The Devil's Broken Doll
A woman stepped through it.
Adelaide’s heart stopped.
She was the most beautiful thing Adelaide had ever seen. Tall. Ageless. Her skin shimmered like polished bronze heated from within. Her dress was made of flame itself, curling around her hips and thighs in patterns that seemed familiar—too familiar. Flaming red hair cascaded down her back in a river of flame that sparked with every movement. Eyes golden and burning—ancient, knowing, unbearably sad. A crown of living embers hovered above her brow, drifting and reforming with every slow inhale, each coal pulsing like a tiny, beating heart.