For Sammael, sixteen years hadn’t been long enough to recover
He started over once again, in his hiding place along the banks of the Nile. He would have spent at least that many years as an asp in the hot sand. He would have let himself drift from conscious thought until he forgot the reason he'd had to leave that last life behind. He would have made a new plan and come into this new life with some sort of ambition. None of those things happened, because this time he'd asked Evangeline to stay.
Starting over was always difficult.
Weakened by a loss greater than he’d imagined he could feel, Sammael needed the comfort of the one being made to love him. So again and again he asked Evangeline to return to him knowing her love for him was so strong she could not refuse. But hiding in the desert was not the sort of life she deserved, and Sammael knew the time had come to become Brendan Mirek. The time had come to find a purpose out in the modern world. The time had come to make a new life, a simple life, in a place of comfort where he and Evangeline could blend in as Brendan and Phoebe.
But when his resolve to leave the desert found him starting over in London, this new life seemed to become synonymous with fire. Memories from ages ago twisted and contorted with those so recent they still burned. His new neighbor, Lilith, developed an obsessive interest. Her aggressive assault upon his weakened spirit caused Brendan to lose his memories. Freakish accidents and recurring dreams of loss and fire smothered him with guilt he couldn not seem to assuage. He struggled to keep warm as his divine spirit was siphoned away.
Until at last, he was left wondering if his life was even worth fighting for.
Can a new friend with an age old memory, the eternal love of the other half of his soul and divine intervention save Sammael or will this demon of fire drain him away until all love is lost from creation?