Semua Bab The Devil's Obsession: Bab 11 - Bab 16

The palace halls had never felt so cold.Not because of winter, nor absence of flame—but because Seraphina had returned without the fire that had once defined her. She walked through the gilded corridors like a shadow of herself, her steps slow, deliberate. No one dared speak. No one dared meet her eyes.The Flameborn Queen was flameborn no longer.And yet… she had never felt more powerful.Eveline waited by the war chamber doors, her face unreadable. “You shouldn’t be walking this soon.”“I’m not injured,” Seraphina replied.“Not physically,” Eveline said.They stood in silence for a moment before Seraphina opened the doors herself.Inside, the council had already gathered—lords, mages, emissaries. They looked up in unison when she entered. Expectation and fear passed like a wave.She took her seat at the head of the table.Lucien leaned forward first. “We’ve had reports from the eastern front. The ember cultists are retreating. Their connection to the Gate... it’s gone.”Seraphina n

Aria lay still in the grand bed, her body enveloped in silk sheets that clung to her skin like a second touch. The moonlight filtered through the heavy velvet curtains, casting a bluish glow over the ornate furniture and gothic carvings. Everything felt too large for her — the bed, the room, the presence pressing in from every corner of the Devil’s estate.But what unsettled her most was not the room. It was him.Lucian.She could feel his gaze even when she couldn’t see him. She had asked him to leave earlier — begged, even. She needed space. Time to think. To process what had just happened between them.Because everything had changed.Their kiss had been a firestorm, igniting something primal in both of them. What followed had been as breathtaking as it was terrifying — like being possessed, devoured, unmade. She had never felt so exposed, so powerless, yet so alive. And now, in the silence of the aftermath, her thoughts buzzed like static in her skull.Her fingers brushed the spot

The portal spat them out into a windswept clearing surrounded by towering obsidian trees. Moonlight filtered through their skeletal branches, casting eerie shadows on the frost-glazed earth. Aurora stumbled forward, boots crunching against the silver grass as she caught herself on Lucien’s arm.He steadied her. “We’re in the outskirts of the Hollow Lands. They won’t find us easily here.”Aurora’s breath came out in visible puffs. “It’s freezing.”Without a word, Lucien shrugged off his long black coat—tailored from heavy wool and lined with deep crimson silk—and draped it around her shoulders. The coat swallowed her whole, the scent of him clinging to its collar—cedarwood, fire, and the faintest trace of something sinful.She clutched it tighter, unsure whether the shiver in her bones came from the cold or his nearness.Cassian appeared behind them, swiping stray leaves off his velvet waistcoat. “Nice landing. Next time, warn me before you drag me through the tear like laundry.”Lucie