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Prologue
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2026-01-09 23:55:29Prologue
The sky burned red as fire rained down on the city of Celestial Falls. Thousands of large leathery wings flapped blocking out most of the light. The city felt as if it was midnight in the middle of the day. The roars of the beasts were deafening as they swooped down grabbing anyone who was unfortunate enough to be on the streets. People screamed in agony as their loved ones and children were taken never to be seen again. Celestial Falls had been a quiet place to live before the portal opened and the creatures arrived. One day they were happily going on with their lives and in an instant, they were living in a city of fire and blood. They came when the portal opened, demons, beasts, and shadows that appeared directly from nightmares. They poured from the mountains like a sickness, crawling down through the trees dragging darkness behind them. Crops rotted in their wake. Churches burned in their unholy fire, and no prayer could stop the hunger coming in waves. The people begged for mercy; none came. Not until she arrived. Sariyah. She stepped from the heart of the Black Woods, alone and cloaked in shadows, as the city writhed in what would have been its final hour. The skies split above her. The monsters turned toward her with open jaws and dripping claws. She did not raise a weapon; she raised her hand. Shadows formed from her fingertips. With a whisper the air turned to ash. The demons screamed, shadows peeling from their forms as they dissolved into nothing. The ground split, the sky howled. Every creature that hunted in the name of darkness was banished. When the smoke cleared, she stood alone at the edge of a ruined temple. Her skin untouched, her eyes black as the void between the stars. Her dark hair flowing as if blown by wind that wasn’t there. The people bowed to her and wept in gratitude, she only smiled. “I have delivered you from this evil,” she said. “And I offer my protection to this city. I will keep the darkness that stirs at bay, but all things have a price.” She would sit on the Obsidian Throne in the Black Spire Castle and an offering would be made. Every hundred years, on the blood moon, one man would be given to her. He would be hers, body and soul for all eternity. The people, desperate and grateful agreed. The first offering came willingly, seeing it as an honor. A war orphan who believed her to be a goddess. He kissed her hand before the gates closed behind them. They heard his screams for three days. The second offering tried to run. The city guards dragged him to her feet. The third was a priest who believed he could pray her away. He could not. And so, the centuries passed. Celestial Falls rebuilt, not with stone, but with blood and sacrifice. The monsters never returned; the crops never failed. The city grew proud, prosperous, and untouched. All she asked was obedience, all she took was one man every hundred years. No one spoke of what she did with them. Until the tenth offering refused and the fire she once saved them from began to rise again.
Bab terbaru
A Flame in the Shadow Chapter 52
OrionThe world is screaming. The hall is chaos. Shards of gold and black magic tear across the floor as the circle collapses, sparks of binding exploding against stone. I see Ember, I feel her body go limp in my arms, and then she’s gone. Not anywhere I can reach. I stumble forward, heart hammering. My hand lifts instinctively, but the threads of magic choke me. My boots scrape obsidian, sparks flying, and I am too late.“Ember!” I scream, but there’s no answer.I know. I know instantly. Lazriel has failed. No. No. I won’t accept that. I pull myself to the edge of the shattered sigil, staring at the air where she disappeared. My shadow pulses violently beneath me, echoing my anger and fear. Every muscle is coiled, screaming. I will find her. I will. But the Gate isn’t here. Not like it was in the ritual. Not tangible. Not something I can reach. The pulse, the pulling, the power, I can feel her. I can feel her blood, her soul, vibrating somewhere beyond the veil, but the threads are s
A Flame in the Shadow Chapter 51
BastionThe entire world around me goes silent. The kind of silence that comes after something irreversible. I’m still on my knees. The world hasn’t caught up yet. The broken circle smolders in front of me, gold light flickering out in dying pulses. The air smells like burned metal and blood, Ember’s blood. My eyes fixate on the place where she fell. Where he killed her, where Orion drove a blade into her chest like it meant nothing, like she meant nothing. My hands curl slowly into fists.“Noooo.” The screams rips loudly from my chest before I even know it’s coming from me. She was supposed to stand beside me. The ceremony was supposed to bind us. Help me control her, protect her and keep her. Mine for all eternity.“She’s gone.” I growl. No one answers, of course they don’t. They all watched it happen. I rise slowly. My body moves on instinct now, the way it used to on deployment; when hesitation meant death. I begin to assess the targets and threats that are all around me. Lazriel
A Flame in the Shadow Chapter 50
EmberThe doors close behind me. The sound is soft, but it seals my fate. The grand hall stretches endlessly ahead, obsidian floors polished to a mirror, gold-veined pillars rising like molten trees, chandeliers burning with steady, ritual flame. The air is thick with incense and anticipation.Thousands of eyes turn toward me. They are not meant to be guests, they are witnesses. To triumph, or execution. My bare feet touch the sigil the moment I step forward. It reacts instantly. A low hum vibrates up through my bones, subtle but alive. Gold threads inlaid into the black stone flicker beneath my skin as though they recognize something in me. I walk slowly. The outer skirt of my gown whispers around me, silk disguising steel. The altered embroidery at my bodice tingles faintly as if it can feel the ritual building around it.I don’t look at Orion. If I look at him now, I will run. Bastion waits at the center of the circle. Black coat, gold cuffs, and an expression carved into something
A Flame in the Shadow Chapter 49
EmberThey burned incense in the fitting chamber to make it smell like roses. It does not hide the scent of fear. The palace hums outside the door, servants rushing, metal clinking, distant laughter rehearsed for a celebration no one believes in. Every corridor feels tighter now, the walls closer, as if the city itself is holding its breath for my binding.Two guards escort me inside, one remains by the door, the other leaves. Indira waits near the window, hands folded, eyes lowered. She does not bow. The door shuts with a heavy click. Silence swells between us. I stand in the center of the room while she circles me, measuring without touching.“You’ve lost weight,” she murmurs.“I’ve lost sleep.”Her mouth almost curves, almost. The dress rests on a mannequin behind her, black silk layered over something deeper. Ember red flickers beneath the outer sheen when the light strikes it. Gold embroidery spills down the bodice in intricate sigils, Sariyah’s chosen crest, altered just enough
A Flame in the Shadow Chapter 48
OrionIt’s been two nights since Ember left with the knowledge of the prophecy carved into her heart. She hasn’t come back. Which means she’s thinking, she’s planning, and we are running out of time.Lazriel stands at the center of the cell tonight, cloak removed, sleeves pushed to his forearms. The torchlight flickers over old scars etched into his skin, sigils branded there long before I met him. The others are silent. Caelan watches from the bars, jaw tight.I lean back against the stone wall of my cell, arms crossed, pretending calm. I am not calm.“You’re certain this will work?” Caelan asks quietly.“No,” Lazriel replies. Honest. As always. He kneels and begins drawing a circle onto the dungeon floor using crushed bone ash and something darker, something that smells faintly of burnt myrrh and grave soil. The sigils are precise, and old. Older than the Gate itself.“You’re not actually killing anyone for this,” I say.His mouth twitches slightly. “Not tonight.”At the far end of
A Flame in the Shadow Chapter47
OrionThe dungeon feels smaller tonight, like the walls are listening. Seren sits pale but steady beside Corin, who hasn’t moved more than an inch away from her since the prophecy. Bram paces, Caelan stands near the bars like he could tear them down if anger alone were enough.Lazriel is the only one who looks calm. I hate him a little for that. “We’re running out of time,” he says quietly.“No,” Corin snaps. “We’re running out of options. That’s different.” Her hand rests on the hilt of her blade, knuckles white.The words still echo in my head. Shadow must kill Flame.“Say it,” Bram mutters suddenly. “Let’s just say it out loud so we can all collectively hate it.”No one moves. Lazriel’s gaze shifts to me. “The ritual requires Flame alive,” he says evenly. “If Ember dies before the Gate fully binds to her, the connection destabilizes.”Caelan turns slowly. “You’re not suggesting—”“Yes,” Lazriel says. Silence slams down.Corin rises to her feet in one smooth motion. “Absolutely not.
A Flame in the Shadow Chapter 17
EmberThe council chamber was colder than I expected, not just in temperature, but in presence. The walls were carved from smooth, ancient stone veined with shimmering dark minerals, and everything smelled faintly of ash and iron. Twelve robed figures sat in a crescent above us, their expressions u
A Flame in the Shadow Chapter 16
EmberThe forest was changing. Not just the way the trees thickened, but in the way the air shifted. Quieter. The kind of quiet that didn’t mean peace. The kind that watched you back. We were close now. Caelan walked ahead, rigid and silent, like he could muscle his way through the tension coiling
A Flame in the Shadow Chapter 15
EmberIf the city above was a broken crown, then the underbelly was where the rust bled through. The streets of the Ashvein district curled like veins around the city’s rotting heart, pulsing with shadows, smoke, and sins you could smell on the air. The Velvet Coil sat at the center of it all like
A Flame in the Shadow Chapter 14
EmberMaps littered the floor. Old ones, cracked parchment stained with blood and ink, and newer ones Caelan had sketched from memory. The cult’s strongholds. The places Sariyah’s name was whispered in reverent fear. Bastion was in one of them. That much we knew. But Sariyah was no longer just pull
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