Ashes to Desire のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 11 - チャプター 20

The city was a predator.It watched, waited, and pressed its weight on anyone foolish enough to wander into its grasp. Even in the rain—or maybe especially in the rain, the shadows seemed sharper, the danger closer.Ember walked a step behind me, her presence an anchor I couldn’t ignore. She was quiet, but I could feel the tension radiating off her.The fight in the apartment had shaken her, no matter how much she tried to hide it.I didn’t blame her.It had been brutal, the kind of fight that stayed under your skin, the blood stubbornly clinging to your hands no matter how many times you wiped them clean.“You’re slowing down,” I said, glancing over my shoulder.She glared at me, her golden eyes sharp even in the dim light.“I’m keeping up.” Stubborn as ever.I nodded and kept walking, my hand resting on the hilt of my blade. Every instinct I had screamed at me to keep moving, but I forced myself to slow down.She wouldn’t say it, but I knew she was nearing her limit.The rain had slo

My arm twitched, a familiar burn crawling beneath the skin like a nest of angry hornets. I clenched my teeth and kept walking. The crumbling avenue stretched before us, a graveyard of concrete and twisted metal bathed in the dying light. Pain was just another companion these days, like the woman with flame-red hair who watched me from the corner of her eye, waiting for me to break.We trudged through what had once been a main street in this forgotten city. Skeletal buildings loomed over us, their windows like hollow eye sockets tracking our progress. Weeds thrived in the asphalt cracks, nature's slow reclamation project. I stepped over a fallen streetlamp, its metal casing split open like a gutted fish."Watch your step," I muttered, not turning back to see if they heard me. The warning was unnecessary. Ember moved with an instinctive grace, and Lena had survived long enough to develop eyes in the back of her head. But old habits die hard, and leading meant responsibility.The mark fl

I perched on the edge of the shattered rooftop, and one boot braced against a chunk of concrete that might give way if I put too much weight on it. Six stories up gave me the vantage I needed, though height advantage meant shit if someone decided to bring the whole building down. The distant fires painted the sky in sick orange smears, turning night into some twisted parody of dawn. My curse throbbed in time with the pulsing flames, as if answering their call.We'd found temporary shelter in an abandoned apartment complex, the kind that had once housed young professionals who paid too much for too little space. Now, it housed rats, dust, and three fugitives trying to stay alive until morning. Ember and Lena were two floors below, going through the intel we'd scavenged from the safehouse. I'd volunteered for the first watch, needing space to think. To breathe.The city stretched before me like a broken chessboard, some areas still standing, others reduced to rubble. Streetlights functi

We reached the rooftop, and there he was, Hail crouched over a woman, his gun pressed tight against her temple. Her dark braid was frayed and matted with blood. She was glaring up at him with a defiance that didn’t match her position.Lena and I skidded to a stop, barely catching our breath.“Who is she?” I whispered, but Hail missed my words. His expression was stormy, focused. The woman didn’t struggle, but something about the way she held herself, calm and calculating, made my skin crawl. Her eyes weren’t panicked or pleading. They were waiting.“Hail, let her go,” I said, my voice low but firm, each word weighted with warning as I took a step forward.But before I could move any closer, Lena’s hand shot out, catching my arm with a grip that was strong and unyielding. Her fingers pressed hard, a silent signal that spoke louder than words.Not yet.I turned to her, my heart pounding against my ribs, but the look in her eyes stopped me. It wasn’t just caution. It was fear.“Look at h

The footsteps grew louder, echoing off the tunnel walls like the beating of war drums. I pressed myself against the damp concrete, every muscle coiled tight, my hand hovering over the blade strapped to my thigh. Beside me, Ember's breathing quickened, shallow but controlled, the discipline of someone who'd faced death before, even if she couldn't remember it. The mark on my arm pulsed with dark energy, a compass needle pointing straight toward the approaching threat. Toward Dain."Move," I whispered, nudging them toward a narrow side passage I'd spotted moments before. "Quietly."Lena slipped into the darkness without a sound, her movements as fluid as water. Ember hesitated, her amber eyes fixed on my face for a heartbeat too long before following. I brought up the rear, every sense heightened to painful clarity, the distant drip of water, the stale copper tang of old pipes, the smell of wet stone, and something else. Something burned.The side passage narrowed further, barely wide e