It was a cold day, as rainy, wet and altogether as unpleasant as it gets in January. Despite that, a lot of people attended the funeral. They all were standing around the freshly dug grave, wearing black, holding big umbrellas. Most of them were friends or employees of Silvio Carano. The restaurant he owned and ran was closed until further notice. Now that both Silvio and his wife were dead, the place belonged to Sebastiano. Or maybe to their father, he wasn't sure. The old man didn't have a phone or an address to mail to, he was completely off the grid. He probably didn't even know what happened.

In all fairness, nobody did. The police and the fire department seemed to agree that the fire was caused by a faulty circuit that went off in the middle of the night. It set the drapes on fire, and that was it, before long the whole house was burning. Tragic, a tragic accident, indeed.

Sebastiano did not think for a moment that it was an accident, though. It was way too similar to the one in which his mother died, the one that destroyed his father's first restaurant back in the day. Besides, at the evening when he and Silvio attacked Patrick to teach him a lesson about writing disrespectful articles and offending kids, Montgomery did use a fire-elemental. Not many people could have controlled a beast like that. It was huge and wild, a tall, burning giant full of rage and fire and will to kill. Not an average spirit, for sure. Those couldn't have broken all the defences Silvio had put up around his house over the years.

There was silence around while the priest talked, apart from the occasional sniffles as people tried to contain their crying. The loudest at that was a little girl, wearing a pretty black dress, her curly hair messy as always; Jenna. She wasn't old enough to have to go through things like this but was certainly old enough to understand them. Next to her stood the boy, pale and skinny, his jet-black hair a little too long. He didn't cry, his face was blank and emotionless, apart from the eyes. The eyes were smouldering with anger, the same anger he would carry in his whole life. Sebastiano thought that Teodore was too young to attend, but Luna convinced him that the boy would never forgive him if he didn't let him. The woman was probably right; even though Teodore was barely four, he acted like a tiny grown-up most of the time. He was smart, maybe even too smart. While Jenna, who was seven, watched the TV or played with her toys, Teodore stood in his room all day long, reading, which was already strange for his age. He didn't bother with fairy tales and picture books, either, he raided Sebastiano's bookshelf and went through the classics. He only talked when he didn't understand a word and needed an explanation. Sebastiano didn't know if this is how the grief affects him or if there was something wrong with him, but either way, one night he confessed to Luna that the kid creeped him out.

'I know, my love,' his wife had answered. 'He is… Special. We need to be very patient with him, I think.'

Still, the kid was his brother’s son. He had Silvio’s eyes. He was a Carano. And Carano’s always looked after one another.

Sebastiano didn't listen to whatever the priest had to say about living forever in the mercy of God and how nobody will ever really die. His brother was dead, as dead as someone just could be, he was laying in that coffin and if there was any place he would be forever, that was this goddamn black box he will be buried in.

Sebastiano wasn't sure if people expected him to talk after the priest finished, but he knew he couldn't. Luna stepped to the caskets and put a single red rose on each of them. Sebastiano, surprising himself greatly, had to sniff a weak smile. When Silvio met his future wife, Maria, he sent a rose to her everyday until she agreed to go out with him on a date.

Teodore followed Luna, but he had no flowers in his hand. He reached out, touched his father's coffin. He closed his eyes for a second as if he was concentrating. Jenna, who was staring at her shoes so people can't see she was crying now suddenly looked at the boy with curiosity. Teodore lowered his hand after a few seconds, turned back and took his place at Sebastiano's side without so much of a teardrop or a word. Jenna followed him with her eyes all along.

There wasn't a clear explanation about how the boy survived the smoke and fire that killed his parents. Teodore never showed as much magical potential as Jenna did and when he was asked he just said he didn't know, he was sleeping until a fireman picked him up from his bed.

Two cemetery-workers started to let the coffins into the grave. They used ropes, not magic. Sad, robust music was playing from somewhere as the caskets took their forever place. The crowd started to move, some of them went to the grave to throw some flowers in it, some of them went to Sebastiano and Luna, shaking their hands, saying how sorry they were. The man barely listened and shook every hand robotically.

Then it was over. Most of the people left and the workers stood there patiently, waiting for the moment the family will leave so they could put the soil back in the hole. For them, it was just a job and they wanted to be home to catch the news and maybe drink a nice cup of tea.

Now that the black mass of people didn't block the view of the cemetery from Sebastiano's eyes, he finally could see him. He was standing under a willow-tree, his red hair and dark blue suit being the only colours in the otherwise grey picture. He saw that Sebastiano was staring at him and he waved. He was too far away to tell, but Sebastiano was sure that he was smiling.

'Figlio di puttana…' he groaned angrily. His hand was already under his coat, looking for his wand, but Luna grabbed his arm.

'No!' she said strongly but quietly. 'The kids are here.'

Sebastiano took a deep breath and nodded. He took out his empty hand from his inside pocket.

'Mommy, who is that man?' Jenna asked.

'Nobody, honey,' Luna answered. 'Don't worry about him. Let's go, okay?'

The family was the last to leave the cemetery. When Sebastiano looked back, the place under the willow-tree was empty.

The rest of the day went down in a blur, as if the man was in a dream. There was a get-together in the restaurant, a kind of a wake, where people could eat and drink and talk and cry. Somehow even more people showed up there than at the funeral. Sebastiano and his family had to be there, but he was distant, not really himself. He answered when he was talked to, he ate something, he even drank some wine, but later on he could not recall any of this. His body did its usual things, but his mind was wandering somewhere else.

The next thing Sebastiano knew was that he was laying in their shared bed with Luna, and he was staring at the dark ceiling. Somewhere a clock clicked and the sound of the light traffic came from outside. Luna was asleep, her quiet, slow breathing told that to the man.

He got up, carefully so he won't wake her up. All of a sudden he knew what he needed to do. He was a man of peace and common sense, but there were things a proud brother and man in general cannot allow. What if Montgomery came for him next time? Or for his family? His daughter? No, that man needed to be stopped once and for all. Things went too far, people died. An eye for an eye, right?

He picked up some clothes and sneaked out of the bedroom. Even though it was way after bedtime, there was still light escaping under Teodore's door; he was reading. Sebastiano's jaw clenched. That poor boy lost his parents because of Patrick Montgomery. This ends tonight.

Sebastiano knew that Montgomery had a poker-party tonight, he had it every week. He and some other rich pricks got together, drank and played cards. Montgomery always had his butler or his wife to pick him up after the party, no matter how late it ended. And it was still raining outside. Who is to say that an accident can't happen on a rainy late evening? People had car accidents all the time.

Sebastiano got dressed as quietly as he could. He left his wand in the bedroom, on the nightstand, but found one on the kitchen counter. It was Jenna's, just a cheap plastic one for school. It will do, Sebastiano thought. He was already at the door, when Luna's voice stopped him.

'Please, don't,' the woman said.

She was standing in the hallway, fully awake, wearing an oversized T-shirt and nothing else. Her curly hair was messier than ever. The man could never understand how a woman this beautiful and amazing ended up with him.

'Luna, I have to. He went too far this time.'

The woman shook her head.

'I'm begging you, don't go.'

Sebastiano frowned.

'It's about him, right?' he asked in a hollow voice. 'You don't want him to get hurt.'

Anger clouded Luna's face for a second, but then she just took a deep breath.

'I don't care about Patrick. I married you, moron. You are the father of my child… Children. But if you go after him, you are the one who will get hurt or worse. Seb, you were never a strong sorcerer and Patrick is above all of us.'

Sebastiano Carano was a smart man. A good man, even, most of the time. He had some flaws, though, just like anyone, and one of those was his pride. His vanity. He was the kind of man who couldn't take it if his wife said the man she was once interested in was better than him in any way. If Sebastiano had any doubts about what he had to, Luna just pushed him over the edge, unwillingly.

'Power isn't everything,' he said with a confident voice. 'I have a plan.'

Luna stepped closer and reached out to him.

'Please don't do this, my love. You don't have to prove anything, not to me, not to anyone and definitely not to Patrick. You have a plan… Do you think he won't be ready? He was at the funeral to taunt you, he is luring you into a trap and you are walking into it. Do you wanna take him down? Hire an investigator, prove that he was behind the fire, have him arrested. Be better than him, please.'

Sebastiano shook his head. Everything that Luna said was reasonable, but he couldn't forget the smug smile on Montgomery's face. No, prison can't be enough.

'Just how long that would take? Months? A year or two? I'm sorry, Luna. I have to go,' Sebastiano said. Luna lowered her hand and the weak smile disappeared from her lips.

'For God's sake, if you won't stay for me, stay for the kids! What if something happens to you? I'm staying here alone with two little kids. You can't be this selfish!'

'Selfish?' asked the man angrily. 'Selfish? Don't you understand that I'm doing this for our family? So you can be safe? Do you wanna wake up to a fire in Jenna's room, Luna?' he had to keep his voice down but it was smouldering with anger.

The woman took another deep breath.

'I can stop you,' she said quietly.

'What?' he asked, surprised.

'I can take you down before your hand reaches the doorknob, Sebastiano,' she said. She didn't sound angry now, but it wasn't that determined either. 'Please don't make me hurt you.'

The man's jaw tensed again. His hand became a fist.

'You are not serious,' he said.

'I am,' Luna answered but her voice was trembling.

Sebastiano looked at her in the eye, then shrugged.

'I will do what I have to do,' he said. 'You will do the same, love.'

He turned around and grabbed the door handle. Nothing happened. If he would look back before he left, he would have seen the tears on his wife's face slowly rolling down.