Iris took a deep breath as she began planning her next move.
She headed toward a nearby bakery, memories from her previous life returning little by little with every step.
Meeting the two men waiting there had changed the course of her life forever.
If it hadn’t been for them, she almost certainly would’ve died during the Blood Moon along with everyone else in Applecrest.
Even now, knowing exactly why they had come and what they intended to do, Iris couldn’t bring herself to hate them for it completely.
“If I’m lucky, I might be able to get rid of Michello or Nikolai today,” Iris muttered, biting down on her nail.
“Both would probably be asking for too much, but just getting rid of one would save me so many headaches in the future.” She thought back to how this day had originally gone, trying to remember what she had done before everything spiraled out of control.
“Last time, after Michello lectured me, I just decided to skip class…” Her expression slowly twisted.
“Actually, now that I think about it, why the hell was Michello hanging around my school in the first place?” Her eye twitched.
“I can’t wait for him to die. You hear me, imaginary friend? I’m killing him.”
Iris rounded the next corner.
Then immediately ducked back behind it.
There they were.
The Valentine brothers.
The two stepbrothers worked for A.E.G.I.S., the government organization responsible for handling supernatural threats throughout the United States.
At least, that was the simplest way to describe what A.E.G.I.S.
did.
Iris already knew exactly why the brothers had come to Applecrest.
“The Bookkeeper predicted Mom’s death and that I’d awaken my Curse afterward, so they’re here to recruit me the moment it happens,” Iris whispered.
“Unfortunately, Blood Moons can’t be predicted that way, so neither of them realizes just how screwed this town is about to become.”
She waited another few seconds before stepping into the bakery.
Wallace Valentine sat at one of the tables wearing a white lab coat, looking far less intimidating than Iris remembered.
His messy blond hair stuck out in several directions, heavy bags rested beneath his blue eyes, and white gloves covered both hands as he ate a croissant filled with coffee-flavored cream.
Across from him sat his older stepbrother, Markus.
He was slightly taller and dressed much more casually in a black hoodie with matching gloves.
His brown skin contrasted with his bright orange eyes, while part of the centipede tattoo stretching from his neck down his left arm was visible above his collar.
“This town’s pretty nice,” Markus said before biting into a cake pop.
“Good snacks too. Let’s see… target becomes available at eight o’clock on the twenty-fifth.” He glanced toward Wallace.
“Still don’t know why we showed up three days early.”
Wallace took another bite of his croissant.
Then his eyes drifted toward the entrance.
“Hey. Isn’t that her?”
Markus looked over.
Iris had just walked inside.
“Huh. Looks like it.”
He finished the rest of his cake pop before standing and casually approaching her.
“Are you Iris Blackwell?” Markus asked.
Iris looked up at him.
For a moment, she forgot to answer.
‘It’s good to see him again.’
Her eyes briefly moved toward Wallace.
‘Both of them.’
It felt strange seeing Wallace sitting there so casually, eating pastries and smiling as though nothing in the world could possibly touch him.
Stranger still was seeing Markus beside him, relaxed and happy.
After Wallace died, Iris couldn’t remember ever seeing Markus look quite this happy again.
She pushed the thought away.
That hadn’t happened yet.
Wallace was alive.
Markus still had his little brother.
And Iris intended to keep it that way.
“I am,” Iris said, putting on the confused expression of a sixteen-year-old girl being approached by two complete strangers.
“Um… who are you two?”
“We happen to be old friends of your father,” Markus said with an easy smile.
“We came by to see how you and your mother have been doing. My name is Markus Valentine, and this is my little brother, Wallace.”
Iris’s eye twitched.
“My father died eight years ago,” she said flatly.
“Why are you only checking on us now?”
She couldn’t stop some irritation from creeping into her voice.
Even knowing exactly who they were, their cover story still sounded pathetic.
Iris had been the one who found his body.
Eight years ago, she’d returned home from school and walked into the living room to find him hanging from the ceiling.
Not exactly a memory she appreciated strangers casually using as part of some poorly planned cover story.
“Well…” Wallace said gently, immediately sensing the shift in her mood.
“We wanted to see if there was anything we could do to help.”
“My mom’s drowning in debt, working two jobs, and barely holding everything together just to support me,” Iris replied.
Her gaze moved between the brothers.
“You two look rich. If you actually want to help, give her some money.”
Wallace blinked.
Iris had to stop herself from smiling.
There was the bait.
“What do you two even do for work, anyway?” she asked.
“We’re actually with the F.B.I.,” Wallace answered.
“And yes, we’d be more than happy to arrange some financial assistance for your mother. That was part of why we came.”
Iris’s eye twitched again.
‘I know you’re lying.’
She knew these two would eventually become some of the closest people in her life.
She knew Wallace would one day take a bullet meant for her and die because of it.
And right now, she still wanted to punch both of them.
‘You already know Mom is going to die in three days.’
The Bookkeeper had told them.
They hadn’t come to save her mother.
They had come because her death was supposed to trigger Iris’s awakening, and once Iris became a Cursebearer, A.E.G.I.S.
planned to recruit her.
That was how A.E.G.I.S.
operated.
In some twisted way, Iris understood the logic.
Markus and Wallace themselves had been dragged into the supernatural world as children after losing their own parents.
Understanding it didn’t make Iris hate it any less.
“F.B.I. agents?” Iris raised an eyebrow.
“What the hell did my dad have to do with the feds?” She shrugged before deliberately changing the subject.
“Actually, while you’re here, maybe you should do your jobs and arrest some criminals.”
Wallace’s expression remained pleasant.
“There happens to be this really creepy priest in town who probably deserves life in prison.”
Iris paused just long enough to make the next word sound casual.
“Michello.”
Wallace’s eyes narrowed.
Markus stopped smiling.
Iris almost did the opposite.
‘I got you.’
In the original timeline, neither brother had known Michello was hiding in Applecrest.
Iris herself hadn’t understood just how dangerous he truly was until much later.
This time was different.
The bait’s been bitten.
Wallace glanced toward the bakery window for only a moment before turning back to Iris with the same polite smile.
“I see. We’ll be sure to look into this creepy priest.”
Iris almost relaxed.
Then she heard it.
Tap.
Tap-tap.
Tap.
Wallace’s fingers were rhythmically striking against his leg beneath the table.
Morse code.
‘Iris kept her expression neutral as she listened.’
B-Class supernatural following us.
Her eye twitched.
‘Damn psychotic priest.’
Michello must have placed something on her the moment she left the school.
‘I fed you a script that would’ve made Shakespeare cry, and you still didn’t buy it.’
“Hey, Wallace,” Markus said casually as he stood.
“Let’s head outside. Did you bring any coffee with you?”
Iris’s eye twitched again.
Coffee.
She remembered that one too.
It wasn’t actually coffee.
It was their codeword for the memory-erasing drug A.E.G.I.S.
agents carried whenever civilians became exposed to the supernatural.
If whatever was following them attacked, Markus and Wallace intended to wipe Iris’s memory afterward and send her on her way.
‘Figures.’
Unfortunately for them, Iris wasn’t planning on leaving.
She followed from a distance as the brothers slipped into the alley beside the bakery.
Markus stopped near the center and glanced around before pulling off his hoodie, revealing a black tank top beneath it.
The centipede tattoo running from his neck down his left arm was now fully visible.
A grin slowly spread across his face.
“This town’s getting more interesting by the minute, huh, little brother?”
Wallace calmly adjusted his gloves.
The air above them shifted.
Iris immediately recognized the distortion.
Cupcake.
The invisible lizard-like creature clung to the side of the nearby building for another moment before suddenly launching itself from the wall.
Straight toward Markus.
Markus grinned.
He raised one hand and pointed directly at the incoming creature as the centipede tattoo stretching from his neck down his arm began glowing a brilliant orange.
That tattoo was his Sigil, the conduit through which his Curse manifested into reality.
“Curse of the Mad Destroyer.”
Markus’s finger suddenly bent ninety degrees.
A sickening snap echoed through the alley.
At the exact same moment, the space surrounding Cupcake distorted.
The invisible creature was violently forced into view as its entire body twisted inward.
Flesh compressed, bones shattered, and its limbs bent in directions they were never meant to move before an invisible force slammed the mangled creature against the nearby brick wall.
Purple blood exploded across the alley.
For a moment, what remained of Cupcake hung there.
Then even the corpse began to disappear.
Its blood, flesh, and shattered bones dissolved into drifting Miasma until nothing remained behind.
Iris watched silently from her hiding place.
‘As powerful as I remember.’
There was a reason Markus Valentine had been feared by nearly everyone who understood what he was truly capable of.
Humanity’s strongest Cursebearer.
Even at the height of her own power, Iris had never been certain she could defeat him.
Honestly…
I don’t know if I could ever surpass him.
“Iris.”
Her body stiffened.
Wallace pushed his glasses higher before looking directly toward the corner she was hiding behind.
“You can come out now,” he said calmly.
“There’s no reason to hide. We won’t hurt you.”
Iris stared at him from behind the wall.
Of course he’d noticed her.
“Fine, fine.”
She sighed and stepped out, brushing herself off as though she hadn’t just watched Markus reduce an invisible monster into a pile of Miasma.
Wallace watched her carefully.
Markus’s orange eyes narrowed slightly.
The nervous expression Iris had been wearing inside the bakery slowly disappeared.
The frightened civilian act had gotten her this far.
There wasn’t much point in maintaining it anymore.
If she wanted the Valentine brothers on her side before the Blood Moon began, then it was finally time to change the script.
Iris smiled.
“Guess it’s showtime, then.”