Prologue

Degan sighed as he slammed the bottle back down on the table. It was the third one he had gone through, and yet he still didn't feel nearly as drunk as he wanted to be. He could still hear her words echoing in the back of his head, slowly growing louder and louder until it felt as if he were going to explode.

"I thought we agreed not to start until we were all here," he looked up to see a man about his age at eighteen, with blonde hair and violet colored eyes smiling sadly down at him. Raphael slid down across from him with a sigh. "I heard about Judith."

Degan groaned, and ran a hand through his dark hair. "I wasted two years of my life on her. Two years! Only for her to choose some Lord from London."

Raphael rolled his eyes. "It's the accent, girls fall for it every time."

"Why couldn't you have been born a girl?" Degan sighed, resting his head in his hand as he stared over at his best friend. "It would have been so easy for me."

Raphael chuckled as a woman came over and handed them another round of alcohol. "I'd like to think that if I had been born as a girl, I could've done better than you, chap."

"Like Lydia?" Degan smirked.

Raphael rolled his eyes again. "She's like my sister, Raphe."

"Mm, maybe you should tell that to her. Because she's definitely in love with you." his eyes averted away from the blonde at the sound of the tavern bar's doors opening to see two girls, one with curly red hair and the other with board straight brown hair, came prancing in. "Speak of the devil."

Under normal occassions, no girl would be caught dead in a tavern such as this. But Lydia's father was the owner, and so it was common for her and Jacqueline to be around. It was actually where the four of them had actually met, nearly twelve years ago. Degan and Raphael had gotten into a spot of trouble and had ducked in there to hide only to run into the two girls who had sent the angry drunks in a different direction.

"Hey," Jacqueline smiled, sliding in next to Degan. "We just got the message. How are you doing?"

Degan shrugged. "I've been better. I'm trying to get drunk now, but this jerk over here won't let me."

"I just told you to wait until the girls got here." Raphael chuckled. "They're going to make sure the two of us don't get into too much trouble once we're drunk off our asses."

"You two really shouldn't do that." Lydia sighed, brushing her red hair out of her green eyes. "Drinking isn't going to solve any of your problems."

"Ah, see? That's the problem with girls." Raphael laughed, before grabbing one of the bottles. "Trust me, in this case, drinking will solve everything."

Degan watched as he lifted the glass to his lips and chugged half of it down in one fell swoop. Yes, it would've been so easy if Raphael had been born a girl. The two of them had been together their entire lives, he got him effortlessly.

Jacqueline rolled her eyes. "What if Judith decides to take you back but then she comes and sees you both running amuck like a couple of drunk fools?"

"She ran off with some British Lord," Raphael sighed, much to Degan's relief. He didn't feel like having to explain his depressing life story for a second time. "Somehow I doubt that she's coming back. No offense."

Lydia sighed, before grabbing on to Raphael's hand, and beginning to tug. "C'mon. Why don't we all go upstairs?"

"Lydia!" Jacqueline gasped. "You know it's improper to be alone with men!"

Lydia rolled her eyes. "Nobody will now, Jack. Plus, we're just going to sit on the stairs. We won't actually be alone."

Jacqueline groaned as the four of them slid out from the table. "Alright, but if I end up engaged to Degan because we get caught, I'm so blaming you."

They stopped at the top of the stairs, and all sat down. The bar was still in sight, but they had a more secluded feel to their conversation. It wouldn't take long for the story of Degan getting dumped to spread across the town but for now he liked that the only people who knew were the four of them-and Judith's family, of course.

Before they got the chance to talk, however, the sound of glass breaking sounded throughout the tavern. Degan's head whipped down to see a flaming bottle come flying through a now shattered window and landing at the bottom of the staircase, setting the first few steps ablaze. With a gasp, the him and Raphael jumped to their feet, grabbing ahold of the girls and dragging them to a standing position as well.

The flames spread quickly as nearly a dozen more bottles came flying into the place. Before they were all on their feet, the stairs were in a blinding blaze. There was no way they would be able to get back down them without being burnt to a crisp.

"What are we going to do?" Lydia gasped as she clung to Raphael. "There aren't any windows up here. We have no way to escape."

"Let's get as high as possible." Degan quickly shot, "Hopefully they'll be able to put out the fire before it reaches us."

Lydia led the way to the crowded attic that sat right above the tavern. It wasn't as high as Degan had hoped, they could still feel the heat of the fire through the wooden floor, but it would have to do. They huddled in a small circle, as far away from the opening as possible. That was how they stayed until the room began to fill with smoke.

"We're not going to make it." Jacqueline sobbed. "They're just going to let it burn to the ground and take us with it."

Degan opened his mouth to say something comforting, but nothing came out. A look shot toward Raphael showed that the blonde was having the same trouble.

"There's this belief my daddy taught me," Lydia murmured, surprisingly calm as the bright orange blaze of the fire flickered through the opening in the floor. "That if, with your dying breath, you wish with all your heart, it will come true in your next life."

Still gazing at each other, Degan and Raphael nodded. It was a pointless thing to do, but it was clear that if they all spent their last moments wishing, it would make her feel a lot better.

And so with that, four wishes rose to the heavens, which answered with all their power.

These four would meet in their next life, that much was certain.

But nothing between them would ever be the same.