Prologue Damon

PROLOGUE: DAMON

My dearest Hellena,

I can't believe so many years have passed since I saw you last. It never ceases to amaze (and depress) me how the years fly by, yet the days crawl along. Sorry if I sound like a maudlin old man. Your mom always said I could go from fourteen to sixty from one day to the next.

I suppose that’s what journals are for, though.

However, these entries are as much for you as they are for my own peace of mind.

I only hope that one day, you’ll get to read them, to understand me. At the same time, I almost hope that never happens, because that wouldmean you know where you came from, who I am, and what our family is responsible for.

Today is one of those gloomy days, the long, dreary ones. Lonely.

My resolve wavers, tempting me to reach out, to find your number, to hear your voice. To know who you are becoming.

Not a day goes by that I don't think about you and your mother. The very last day I saw you, the day I sent you and your mother away, it took everything I had to let that happen. To make that happen.

I've regretted it ever since.

And I'll never forgive myself for the lie that you'll likely think about me for the rest of my life, and possibly the rest of yours. That I abandoned you or threw you away. That couldn’t be farther from the truth.

But how can I ever tell you?

That’s why I write these letters, to recuse my guilt and to exonerate myself, at least on paper, for the things that I've done and the things that I will do.

If by some twist of fate you do ever read these words, my confessions and my secrets, I pray that you’ll understand why I did what I thought was necessary, why we all have done unspeakable things in the name of preserving our people, our dreams for the future.

This brings me back to that core secret, the one I circle around again and again but never manage to divulge. I can do so here, with you.

It’s always been complicated, the society I am a member of, a leader of.

We’re known simply as the Sinful to those few who know anything about us. And we have tried to keep it that way, hidden from our families, masked from our own subordinates through whom we make decisions and act to change the face of our city.

Sanctum Harbor is our sole concern, and the citizens we protect.

For centuries, we have cultivated a haven, a refuge for the unwanted, the uncouth, the outcasts. It’s where you were born, nestled in the mountains on the West Coast.

Few people will have heard of it, and we take great care to keep it that way.

Sanctum Harbor must always remain a home for unconventional law, an escape for people who need to hide out, escape, and start over. The result is also a place where just about anything goes, if you know where to look. But even that is kept carefully under wraps, moderated for anonymity.

It sounds so clandestine and criminal when I put it that way, but at its core, Sanctum was founded as just that—a safe place.

Now, I am afraid it has also become a den of wolves nipping at each other.

Infighting between the various groups, seats of power and influence, are tearing our town apart. Even within the ranks of us, the leadership, the Seven…

Keeping our identities from public knowledge, and in many cases, from each other, has been a cornerstone of our tenets, balancing the power of rule.

One by one, we are being picked off. And there is no one ready to take our places.

I have to assume it’s one of us, one of the Seven taking out their competition. Four of us remain as far as I can tell. Two of the members who have gone silent were the only two I knew the identities of.

And so, I find myself in hiding, coming up on two years in complete solitude.

It’s only a matter of time before someone comes for me. Before I’m found out and taken off the board.

In the meantime, I keep trying to make the town a better place, a safe place. The place that I always knew it could be. My players, employees of my various businesses and agents planted throughout the infrastructure of the town, keep pressing on, with my carefully concealed guidance.

But it’s a losing battle. One with a very finite time frame.

Like the other missing members, I have failed to train or choose my replacement. It would have been you, should have been, if not for the threat on your lives.

So, I keep Sanctum a secret from the world, as much as I can. I am afraid the world will find us soon. Certain ambitious parties seem hell-bent on disrupting that peace.

The bylaws of the Sinful are falling apart after all this time, and under my watch, no less. I may very well be the last of my name on this clandestine council.

Our blood has remained a staple of Sinful leadership for almost three hundred years. Others have passed the torch along, outside their bloodlines, but always to people dedicated to the city and the cause.

Well, it’s late, and I am exhausted. I’ll write again tomorrow.

I wish to the stars that you are safe, healthy. I hope your mother is as well. I hope she’s done right by you.

It would be my dying wish to see you once more, to know you now as an adult and talk with you.

But I am a coward in so many ways. I went to war, fought for my country. I faced down some of the most terrifying men in the world with my best friends…

The thought of picking up the phone and calling you scares me so much more.

If you ever make it to Sanctum Harbor, back to your roots, I dream that you'll find it a safe place. It is my heart, just as you are.

More than all of that, I would bless you with a life lived to the fullest, out there, somewhere far away, making your dreams a reality. You are the product of two stubborn, bold individuals. Your mother gave up everything for you, and for me. I honestly hope that you never know the extent of it, of the danger our family and our blood pose to your life.

Always be open minded, Hellena. Acceptance, cohabitation.

This is what we aspire to as the Sinful. The organization was founded on these ideals. Keep that mentality alive, to help others, to make them feel safe and welcome, regardless of their lifestyle and background.

Community and family are everything, Hellena.

Someday, you'll understand when you have one of your own, when you have people you love more than life itself, whom you would do anything to protect.

I love you with every fiber of my being.

Yours always and forever,

Damon Alden Michaels