The main reason Dave crossed paths with Kelvin was never a coincidence — it was a plan rooted in darkness. From the very beginning, Salvera had two goals: to either kill Kelvin or make him lose what little control he had left over his power. The moment Dave was born, she felt it — a ripple that shattered the natural balance of the world. A being stronger than her had been born… and worse, it came from a human. That was something that should have been impossible.
The revelation shook her to her core. She was already struggling to find a way to eliminate Kelvin, and now another threat had arrived — another anomaly she could neither command nor destroy. Two beings capable of rivaling her power could not be allowed to exist. If she could not control them, she would ruin them. She would break their lives before they had a chance to rise against her.
It had been foretold that one of them would rule the underworld, but Salvera wanted none of that prophecy fulfilled. She would not share her crown, not with gods, monsters, or mortals. To ensure her reign remained unchallenged, she began her cruelty early. She shattered the foundations of their lives — killing Kelvin's parents and manipulating Dave's father into abandoning him and his mother.
But that was not all. The curse that shadowed Kelvin was a lie built on her own wicked design. Salvera had killed her own child — not out of mercy, but out of fear. She knew that her offspring would one day rise to overthrow her. So she took the child's life herself and twisted the truth, spreading the story that Kelvin had killed her son in a violent rage. It was the perfect cover, and through that lie, she cursed him, binding him to a lifetime of guilt and self-loathing.
Years passed, and her schemes matured. When she finally orchestrated the meeting between Dave and Kelvin, she believed victory was close. Dave was supposed to be her weapon — someone she could manipulate into destroying Kelvin from within. Her plan was flawless: make Dave fall into the chaos, twist his emotions, and push him to shatter Kelvin's control until he became a threat to himself and everyone around him. Once that was done, Dave would be discarded like the rest of her pawns.
But Salvera had underestimated one thing — the strength of Dave's heart. His mind resisted her influence, his emotions refused to bend to her will, and when he began to love Kelvin, everything she built began to crumble. Instead of destroying Kelvin, Dave's love made him stronger. Together, their bond burned through the chains of Salvera's control, dimming her hold on Kelvin to almost nothing.
Then came the unthinkable — Dave, a man, became pregnant. It was more than an impossibility; it was a threat to the very order she had constructed. That unborn child was not just a new life — it was the merging of two immense forces. It carried the potential to destroy every spell, curse, and lie Salvera had ever cast. If that child was born, it would become the symbol of balance, a being that could erase her existence and end her reign once and for all.
Now, desperation fuels her every move. She prays Dave never discovers the full truth about what he is — because once he does, there will be no stopping him. Alone, he possesses the power to end her; together with Kelvin and the unborn child, they could erase her from the face of existence.
But Salvera will not surrender. She has feasted on the essence of demons, bound herself with forbidden pacts, and devoured every source of power she could find just to remain untouchable. She will not give up her throne. She will not bow. Every living soul, every creature that breathes, will kneel before her — or burn.
And before that prophecy comes to pass — before the child that threatens her empire takes its first breath — Salvera will crush every obstacle in her way, no matter what it takes.
James (Dave foster father) had been given choices that, when he finally counted them, felt monstrous. The bargain had promised safety — a place at Salvera's table, influence he'd never had as a boy of nothing, the steady comforts of a house that was no longer just a shelter but a life. In exchange, he had to be cruel, to bend himself into the shape Salvera needed. At first, it had been easy to tell himself it was for survival. Gradually, the lie became a life.
As the days passed, the family he'd been planted into softened him in ways he never expected. Dave's mother had welcomed him with a wary gratitude that turned into genuine affection. Dave himself — quiet, stubborn, bewilderingly kind — had found his way into James's chest, not as a burden or a tool but as something almost like a son. They became more than a mission. They became part of him. He learned their small rhythms: how Dave drank his tea, the way his mother hummed while she cooked, the soft exasperation Kelvin wore like a second skin. For a while, the promises whispered to him by the woman on the line felt like a monstrous fiction he had outgrown.
But promises made to Salvera were not like other promises. They were contracts written in blood at the edge of a knife. The call he'd just taken had been a reminder of that. The phantom of power had no patience for sentiment. He had thought he could serve both — keep his new family and keep his safe place. The voice on the phone had dispelled that illusion with the quiet cruelty of certainty: obey, or watch everything you care about be torn away and burned.
He had sat on the floor of the empty hallway long after the line went dead, limbs numb, the old arguments that had once soothed him now hollow echoes. The house around him breathed and sighed; it felt temporarily indifferent to the fate being stitched in its rooms. He had tried to map a way out — confession, flight, rebellion — but each path only led him back to the same unbearable conclusion. Salvera's reach did not end with words. She kept accounts, and she collected debts.