribes all over the world. They were all dead....

« The Queen ...! »
She was there, looking as beautiful as usual, with a hint of a smile on her face. Her eyes were watching him without seeing, like a call for help he had answered too late, her diamond dress and red fiery hair splattered with blood, as a seraph with an intricate design was protuding out of her chest like a pin on a butterfly. Hyesung had probably protected her to the end judging by all the shadowhunters corpses laying here and there too, but in the end, it had not been enough. 

This, was a warning on the Shadow World.
« We'll perform the Ceremony for Their Lost Souls. That's the least we can do, Catarina.»
The woman agreed. 
« Of course. » 
« Then I'll find Hyesung ».

[....]

« .....Ten people. »
Junjin stilled. He did not turn toward the two shadowhunters, but he activated his earing rune to be able to eavesdrop on their conversation. Their worried face and hushed conversation told him it was way more important than staff training. 
« Valentine said he is not dangerous, but he killed more than ten of our own when they attacked the seelie court. »
The man froze. They did it ? Minwoo said they wouldn't be able to even enter the seelie realm ? 
« How did they do that ? »
The two shadowhunters looked up, frightened. They had probably not seen him. If they did, they'd have scampered. Because it was just like this here. They didn't like him that much, because nephilim didn't like what they couldn't understand. Dongwan was his one and only friend since his father was dead. 

The only good thing about this was that they feared him probably as much as they feared Valentine. 
« Valentine had a child warlock took out all the barriers. Quite the powerful one. » 
Junjin's golden eyes shimmered with disgust. 
« Who killed our men ? » 
They probably thought he was going to try and avenge them, because they were way too happy to tell him.
« The Prince. The moment they killed the guard, he fought back. Seems like he had some kind of training. But not only that, they're talking about the Mark of Cain. Which is why they couldn't kill him. »
« It's impossible »


« Yet everyone who tried to kill him were  struck down by something.»
Someone entered the room at this time. Junjin didn't need to turn around to see who it was. 
« What are you doing here, both of you ? »
The two men took this opportunity to scamper away from Junjin. 
His parabatai, Kim Dongwan, entered the room. He looked exhausted. 

Junjin began punching and kicking the bag again. 
« Did you agree to this ? »
« Agree to what ? »
« Using a warlock child to slaughter innocent faes ? »
Dongwan was hurt, Junjin knew it. 
« Of course not, I was with you on mission at the time, you know it. But what could we do if they had been kidnapping human children ? »
The man wiped his seat. 
« Of course Valentine's word is ultimate truth. » 
« That's not what I said, I... »
 Junjin was mad. He didn't care about Valentine's aggressive downworlder control policy. He was part warlock, and he knew people from the Downworld who were way more human than the nephilim could ever be. Dongwan couldn't understand that. He was simply too good to reject Junjin like the others.... It didn't mean he did not think faes were deadly creatures. It was just the way he was raised. 

« I have to go see him »
« I knew you were going to say this. You're going to get yourself killed one day. »
He knew that Dongwan wasn't going to try and dissuade him. But he definitely wasn't happy. 
« You heard what they said, haven't you ? Anyone who got close to him was killed within seconds.»
« But I'm not going to hurt him. »
He put his t-shirt back after wiping his face, and smiled to his parabatai. 
« So, are you going to help me ? »

[...]

When Eric was called in that evening, it was supposed to be a routine mission. A newly turned werewolf was terrorizing people in a downworlder club. While no one was hurt, it was his duty as the head of the werewolf clan and police officer to make sure not only the people and the werewolf were safe. 

When he arrived before the club, a crowd of people was standing in revealing clothes before the establishment. There was mostly werewolves, but also some vampires and warlock. The Hunter's Moon was one of the only club where werewolves and vampires mingled together, tolerating each other. Since Camille Belcourt, the last head of the vampires in Seoul, died, the relationship between the two very different races had greatly improved. But a werewolf destroying a vampire's bar definitively wasn't going to help. 

The owner was fidgeting nervously, looking even more greasy and ugly than he had looked last time. 
« You certainly took you sweet time ! » 
The man shot him his best glare.
« It's in the back. Hurry ! Our leader is in there too ! » 
Eric growled.
« Didn't I tell you to not let anyone in ?! »
He promised to give the man a very hard time if the werewolf was injured and hurried inside, pulling his tazer out of his pocket. If he had to use it, he could knock out the cub to take him or her to safety. 

Uneasy, he sneaked to the back of the club. It was silent at first, then he heard a growl and the shattering of glass. He sped up, expecting the vampire to be hurting the out of control werewolf. 
He never met the man before, since the werewolves and the vampires maintained a safe distance between them as much as they could. He heard the man killed Camille when she started to feed on humans mindlessly and took over from her. He had no opinion on him. He just knew that since he was the head of his clan, he had no problem with rogue vampires feeding on innocent people. 

Yet, he couldn't shake his fear away. 
« Please calm down. I won't do anything to you, I promise. »
Surprised by the calm voice he heard, Eric stilled. The vampire was turning away from him, arms spread and carefully advancing towards a very scared blue-eyed wolf.

He knew he should do something, but he was frozen in place, fascinated by the tender gestures of the creature.
« I know it must be frightening but... I promise I can take you to someone who will help you. Calm down, please.»
Eric really believed he could calm down the cub by himself....Until something fell over in the back of the club, and shattered on the ground, scaring the three of them out of their skin. 

The man was out in a second, pushing the vampire out of the wolf claws and tazing it. The wolf fell down on the floor, knocked out, and already beginning to transform back into an human form. 
« Did you kill him ....? »
Eric did not except this kind of reaction from a vampire, but he looked genuinely worried. He was really cute too, with round cheeks and striking green eyes gleaming in the dark. He looked almost human, minus the fang. Most of vampires were pretty disgusting, with very discutable hygiene and fashion sense : but this one was...
« Erhm...no. I calmed him down. I...It's difficult to calm down a newly turned wolf only by talking to them, even for me. You could've been killed. »
« Well, It's not like it'd be the first time. »

Eric barked a laugh, and extended an hand. 
« I'm Eric, Eric Mun. »
« The leader of the werewolf clan ? I could have sweared you smelled like my dog. » 
« Ah. Very funny. Andy, right ? »
« Seems like you heard of me.»
« Just a little ? »

Eric crouched beside the young man laying on the floor. He had fresh claw marks on the thorax, but also puncture marks on the arm and the neck. The skin there had a peculiar greenish color. 
« What is that...? »
He felt Andy crouching beside him. He was really, really cold. 
« Poison...? »
« Now that you mention it, new werewolves transform immediately after being bitten, but the owner said he was only there as a guest...?»
« Someone planned this ...? »
Eric frowned. 

« I should take him to the High Warlock. » 

TO BE CONTINUED