After The Fire Book Novels & Stories

A surge goes through my body and I throw myself before the fire place, "Darius, no! wh-why, why did you throw the book into the fire!?" I watch helplessly as the book begins to burn. Taking a hasty move I stick my hand into the flames, trying to grab the book but the heat of the fire consumes my hands and I hiss in pain. Darius grabs onto me, hauling me away from the fire and into his arms. "Fuck, Audrey. What is wrong with you!? Why did you put your hand into the fire, do you not consider you will get burnt!?" My gaze is still fixated on the book as it chips away, the familiar pages folding in burns.

Cassian POV The firefighters were able to put out the fire in the library before it burned down the entire building, but between the flames, the smoke, and the water used to put it out, we lost three-quarters of the books. The head librarian, Marianne, was barely able to hold back her tears at the town meeting when we heard the reports. “We weren’t able to find any source for the fire,” our Fire Chief, Taylor, finished, folding his arms. “No accelerants were found, but the way it spread couldn’t have been natural, either.”

We all surrounded the burning fire, silence creeping into the atmosphere hanging above our heads. "I will definitely miss the real world and being alive." I voice out staring at the burning fire, my eyesight a little bit cloudy. "Yeah. I definitely will." Daniel echoes after me. I breathe in and out then threw the book into the fire. Sounds of someone clapping cut through the solemn silence that was upon us. I looked around in horror searching for the hands that produced the clap. "Did y'all really think I would just vaporize into non existent once the book is burnt??" A horror-ish laughter followed the question revealing the hands responsible for the clap, The evil one.

Every trade secret Malcolm had collected, every piece of leverage David had inherited, and every reason Adrian had fought to return burns down to nothing. Eli reaches out and slides his fingers into Lucia’s hand. She tightens her grip, watching the fire eat through the middle section of the book where her mother’s maiden name was once written. “Every route,” she says quietly, mostly to herself. “Every secret. Gone.” “For good,” David confirms. They stand there together until the fire has fully consumed it, until there’s nothing left but ash settling into the hearth, and something in the air shifts once it’s done, lighter than it’s been in longer than Elias can properly measure. No one speaks

The flames were long since gone. The trees lay scarred and bare, their branches burnt and blackened. The world was made of ash. Yet hope remained. A thin green tendril of life, forged in the heat of flame, emerged from a tiny seed. Another followed quickly. Life sprung from the fertile ground, ready to start the cycle anew. The circle of fire and life continued. ***

Night settled heavy and silent after the fire, as if the world itself was holding its breath. The echoes of flames still danced behind my eyes, a haunting reminder of how close I came to death. The air was thick with ash and memory, and nothing felt the same. Something had shifted. Inside me, around me.

Others carried charts. The argument had split along epistemic lines. — Selene visited a guaranteed zone unannounced. No alarms sounded. The systems adapted. She walked streets where no one hurried. Where schedules aligned without effort. A man smiled at her without recognition. For a moment, she envied him. — In a non-aligned town that night, a fire broke out. Buckets were passed. Decisions shouted. Someone was burned. Someone else was saved. The story spread slower than data. But it spread.

“You can’t protect her from destiny.” “I don’t need to,” I said. “She’ll decide her own.” My claws tore through his chest. The light in his eyes died instantly. I stumbled back, gasping. The fire flickered and died with him. Cara was still chained. I broke the links easily and caught her as she fell forward. Her body trembled, but her eyes met mine with the same fierce spark I’d fallen for. “I told you not to follow me,” she whispered. “And I told you I wouldn’t listen,” I said.

But because my sister, Raven Webster, thought Snowviper was too terrifying to look at, she stole Blazewing for herself. A month later, the whole world turned hotter, and the heatwave apocalypse began. Snowviper's power, just like his name, could lower the temperature within ten feet of him, creating a living shield against the burning world. Blazewing, on the other hand, carried the opposite—heat and fire. Raven took Blazewing, but she died of heat stroke in the heatwave apocalypse, while I survived thanks to Snowviper's cooling power. In her final moments, Raven was convinced I had stolen her husband. She whispered poison into Snowviper's ear, and he killed me.

I hadn't had sex in over a year and I was a starving wolf who had caught a prey but left it for one insignificant being. I trudged around the house, looking for places a bookworm would actually hide. Think, Eli, think! Where would you rather be if you were introverted? "Is there a balcony or a quiet place around here? You know, somewhere far away all the noise." I asked Zayn. I had run into him in the course of looking for Frosty. He pointed me in the direction and I followed. It led me straight to her. Typical bookworm. And from what I noticed, she wasn't far from where Chloe and I just made out. No wonder I caught her scent.