MasukShare
Chapter 34 Hail's POV:
Terakhir Diperbarui:
2025-05-19 01:11:43
Bab terbaru
Ashes to Desire Chapter 40 Hail's POV:
I could feel her next to me, closer than breath, further than memory.She hadn’t looked at me since she burned Dain’s name from the stone.Not really. And maybe that was for the best because I didn’t know what she’d see if she did. Not the man she remembered from another life. Not the soldier. Not the protector.Just me. Flawed. Bound. Cursed.The tunnel stretched on in a line of shadow and silence. Lena had moved up ahead to scout, which left Ember and me walking side by side but miles apart.“Are you angry with me?” she asked, voice low but steady.“No,” I answered a little too quickly.“You’re lying.”I stopped. She stopped too, turning to face me. There was a glint of defiance in her eyes, but it wasn’t cruel. It was searching.I sighed and scrubbed a hand through my hair. “I’m not angry, Ember. I’m… unsettled.”“Because of Dain?”“Because of everything.” I looked at her, really looked. “You’re remembering more with every step, and I’m standing here trying to pretend I don’t feel
Ashes to Desire Chapter 39 Ember's POV:
His name was carved in the stone. Over and over again.Dain Castros.I knelt beside the weathered column, my fingertips tracing each letter like they might whisper something if I just touched them the right way. They didn’t. They were silent. Still. Cold.But the ache in my chest told me enough.He’d been here. Or someone had written his name to lure me. Either way, it worked.Hail stood just behind me, silent but tense, a living statue with one hand on his blade. I didn’t need to look at him to know what he was thinking. What if this was a trap? What if we’d walked straight into it?“What does it mean?” Lena asked from the shadows.I shook my head. “It means he remembers.”I didn’t say the rest.It means he’s playing with me.The stone didn’t lie. There was no mistaking the etchings, old but deliberate. It repeated like a prayer. Or a curse. Over and over, Dain Castros. Dain Castros. Dain Castros.My hand curled into a fist. My breath caught in my throat.This was a message. Not to H
Ashes to Desire Chapter 38 Hail's POV:
The tunnel closed around us like the throat of some ancient beast. Wet stone. Iron stink. Everything too narrow, too dark. It wasn’t fear crawling along my spine, it was memory. Places like this always reminded me of the worst things I’d done.Behind me, Ember’s breath echoed, uneven but steady. Lena moved ahead, her steps confident and silent. I took up the rear, knife drawn, eyes locked on every ripple of shadow that didn’t move as it should.I should have been focused on the threat behind us. The Order. The way their red eyes burned through the dark like knives. But my thoughts wouldn’t let me.I kept seeing Ember. The way she looked at me before everything went to hell. The way she reached for me like I wasn’t a weapon, but something worth holding onto. I’d felt that heat between us before, but this was different. This was real. Tangled in memory and longing and something older than either of us wanted to name.And that was what scared me.Because I didn’t deserve it.I’d been a k
Ashes to Desire Chapter 37 Ember's POV:
I woke before the sun. Not that much of it is left these days. The clouds hung heavy, thick with ash and smoke, like even the sky feared what was coming.Hail was awake, too. He didn’t speak or move, but I felt him watching me.Neither of us dared to talk about what had happened, not yet. It was too fragile, too complicated. I didn’t even know what to call it. Desire? Comfort? Something older than both?All I knew was that the way he looked at me still lingered in my bones.I sat up, pulling the rough blanket tighter around my shoulders, and stared out the window. The warehouse was quiet, too quiet. Even Lena was silent, somewhere beyond the far wall, maybe giving us space, perhaps just avoiding the inevitable.My skin tingled, and not from the cold. My power felt different now, like it had finally woken up—not just to burn but to see and feel.And gods, it felt everything.The trees outside rustled. Or maybe that was something else.I closed my eyes, breathing deeply, and listening.
Ashes to Desire Chapter 36 Hail's POV:
I couldn’t sleep.The others were still. Lena curled near the door, knife beneath her fingers. Ember lay farther off, her back to me, but I could feel the heat of her even from here. Not her fire, though that simmered, too, but her presence. Alive. Awake. Thinking. Just like me. I shifted against the wall, elbows on my knees, staring into nothing. My body was tired, sore in places I didn’t even know could ache, but my mind refused to rest. I kept seeing her face—flushed, fierce, vulnerable, beneath mine. The way her lips parted, not in pain but in surrender. The way she’d pulled me in like I was the only steady thing she could anchor to. I hadn’t meant for it to happen like that. Hell, I hadn’t meant for it to happen at all. But the moment had swallowed us whole. And I hadn’t wanted to be strong. Not with her. Not then. Now, in the silence after, I couldn’t stop asking myself what I’d done. Not out of guilt. Not regret. Something worse. What if she saw it differently? What if it ha
Ashes to Desire Chapter 35 Ember's POV:
The quiet after the fire was always the hardest part.I lay there, my skin still warm from the energy I’d released, every nerve humming like it hadn’t decided whether to rest or burn again. My thoughts didn’t settle either; they just spun, pulling fragments of memory and flashes of lives I wasn’t meant to remember, not like this.They weren’t just dreams anymore. They were real. Tangible. Mine.And there were so many of them.Not ten. Not twenty... hundredsFaces, voices, emotions, all layered beneath my skin like buried embers. I saw Dain in more than a few of them, and his smile was different every time. In some lives, he was a protector. In others, he was something closer. And in every version, there was one constant: his betrayal came too soon. I pressed a hand to my chest, half expecting to feel the weight of all those lives physically pushing against my ribs. I’d told Hail once that this started when I was seventeen. But I was wrong. So wrong.Seventeen was just the age I remem
Ashes to Desire Chapter 34 Hail's POV:
The warehouse settled into an uneasy quiet as Ember's power receded. The metal that had glowed moments before now ticked softly as it cooled, like a mechanical heartbeat counting down to something inevitable. Lena had retreated to the far corner, ostensibly to keep watch, but the knowing glance she cast over her shoulder told me she was giving us space. Ember and I remained where we were, her hands still in mine, the burns on my palms already healing, another gift from Malagar I rarely acknowledged. The air between us felt charged, like the moment before lightning strikes, full of potential and promise and danger.I heard Lena's footsteps fade as she climbed back up to the roof access. Her final look wasn't subtle, a raised eyebrow that said she knew exactly what was about to happen and wanted no part in it. I'd thank her for that later, if we survived whatever came next.Something had shifted inside me, a tectonic movement of priorities and needs. For years, I'd lived by a simple cod
Ashes to Desire Chapter 33 Hail's POV:
The air in the warehouse thickened as Ember's power flared. Dust particles ignited in tiny pops of light around her, like fireflies with death wishes. The temperature climbed so rapidly that I could see heat waves distorting the air, making the walls and floor ripple like disturbed water. Metal pipes along the ceiling began to glow dull red, and the concrete beneath our feet radiated heat through my boots. I should have backed away. Every instinct honed through years of hunting creatures exactly like her screamed at me to retreat, to find cover, to reach for the iron-tipped dagger strapped to my thigh. Instead, I moved closer.Lena swore and stumbled backward, her survival instincts sharper than mine. "Hail, what the hell are you doing?"I ignored her. The heat pressed against my skin like physical hands, pushing me back. My eyes watered, and my lungs protested with each breath, but I kept moving forward until I reached Ember. Her entire body glowed now, light pulsing beneath her skin
Ashes to Desire Chapter 32 Hail's POV:
The clang of metal against metal announced Lena's return before I saw her. She dropped down from the roof access with the practiced grace of someone used to moving through a world full of threats. Her face was a mask of neutrality, but the tightness around her eyes told me everything I needed to know. We weren't safe, not really, but we had time for now. She brushed dust from her hands and approached our makeshift camp, her eyes darting between Ember and me with a calculation I recognized all too well."No tail," Lena said, her voice low and steady. "Dain's forces split east and west at the river junction. They think we're still underground." She unstrapped her knife and tucked it into her boot. "But they'll figure it out eventually.""How long?" I asked.Lena's mouth twitched. "Dawn, maybe. If we're lucky."Ember had managed to stand, though she leaned heavily against a support beam. The color was returning to her face, which was both relief and concern. The more she healed, the soon
Anda juga akan menyukai
Asterion
Bryant18.5K DibacaThe Dragon King's Obsession
Kalenca124.1K DibacaDragon King's Human Mate
Tracy Tauro33.4K DibacaSlightly Lazy, Evil, Carefree Cultivator (Book 1)
Magmatide202119.5K DibacaCaution to the wind
Silver46 DibacaFated to the Beast
Mahek_Salvatore17.8K DibacaBlood for the Plague
Mina10.6K DibacaSaving The World Together
Sally1124253.7K Dibaca
