Asha's POV; The drive home took twenty minutes. Asha spent most of it with one hand on the wheel and the other pressed flat against her chest, a new habit she'd apparently developed tonight and couldn't seem to stop. The warmth was steadier now than it had been at Ember, less like a pull and more like a presence. Something that had decided it lived there and wasn't particularly interested in her opinion about it. She stopped at a red light and looked at her own eyes in the rearview mirror. Same eyes. Brown, tired, makeup smudged at the corners from a night that had gone sideways before it even properly started. Nothing different. Nothing that explained any of what had happened in the last four hours. The light turned green and she drove. Her street was quiet when she pulled in, the way it always was past midnight on a weeknight. A row of parked cars lining the curb, most of the apartment windows already dark. She found a spot two buildings down and cut the engine, sitting for a m
Last Updated : 2026-02-02 Read more