Burning Bright Novels & Stories

"Don't bother inviting Joshua to the funeral. I don't want him anywhere near it. Our bond just wasn't meant to last in this life, Rue. It'd be great to see you again if there's life after this." My eyes went wide as I watched that frail figure leap from the 17th floor. "Margaret!" I screamed in pain. At the same time, I could hear the familiar wail of fire sirens.

My thoughts kept circling around Zinnia, and I kept pushing those thoughts away. Suddenly, a poem popped into my head; In my head, I am fighting fire with fire. The flames are getting bigger and brighter. I can hear it crashing. I can feel it burning. I am tossing, and I am turning. I am burning, and I am screaming. I am crying out for help. Why are they not putting the fire out? They are making it bigger. It is burning faster. I can feel it spreading through my body. Why are they making it worse?

Boris said and took out a small-sized box from the briefcase. He showed us the small round mimic lenses, which looked perfectly normal. "So, I call this the Smart Cullen lenses. As you can see, it looks like a regular contact lens, but if I don't tell you, you wouldn't know that. It has a tiny camera for video recording; you just have to blink twice to activate it. It has a microphone and transmitter. And a tiny battery in case it dies." Dashiell spoke up immediately, "And, since Aunt Maggie is Damian's newest partner, she would wear it to lead us to him, right?"

The sound of fire was distant and threatening, though no flames were visible. I turned around. Everything around me was ablaze. People were running, fleeing, screaming. Children ran inside houses—children who, like me, wore the same white uniform, marked with the same insignia. The uniform was no longer white; it was stained with blood. Merlin stood a few meters away, holding a burning torch. Her face was not angry. It was calm, eerily blank. — Why? — my voice was childlike, pleading. Merlin looked right through me and hurled the torch onto the porch. The fire devoured the wood with the hunger of a living beast.

Not even Damien Von Adler. I turned off the kitchen light, leaving the flowers in the glow of the city. They were beautiful. They really were. But even stars burn out.

He snapped furious, “I didn't ask to lose a fucking leg. I didn’t ask to live with the constant fear of stepping wrong and hurting myself or the pain that invades me after something like that. I didn't ask for the nightmares that refuse to leave my dreams. Do you have any idea how horrible it is to have a fucking nightmare and end up on the floor because you forget you're missing a leg because you wake up and try to get up? I hate it, Vivienne. I hate it! I didn't ask for this!” “You didn't ask for it, but you did look for it,” I replied, my words stunning him. “You looked for it when you decided to be a firefighter, Jacob. You looked for it on every rescue you went to, in every fire. The fa

“Enjoy it while it is hot.” I stiffened, but kept my eyes on her, waiting for her to finish what she wanted to saw. “There’s a little thing about moths,” she continued calmly, almost indulgently. “They’re always drawn to the brightest fire. They always believe that it is going to save them. It is seen as stupid and foolish, but there is no one to actually stop them. If there was, they wouldn’t be as foolish as to try and burn themselves alive.” Her lips curved faintly. “But they always burn once it grows too bright. Just like you will.”

Just a few lines. *I was the flame you all feared. I was the ember no one claimed. But I chose to burn anyway. *And beneath that, scrawled in a child’s messy hand: “We’re still burning. For you.”

Smoke hung in the air, and the room fell into a breathtaking silence. Luna floated, her body bruised and battered. Just as the flame had begun, the smoke moved into her nostrils and began to come out in a rhythm. The amber light surrounded her, moving around like fireflies; it flew above her and stung her in the forehead. Luna's scream echoed around the room; the light passed through her, and from every part it took, scarlet light emitted from it.

The flames of the torch flickered and faded, their vibrant glow extinguished as if swallowed by the void. For a moment, a glimmer of hope sparked within me. The champion’s plans had been thwarted, at least temporarily. But my optimism was short-lived. Before my eyes, the champion of House Black Fire mouthed an incantation of his own, his lips forming words that I could not comprehend. Suddenly, the torch burst back to life, its flames taking on an eerie, otherworldly hue.