Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Okay. So... I started reading Fortuna Sworn and I like the book, I eat up anything that has to do with folklore and mythology, but I wanted to rewrite some parts. I wanted to give the main character, Fortuna, a bit more personality and pizzazz. I wanted her to have a bit more going for her other than just being 'a nightmare' and her only goal being to track down her brother. I just want to give her more hobbies and interests and make her more 3 dimensional. I know that MCs in erotic fiction are supposed to be self-inserts basically, but I just loved the ideas in this book and some of the relationships in the book that I wanted to explore them more, develop them and add to them.

I also wanted to make Collith a bit more of a cocky bastard and more devil-may-care.

I will try and make this story as coherent as possible so that people who have never read Fortuna Sworn can still get an idea and understand what is going on. Anyway, I hope you enjoy whatever I'm about to write, cos I still have no idea, teehee. Also the title is definitely not staying. I will be changing it something better when I think of something better.

Chapter Text

The routine was the same. Work, search, sleep, repeat, work search, sleep, repeat. Right now I was in the middle of that routine. I clocked out of work and before saying bye to Bea, put my headphones in and walked out the door. Now it was time for me to restart my search. I'd amassed a small library of occult books, some from my parent's collection, and others that I found online or in second-hand book shops. I used all the information I could get my hands on to investigate the possible reasons for Damon's disappearance.

I remember the night he disappeared perfectly. I got back from work and read the note he left on the kitchen table. I'm in the garden was all it said. I threw my bag on the floor, got a glass of water and went straight to bed, not even bothering to look out the window for my brother. The town of Granby was a relatively safe town, I don't know what the police did to keep busy all day, it was a small boring town and nothing else happened. But in terms of the supernatural, the forest outside was a teeming hub of life. I had no doubts that his disappearance was otherworldly in nature. Days after I reported him missing to the police I sat in that kitchen looking out the window, wondering what it was that would've taken him. It was night time, I'd just finished eating my microwave macaroni and all that could be seen through that window was a world of darkness and my own reflection staring back at me. The kitchen light flickered in the reflection, making it look like it was flickering in between the trees outside. And that's when I got an idea. Will-o-the-wisps I thought. My brother must have been led astray from the garden and into the forest by Will-o-the wisps. It was a poor lead, I know, but It's the only one I had. And I was still searching that lead now, pouring over my books, thinking about who would and who could summon a Will-o-the-wisp. Since then, I had gathered a few more different leads. Again, they weren't really leads, more so theories that I had. But I had to do something to find my brother. Sitting here, not doing anything, it was excruciating. The moments where I was still, were the most painful ones. Being on the move, having these theories, researching, working, it eased the pain, the guilt of losing my brother. In silence it ate me alive. I would leave no rock uncovered to find him.

Tonight, I was going to take one concrete step to getting Damon back and I was going. Tonight was a full moon, a night when all creatures would be out, restless from the power the full moon gave them. And there would also be black marketeers looking to snag some poor creature that ventured out into the dark and make a profit. Tonight I was going to be one of those poor creatures. I was going to get as much information as I could to see if Damon was taken and sold on the black market for magical creatures. It was a long shot, but like I said, I couldn't stay here doing nothing. There was a market this weekend and that meant black marketeers would be out on the prowl tonight looking for fresh meat to sell. I pushed the key into the front door and walked into the living room, changing my shoes for a pair of hiking boots and slipping dad's knife into the sock. I didn't need much else, if they caught me, they would confiscate anything else I had on me. With that, I followed the path from the garden to the forest that lay outside, retracing the steps that Damon probably took.

The air was fresh and cold, the sky dark and clear. My power was fizzing beneath my skin with the rise of the full moon, I cracked my neck and my knuckles and continued traipsing through the forest, not really aiming for any destination in particular. I wanted to be seen, and I was making every effort to let it be known that I was here. I hummed the tune to Dynamite by BTS, which then turned into a whistle and soon the song became one that I made up along the way.

"Beautiful night, isn't it?"

I whipped my head around to the source of the voice. An older lady with inquisitive eyes approached me, barefoot, snapping the twigs she stepped on. I ignored her at first and looked up at the moon, she looked up too. I glanced at her in my periphery vision. I could feel an aura coming from her. Her power under the moonlight. The silver light made her grey hair glow and shine, giving her a halo. An anti-angel. That's what all of us were. Fallen. Creatures that had evolved from fallen angels. But what was she? Definitely not a faerie with those wrinkles, maybe a witch, or a goblin. She was still looking up at the moon. She slowly turned her head toward me, closing her eyes and breathing in deep through her nose, as though she were smelling something exquisite.

"What are you doing out here all alone, young girl?"

"I could say the same thing to you." At that, she chuckled a little and took a few steps forward and the smile fell from her face and turned into a sneer.

"Let's stop the games. I know what you are. You're a Nightmare. The last of your kind. And look at you out here, all alone."

It felt like a dart had hit my chest when she said that. Like my heart was being pinned against a wall. The last of my kind. My parents dead, my brother missing. A little piece of the mask that I always kept on crumbled when she said that. I let out a shaky breath and clenched my fist.

"I'm not actually the last of my kind. I have a brother. He went missing a year ago." The adrenaline was pumping through me. I didn't know whether this was just a friendly witch making conversation or a black marketeer, but having that element of danger made me feel alive. Something I hadn't felt in a long time.

The old lady gave a little pout, "Aw, how sad for you." Her statement was insincere and fake. There was a certain lightness to her words, talking to a stranger, me, without a care in the world. But her words were also dancing around something that she couldn't say. I nodded mutely, waiting to see what she would add to the conversation. She took another step closer, "I could help you look for your brother, you know."

"Oh, really?" I said plainly.

"I deal with lots of missing persons," She looked over my shoulder, "In fact, I'm the reason why missing people go missing," she waved her hands in the air after revealing her big secret and gave me a smile, "Boys! Get her!" Footsteps crunched on leaves behind me and then a blunt object hit my head.

Well, that was step one of my plan put into action, I thought as my world faded to black as I slipped into my dreams.