LOGINHappy new month, babes! I'm so grateful for you all. Thank you for being here in March with me. You push me more than you know—encouraging me, being my cheerleaders. I don't take it for granted. TRIPLE UPDATE to celebrate! THREE chapters. We're kicking off March with that energy and leaving bad vibes in the dust. For March, I want to try something fun. Gifting gems helps a book rank higher and gain visibility—it's how new readers find us. My goal? 60 gems between March 1st and 6th. That's about 10 daily. Insane? Maybe. But every gem matters. YOUR gift matters. You reading this? You make a difference. One gem might seem small, but it moves mountains. My promise: hit 60 gems before the 6th and I'll do 3-5 chapters daily for 6 days. You show up, I show up harder.
EMBER’S POVDinner comes together faster than I expected — some kind of pasta dish with roasted vegetables and garlic bread that fills the safehouse with smells rich enough to make my stomach cramp with hunger.I didn’t realize how empty I was until the food was in front of me.We eat at the small table, all four of us crammed together, and for a little while it almost feels normal.Like we’re just friends sharing a meal, not fugitives hiding out in a safehouse while enemies circle and conspiracies unravel.Queenie chatters about the Summit, about Rayana holding down the fort, about a hundred small pieces of gossip that don’t matter but help fill the silence.She’s good at that — filling silences. Making spaces feel warmer than they are.Knox sits close to me, his thigh pressed against mine under the table.Every so often his hand finds my knee, squeezes, like he needs to keep reminding himself I’m here. That I’m real. That I didn’t disappear while he wasn’t looking.And I lean into h
EMBER’S POVThe break-in at the penthouse. The flash drive Logan was searching for. The recordings that got leaked to the council — recordings that almost got me sent back to Gale.Nathaniel knowing something about that night, something from years ago, something that Logan now knows too.Something he doesn’t want Knox to be aware of.What is Nathaniel hiding? Did he sell Knox out to Logan? And if so — why? What could possibly be worth betraying the man he’s served for over a decade?My heart hurts for Knox. For this man who trusts so few people and might be about to discover that one of the few he does trust has been lying to him all along.I can’t sit on the other end of the couch anymore. Can’t keep this distance between us when he’s hurting like this.Against his resistance, I crawl across the cushions and into his lap, straddling him before he can stop me.“Ember—”I kiss him, soft and slow, swallowing whatever protest he was about to make.My hands find his jaw, thumbs stroking a
EMBER’S POV“Unless a few council members tattled to Harrison over the years, and Gale got wind of it. Then Gale told him.” He shakes his head. “It’s possible. Gale and Logan were close. But still — the things Logan implied he knew… those aren’t things that should have made it outside that room.”I freeze inside.Because I remember Logan’s break into the penthouse. Tearing through Knox’s office. Searching for something — a flash drive, Nathaniel had said.And suddenly I’m wondering if it’s all connected. The break-in, the secrets, whatever Logan knows that Knox doesn’t.“Is there anything else that happened that night?” I ask slowly, carefully, trying to keep my voice neutral even as my heart pounds. “Anything that could be… damning? Something someone might want to use against you?”Knox shakes his head, frustration bleeding into every line of his body.“I can’t remember. That’s the whole fucking problem, Ember. I don’t even know how Logan knows what he knows, or what exactly he knows
EMBER’S POVIt’s bigger than I expected — industrial, clearly some kind of converted warehouse, but someone has made an effort to make it livable.There’s a couch, a kitchen area, a table covered in papers and tablets and what look like security reports.Knox is standing at the counter with his back to me, dressed in fresh clothes, his hair still damp. He’s gripping the edge of the counter hard enough that his knuckles have gone white.He turns when he hears me.And stops.His gaze travels down my body slowly — the oversized shirt, the bare legs, the obvious lack of anything underneath — and when his eyes meet mine again, they’re burning gold.Then he bolts across the room.One second there’s space between us, and the next he has me pinned against the wall, his hands slamming on either side of my head, his body caging me in completely.“What are you doing?” His voice is a low growl. “Nathaniel is around. You’re going to put on some shorts right now, Ember.”I look up at him through my
EMBER’S POVThe kiss is desperate, consuming, nothing like the gentle comfort from before. This is need. This is hunger.This is two people who almost lost each other trying to prove that they’re still breathing.I reach between us and wrap my hand around his cock and fuck — he’s bigger than usual.Thick and hard and so swollen the veins are bulging under my fingers, the tip flushed and angry and dripping precum down my knuckles.The sound he makes against my mouth is filthy — a tormented sound between a growl and a groan that vibrates through my whole body — and his hips jerk forward, shoving more of that fat cock into my grip like he can’t help himself.I stroke him slowly, feeling every ridge and vein drag against my palm, feeling him pulse and throb in my hand like he’s got a heartbeat there.He’s so big my fingers barely wrap around him. So hard it looks almost painful.“Ember.” My name sounds like a prayer and a warning all at once, his voice tortured. “We shouldn’t—”“Shh.” I s
EMBER’S POVI remember the way he launched himself toward me. The way his body curled around mine, shielding me completely.The way he took arrow after arrow into his own flesh just to keep them from reaching me.“I know,” I whisper. “Thank you. You saved me. You somehow always do.”We sit in the quiet for a while, just breathing together. Then I ask a question that has been at the back of my mind.“What happened after I went out? Where is Harrison? Is he…”Goddess. I hope he was.“Harrison went off the cliff,” he says, his voice hardening slightly. “We haven’t found a body. He might still be alive.”My heart drops.“And Gale?”Something dark and satisfied flickers through his expression.“Well, you handled that yourself, didn’t you? He’s in the basement, and he is barely breathing.”Good, I think, and the coldness of it doesn’t even surprise me anymore.“There’s more.” Knox’s jaw tightens. “The transfer wasn’t random. Harrison didn’t act alone — the custody guards handed Gale over wi







