Chapter One: The Clock Begins
It was midnight and the first raindrop hit.
Seth did not blink. He stood rooted under the freezing, open sky, clad in black, as if the night itself had swathed him in grief. In the background, the city sighed and murmured—full of strangers, ignorant of the fact that something eternal had just begun to turn.
He gazed down at the battered silver pocket watch in his hand. It wasn't an ordinary watch. The glass was broken, the second hand reversed, and the instant the date hit March 1st, the accursed device had begun ticking. Backwards.
365 days.
That's all he had left.
He pushed it back into his pocket and lit a cigarette, habit rather than desire. The smoke wove itself like a skein of ectoplasm across his face, mingling with the fog exhaling from the street. His own face peered back in the puddle beneath—bony jawline, hard eyes, a figure honed out by violence and remorse. He had the appearance of a man beyond redemption.
And perhaps the truth was there.
"Seth," said a gentle voice behind him.
He turned, not surprised. The demon never stayed away for long.
It appeared as a man today—tall, refined, with eyes like bottomless ink and a smile that could curdle milk. "You look wistful," it said, its voice like velvet soaked in poison. "Is this the part where you begin to hope again?"
Seth didn't respond.
The demon laughed. "Hope is a risky habit, my friend. You've lost every time so far. Why should this be any different?"
He didn't know that either. He simply turned and trudged away, boots splashing in the water, the demon's words hanging in his wake.
"Tick-tock, Seth. Get your bride or die. You know how it works."
Around the city, Emma Sinclair wiped her flour-dusted hands on her apron and pulled out her notebook. The bakery was still at this time of night, the ovens purring softly behind her. She was accustomed to silence. She preferred it. But this evening, there was an odd tug in her chest, as if something had changed.
She shook it off and started doodling concepts for the new menu, never knowing that her life—so mundane, so secure—was going to become entwined with a curse older than she could possibly envision.
And with a man who had only one year to spare to redeem his soul.