The cavern path narrowed until Ember had to lower her torch and crawl.
She'd left at dawn without telling Kael, her mind still echoing Talon's words from the day before.
"Power changes people. Especially when it's handed to them after they've bled for it."
She needed space. Answers. Control over the fire inside her that flared too easily, too often, whenever she was near him.
And so, she'd gone where even Talon rarely ventured—the Whispering Deep. A stretch of ancient tunnels said to be steeped in residual flame magic. Unstable. Alive.
Perfect.
Hours later, she found herself in a hollow chamber lit by soft, flickering blue fire licking along the stones. The walls pulsed like a heart. Something in the air hummed.
Ember set her torch down and knelt.
The warmth that wrapped around her was not oppressive. It was ancient. Watching. Waiting.
She closed her eyes and reached inward—toward the fire.
Her body responded, heat blooming behind her ribs, traveling through her chest and down to her fingertips. But this time, she didn't try to shape it.
She just listened.
And in the silence, the flames spoke.
Not in words—but in images.
A girl crowned in gold and fire, raising a blade as cities burned.
A lover held in bloodstained arms.
A crown cast into a chasm.
Ember gasped, clutching her chest as the fire surged within her.
Not rage. Not destruction.
Memory.
The fire wasn't just a tool. It was a lineage.
A burden of memory passed down through flesh and flame.
Her eyes snapped open.
She understood now: she couldn't simply learn to use the fire.
She had to learn to carry it.
Back at the forge, Kael was pacing.
"She left before dawn," he snapped, storming into Talon's chamber. "You said she was your student—why the hell aren't you watching her?"
Talon didn't flinch. "Because she doesn't need a keeper. She needs to grow."
Kael's hands curled into fists. "Don't act like you understand her better than I do."
"I don't. But I understand what happens to soldiers who love too blindly."
Kael turned on him. "What did you say?"
"You heard me."
For a moment, the air between them thickened—hot, dangerous.
Then Rowan entered.
"If you're both done measuring your scars," she said dryly, "we have a bigger issue. The Flame King's patrols are moving closer. We intercepted a message. They're looking for her."
Kael went still. "Then we need to move her deeper into the caves."
"No," Rowan said. "We need to prepare her to fight."
"She's not ready."
"She's stronger than you think," Talon said. "You just don't want to lose control of her."
Kael's jaw clenched. But he said nothing.
When Ember returned at sunset, covered in soot and ash, Kael was waiting just inside the forge.
He looked at her like she'd returned from a war.
She expected him to shout. To question her.
But instead, he stepped forward and took her face in his hands.
"Where did you go?" he asked, voice raw.
"I needed to be alone," she whispered.
"Don't do that again. Not without telling me."
"I'm not yours to command, Kael."
"No," he said, pain flickering in his eyes. "But you're mine in other ways."
She leaned into his touch, aching.
But when he kissed her, she felt the shift—something restrained behind his passion. Like he was holding her too tightly, afraid she'd disappear.
That night, Kael didn't sleep.
He stood at the edge of the cliff outside the forge, staring into the distance—where the Flame King's red banners would soon rise.
He knew what Rowan and Talon were whispering.
He knew Ember was changing—fast.
And he knew what he'd been asked to do… long before he ever met her.
A job. A mission.
Not to fall in love.
Not to hope.
But now, the thought of betraying her turned his stomach.
And still, the letter he kept hidden inside his armor burned like guilt.
Elsewhere – The Crown's Reach
In the throne room of obsidian, the Flame King stood before the Pyre Mirror once more.
His daughter glowed like a torch in the darkness, flames bending around her like worship.
"She remembers," he whispered. "The fire speaks to her now."
The crown pulsed in its case behind him—ancient and hungry.
"She will come to me in time. They all do."
He turned to the red-robed Seer beside him.
"Send the Shadow Legion. Quietly."
"Yes, my king."
"And when they find her…"
He smiled.
"Bring me my heir."