Chapter One: Aflame

"It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."

-Eleanor Roosevelt

Bo walked into the Dahl and knew she was going to be in for a bad night. Kenzi was off doing whatever it was she did when she pulled out her trunk full of wigs, leaving Bo solo for the night, and she spied Tamsin at the bar, four empty glasses lined up beside her. Her hand was up in the air, signaling Trick for another one.

Several Fae were arranged around the room, slightly more than usual, and Bo sighed. Trick was not going to have a free moment for awhile, and she really needed to talk to him. Tensions were rising, yet again, between the Ash and the Morrigan, and she needed some advice.

Both rulers were putting the pressure on her to finally choose a side, and she needed some grandfatherly advice. Seeing how busy the bar was, she began backing out of the Dahl before bumping into someone.

"Leaving so soon?"

Startled, Bo spun on her six-inch heels and came face to face with Tamsin. She craned her neck to see the empty bar stool she had just been on. "How… how did you?"

"Move so fast?" Tamsin said with a slur. "I've been feeling better lately. Want a drink? I'll even let you buy it for me." She winked at Bo and let her eyes wander below her neckline.

Bo felt sexuality pouring off the Valkyrie so strong she had to take a step back. "Woah Tamsin, you're going to have to take it down a notch. I just wanted to talk to Trick-"

"Forget that old sack!"

"Tamsin, please," Bo tried to move her out of the way but Tamsin held her ground, refusing to budge an inch. Her face shifted into a grin, an unfamiliar knowing dawning behind her eyes.

"One drink, if we could just talk…"

"Not right now. Your boss has really put me in a mood."

"Fuck the Morrigan," she placed her hand on Bo's arm and it was electric. Part of her wanted to give in, but she steeled herself.

"Listen, I have to go!" Bo wrenched her arm free. Tamsin fell against the wall to the right of the door, barely catching herself before falling.

As Bo strode past her, she thought, What else can go wrong tonight?

Across town, in an abandoned warehouse, Dylan sat in a disgusting room, chained to the wall. He was exhausted from trying to pry himself free from the chains, and weak from days with barely any food. His clothes were soiled and torn, and he spent most of the time trying not to smell the stench pouring off him.

The rusty door opposite him swung open slowly and noisily. The old woman came into the room, carrying the unlit kerosene lantern in one shaky hand.

"Let's try this again," she said, same as the night before, and the night before that. "Now, make it work." She set the lantern down in front of him.

"Listen lady, I've told you before," he said through gritted teeth, "I have no idea what you are talking about."

She slapped him with surprising force, given her age. "Do it now!"

Rage flickered inside him. He was just about to graduate from high school two weeks ago when this old hag abducted him, and since he's been living off of crackers and dirty water in this horrible room. The woman (he hadn't even learned her name yet, much less anything else about her) came to him every night with the same lantern and said the same words. He missed his family, he missed his friends, and he definitely missed the man he had met a few days before he was taken. Talk, dark, mysterious, and asking some very interesting questions.

The anger burned inside him, and suddenly the wick of the lantern, encased in its glass prison, stirred to life.

"Yes!" The woman shrieked. She leapt to her feet and threw her hands in the air. "It worked! You're-"

Dylan had no idea how she was going to finish the sentence, and honestly he didn't care. The flame jumped from the lantern, bursting through the glass panel on its hinge, and sparked on the hem of the woman's dress. For a brief moment, he thought of that flame consuming her, barbequing her from the outside in, when it happened.

The small spark that landed on her shot up her leg. "What the…?" she was able to say before her body was totally encased.

Dylan watched in awe as her captor flailed against the concrete. When she finally lay silent and unmoving on the floor, he sprang into action. He searched her body for the key. Finding it, he quickly released himself from his bonds.

He had no idea what was happening, but he knew he had to get out.