Novels by Gracious Ink

Ember's POV When the fire stopped, I thought I’d died. But death wouldn’t feel like this. Death wouldn’t burn.I floated somewhere between breath and ash, my skin humming with a power that didn’t belong to me. The ground below me was scorched black, pulsing with heat every time I breathed. My veins glowed faintly beneath my skin, gold at first, then darker—black fire threading through me like veins of molten glass. When I tried to move, my body didn’t obey. My reflection shimmered in the air before me, split down the center—one side mine, the other smiling with the Witch’s mouth.“You fought me,” she whispered from inside my skull, her voice curling through my mind like smoke. “Now you wear me.”I tried to speak, but the words came out in two tones, mine and hers. Every heartbeat sent waves of heat rolling off me, searing the soil. I could feel her under my skin, testing, stretching, tasting everything I was.“Get out,” I growled, pressing my palms against the burning dirt.She laugh

Zane's POV I woke to silence. Not the peaceful kind, but the kind that presses on your chest until you can’t tell if your heart is still beating. The fire was out, the air heavy with the stench of ash and blood. The spot where Ember had been lying beside me was cold. Her scent—usually warm, threaded with smoke and something sweet—was gone, burned clean out of the air.For a moment, I just stared at the dirt where her hand had rested against mine. Then I saw it—the mark on the nearest tree, carved deep into the bark, still smoldering. The Witch’s sigil. But twisted, fused with Ember’s flame mark, glowing faintly red. My stomach turned.“She’s being pulled back,” I whispered. The words scraped out of me like gravel.A shout tore through the camp. I was already on my feet when Kaela stumbled into view, barely holding herself up. Her armor was cracked, blood seeping down her neck. The soldiers flinched when they saw her—she looked half-dead already. I caught her before she hit the ground

Ember's POV I woke to pain. It was the first thing I felt....the raw, burning ache under my skin, as if my veins had turned to molten metal. My body jerked before I could stop it, my back arching, a strangled cry tearing from my throat. The air stank of smoke and blood, and when I opened my eyes, the world was drenched in red light. Dawn. Or what was left of it. The forest was still smoldering, ash drifting like snow around us. Zane’s arms were around me, his voice breaking somewhere above my head, but I couldn’t focus on him. Every pulse of my heart sent fire racing through me, glowing faintly beneath my skin like threads of living light. I couldn’t breathe.“Stay still,” he said, his voice rough, desperate. His hand pressed against my cheek, the heat of his skin barely registering against the inferno that was tearing me apart. “Ember, please, just breathe.”“I can’t,” I rasped. “It’s....too much....”He tried to hold me down, but I twisted away, gasping as the air around me shimmer

Zane's POV The forest bled with smoke. Every breath I dragged in burned like coal, thick with the scent of ash and her. Ember. Her fire lingered in the air—wild, stubborn, alive. My chest ached with it. Every flicker of flame in the distance felt like her calling me, taunting me. I followed it through the northern woods, through roots torn apart by the storm she’d left behind. The sky above still glowed faintly red, and every spark that fell to the ground whispered her name. My men trailed behind me, exhausted, wounded, afraid to speak. They didn’t understand what it meant to lose her. They didn’t understand that I wasn’t chasing her to save her. I was hunting her.“Alpha,” one of them called, voice trembling. “We’ve gone three days without rest. The hounds can’t pick up her trail anymore. The air—”I turned, and the look on my face shut him up before he could finish. My voice came out low, raw. “Rest is for the dead.”The ground cracked beneath my boots as I moved on. Every pulse of

Ember's POV The moment the sky split open, I felt the world tilt. The witch’s laughter was a blade through my skull, her power a current that wrapped around me and tore me away from Zane’s reach. I screamed his name, but the sound was lost in the roar of collapsing flame. The world folded in on itself, and then there was nothing—only darkness, thick and humming like blood under skin.When I woke, the air was heavy with incense and rot. I was lying on cold stone, wrists and ankles bound by glowing runes that pulsed in rhythm with my heartbeat. Mirrors lined the walls, each one reflecting me—but not me. In one, I saw Ash, the boy who had sworn his loyalty to Zane; in another, the liar who had smiled through every order; in another, the monster with eyes burning gold. They moved even when I didn’t. My chest tightened. The witch’s voice slithered through the dark.“Which one of you should I keep?”Her form drifted from the shadows, her gown slick like oil, her smile a cruel crescent. She

Zane's POVI woke to silence. Not peace—just the kind of silence that follows ruin. The tower was a skeleton of black stone and smoke, the floor cracked open where the relic had burned through. My throat felt raw, my chest tight, my muscles heavy like I’d been dragged through fire. The chains that had once held me were dust, but their marks still burned around my wrists.Ash floated in the air like slow snow. The scent of blood clung to it, thick and sour. Half my men lay scattered across the rubble, their armor twisted and blackened. Lucien’s body was gone, the ground where he’d fallen carved with strange sigils. The witch’s stench still lingered—rot, sulfur, and something older.She had her.I could feel it before I even let myself think it. The echo of her power pulsed faintly under my skin, the same rhythm that had matched mine before the tower fell. Ember was alive. The bond wasn’t gone; it was distant, like a heartbeat under water.I dragged myself upright, the world spinning on

CAZRIEL’S POVEven when I stepped back, the step didn't seem to reduce, it didn't even fade or stop, no. Instead, it invaded my nostrils, making its way into the back of my throat, thick, suffocating and really…. really wrong. I swallowed hard, pacing the and fro in the hallway, outside the cell, my jaws clenched tightly, eyes blazing with fury, my claws almost elongated and hurting. The scent assaulted my senses in ways I didn't believe it could; raw, Omega heat.But, it didn't feel normal, no. This one was different, it had a twist to it; as though it had been made in a lab, broken to their command. Just then, a voice rang behind me, but I didn't need to turn to know who it was. “Alpha” I heard my beta, Kaan, call behind me. “This is important, you need to have a look” I saw as he held out a scroll and without still looking, I ripped it from his grip, scanning it almost immediately. There was more than one scroll, about three. They all looked half torn, I saw brown stains on

RIVEN’S POVI tossed and turned, clutching my stomach, my eyes shut tightly. It felt as though I was in a losing game, each breath I took was as though it was my last, each bone in my body shuddered as I moved, beads of thick, hot sweat dripping down my skin and the air smelled like it was contaminated with poison. I parted my mouth, my eyes rolled into my head as I continued taking deep breaths to at least keep myself conscious, but it didn't relive the crazy pain that was making me go insane. It felt as though the walls of the room were closing in on me, the bed I laid on was made out of rock. But amidst my pain, I knew he was there, staring at me. I didn't have to see him to know, I could feel his thick, suffocating aura and that scent….that scent of his that literally made me lose my mind. He didn't move from where he moved, just stood there, silent, his breath calm. I pressed my lips tightly together, took a deep breath then spoke up in a raspy, cracked tone. “Are you just

Cazriel’s POVThe first thing that caught my eyes wasn't the blood, no. It was the way the snow heated up, burning and hissing from the impact of the boy's skin. I saw as steam seeped from his skin, and inside me, something deadly and ancient stirred, baring its teeth at the sight not from anger, no, but from raw, primal hunger. With fucking need and desire. I hovered above his curled form, my shadow engulfing his petite, shuddering body. His knees were pressed to his chest, arms clutching tightly around his belly, eyes shut, hissing in pain under his breath. And under his skin, something throbbed again, a small kick that felt alive.I didn't move, didn't even breathe. What the fuck was that? The wind seemed to shift behind me, my wolf howling in my chest, ears twitching slightly from the crunching of dried leaves through the snow behind me. It was Kaan, my beta. He approached, stopping just beside the boy. Then, he spoke up in a mocking, unimpressed tone. “Tsk…another rogue,

Riven’s POVBefore I could even take a deep breath, I tasted blood thick on my tongue. . I really didn't mean to run this far, especially not this fast and as I turned my head behind me, the snow was already painted red in my own blood and in that moment I realized if I stopped, I wouldn't be seen breathing by dawn. The wind felt like a deadly sharp blade, slashing across my skin, my face, lungs, eyes, literally everywhere and to make matters worse, my clothes were very thin, definitely not the one to wear for winter. In fact, I was hardly dressed, just a torn shirt painted in my own blood, feet bare, almost turning purple from the icy ground, my knees trembling, buckling with each step I took but I still didn't stop. Inside my veins I could feel the drug burning hot and fiery. Earlier, we were forced to drink the drug; a black, thick liquid that tasted bitter and disgusting, and it was meant to mask out our scent and it was the only thing keeping me from getting caught. But unfo