The Chronicles of Onyx: Book 1

Prologue - Fourteen Years Ago

Fate, some argue they wield the reins of destiny, navigating life's unpredictable waters with the choices they make. Yet, beneath the surface, a more profound question lingers—do we truly control our fate, or are we but passengers on a predetermined journey, guided by unseen hands? As the age-old debate between free will and determinism persists, the human experience unfolds, a dance of choices and circumstances, each step uncertain yet filled with potential. So I ask you, do you control your own fate, or is your entire life already planned and only you don't know the outcome?

Storm clouds took over the sky, consuming the once light blue leaving behind only a cancerous dark hue. From the falling ashes, a sinister shadow emerged, cloaked in grief and anger. Dezenym moved through the charred ruins with slow, deliberate steps, as if each stride was an effort to propel himself forward.

His gold eyes, once warm and tender, now blazed with pain and sorrow, like a raging fire consuming all in its path. He had heard the wolves' mournful howls, a sound that could only signify one thing.

Amidst the rubble, he found her—Raven's lifeless body. She lay there, her once graceful form now broken and battered. A pool of crimson blood enveloped her, offering the thirsty earth more innocence to drink in. As if the ground weren't already saturated enough with the blood of the innocent.

Angry, scalding tears welled up in Dezenym's eyes as he knelt beside her, his trembling hands reaching out to touch her cold cheek. "Raven," he whispered, his voice quivering with loss.

Dezenym bowed his head, his shoulders convulsing with the weight of his sorrow. In that moment, he felt an overwhelming sense of powerlessness. He had failed to keep the one promise he had made: to protect her with his life. But now it was she who lay lifeless on the cold ground, not him.

The thought alone stoked a seething fire within him, coursing through his veins like the very darkness he had long confined to the depths of his soul. Yet now, he could feel it threatening to consume him, the darkness spreading like ink to his soul, tempting him to embrace the monstrous nature his power had tempted him, countless times before.

He wanted to give in, he wasn't strong enough to fight it, the darkness that consumed him. At least not without her. She was the only light in his world of darkness, the only star in a black sky. The only good in him remained so only because of her. And now she was gone. Killed by evil, but not true evil. None had seen darkness's true potential, not yet.

With trembling hands, he gently closed Raven's light blue eyes, perhaps for the last time. His eyes glowed beep gold with an angry flame, a hungry flame, brighter now with purpose, "I have not failed you, my love, you will see. I will make this right, even if it costs me my very soul."