Prologue
THERE USED TO BE A time when we lived in harmony with all living beings. The humans called us sybils while the otherworlders used another term. Soul seers, they called us, and it was this name our hearts chose for us.
In those days, living beings sought our visions for the greater good.
But those days didn't last.
The Demon Duke of Sulphur, having learned of the prophecy of his death at his own son's hands, sought to decimate our numbers. A handful would be spared their lives, but they shall only live to feed the demon and him alone, their visions to be used to turn the world into his playground.
It was then we decided to scatter, and we learned to hide in constant motion.
Day after day, always running away, desperate to avoid being caught, but still the demons found us, still they killed our kind, one soul seer dying after another.
Until there's only you that I can trust.
My darling daughter Zari.
The pain and grief in my heart is immeasurable. This is not the future I dreamt for you, but I have no choice.
To save your life and give you the future you deserve, your heart must break again and again, and only then will your shoulders be strong enough to carry the burden of our entire race.
I wish I could be there to see your soul shine, but I know the end is nigh, and the only thing I can do now is to give you one last gift.
A shield, my brave and beautiful child, one that I will carve in my final moments, infused with all the love that your father and I have for our most precious girl.
This shield will be with you to the end, yours alone to wield, and so powerful it will be that not even the fires of Hell can burn through its armor.
The City That Never Sleeps
Chapter One
THE KEY MOARTE INFESTATION Scale. 22-year-old Zari Baltimore absently tested the words out in her mind as she got off the 5 train at Bowling Green and sprinted towards the nearest exit leading up to The Battery. From there, it was a few minutes' walk to her destination, one made even shorter because of her brisk pace...which everyone else around her easily matched.
It was just one of the many things she loved about the city, and with 449 days of residency now tucked under her belt, Zari was pretty much convinced that New York City was her spirit animal. The City That Never Sleeps might not be her forever home, but for now, it was what she needed.
With millions of people around her every minute of the day, she never had to worry about faking anything. She could be sad if she wanted, bawl out her miseries like a kid, and no one would notice. Everyone was just too busy and stressed, just too much in a hurry to go through their to-dos to care about anything else.
And that was exactly how Zari liked it, both for her sake and her job's.
Speaking of which...
Zari's steps came to a silent halt as she peered up the century-old building that AGNEX had assigned her to inspect for paranormal activity. Registered historic site, warehouse turned restaurant, Jazz nights on Thursdays, and spoken poetry on Saturdays.
Today, however, was Tuesday; it was that one day of the week the place was closed, and by the looks of it, even security seemed to have been given the night off.
After taking a couple of photos with her phone, Zari circled to the back and used the card key she had been given to gain entry.
A couple of seconds passed, and the scanner showed no signs of green-lighting her passage. While waiting, she tried to get a better feel of her surroundings. It was darker here, with no street lamps to cast away shadows and all the other things that went bump in the night. A lot more quiet, too, and - despite its unparalleled access and views of the Hudson River - remarkably empty of people. No tourists contorting themselves to capture the best night selfies, no homeless person camping out on the pavement - just nothing except this terribly oppressive silence that was marred only by the sudden beeping sound of the card reader.
Finally.
Zari shoved the card key back into her pocket and gave her arms a quick rub down to get rid of the goose bumps. While her mind had long adjusted to the otherworldly aspect of her work, the rest of her was an entirely different matter. The human body was physiologically designed to freak out on all things "unnatural", and this place was supposedly haunted...
A thick, ominous swath of darkness swelled up to greet her as soon as she let herself in, and Zari's heart started to race. An icy cold breeze brushed against her skin, and she was unable to keep herself from jumping a little as the door slammed shut on its own behind her.
Definitely haunted, but as to whether this was an ordinary infestation or not...
That part was where her soon-to-be-published study would come in, and with that in mind, Zari took her phone out and clicked on the app that she and Raffy had been working on.
The Key Moarte Infestation Scale
Part I: Ambient Paranormal Activity
1 point: Involuntary manifestation, e.g. cold spots and a permeating smell that is distinctly associative to the entity
2 points: Basic manifestation, e.g. disembodied voices and footsteps
3 points: Intermediate manifestation, e.g. movement of object or property without human agency
4 points: Verifiable motive behind manifestation
Taking her flashlight out of her pocket, Zari switched it on, and the light beamed straight down an empty kitchen hallway...just as something to her left skittered. She swung her light towards it right away, and this time she found her target, the light shining directly on the face of a child, blood streaming down from the empty holes of his eye sockets.
"Martin," Zari whispered.
A moment later, the boy started to run.
Fast.
So damn fast.
That before she knew it, his cold, dead arms were already wrapped around her waist, and the sound of his sobs were wrenching her heart into pieces.
SIRENS HAD BEEN WAILING nonstop for a while now, and despite the police strictly keeping everyone away from the crime scene, the crowd had only continued to swell by the minute, their numbers almost evenly split between paps and morbidly curious passers-by.
So far, twelve bodies - Martin's included - had already been unearthed from the nearby park. All boys, their ages ranging from six to ten, and just like Martin, they had their eyes ripped out before being buried alive.
Since Admin was responsible for alerting the authorities, Zari, seated on the front steps of Warehouse 57, was able to observe the whole scene unfold, alone and undisturbed.
There were supposed to be thirteen bodies in the mass grave Martin had led her to, but only a dozen had been found. #13 was still missing, and Zari had a feeling the number was not a coincidence.
On the train ride back to Hudson Yards, Zari typed a quick email for Raffy and tinkered some more with their app in hopes of keeping herself busy. And for a while, she succeeded. For a while, she forgot.
But once she was off the train and walking five stories up to her subsidized studio apartment—-
She tried.
She honestly tried.
But as soon as she was inside, the door locked, and her home security activated—-
Despair surged up, and Zari was already crying just like young dead Martin even before her knees had hit the hardwood floor.
It had been four years since she had last seen him.
Three years since he seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth.