Mystery Burns Novels & Stories

“ When I was about seven years old tragedy struck and our house was set ablaze due to a fault in the wiring. Mom picked my younger sister up who was three years old at that time and my father carried me out quickly. She told us to stand at a safe distance near the gate and asked me to watch over my sister while they went in to get some important documents. My younger sister suddenly remembered that her favorite doll was inside and she managed to get out of my hold. Before I could understand what was happening she had already gone in. I ran inside, trying to catch hold of her but I slipped. Finally, I found her in her room with her doll. She was not ready to come with me but I wrapped her in

She couldn't finish the thought. Jullie knelt beside her. "Jane, listen to me. This is just the beginning. The locket is the first step. It proves that the fire was no accident. The forensic lab confirmed it. There were trace amounts of a unique accelerant on it, one that's tied to organized crime."

Elder Fest said smiling. “Has Tumult’s room been searched too?” Elder Fest asked. “Yes, and everything we found in his room is there,” I said, pointing at the pile. We agreed to test if Elder Fest was right that it was inflammable so Maureen closed her eyes and concentrated on summoning fire. It had been a long time since she last did it and I was a bit worried if she could still do it. I smiled when her hair began to glow and she opened her eyes as fire danced on the tip of her fingers before she sent it into the pile. The first bottle that was hit by the fire burst open, and gradually, the fire started burning as if fuel was being poured on it.

Then without warning, the air carries a burnt scent. Smoke stings my eyes instead of warm woodsmoke. Burning paper mixes with something sour - like melted bindings. Light shifts, first amber, then deep crimson, flickering like breathless pulses. A wave rolls across the skin, thin and harsh, nothing gentle about it. Far off, fire hisses like starving teeth while voices yell into the smoke. A hammer hits inside my skull, each blow drilling through the back of my sight. Smoke first. Then flames reached the Royal Archives. Not just any room - the west wing burned. Those old land grant scrolls? Gone. The ones needed for the Rothmere case disappeared in ash.

My heart slammed hard once against my ribs. Not fear. Not panic. Recognition. I stepped forward instantly, lifting my hand with calm precision. With a snap of my fingers— The flames vanished. Gone. Like they had never existed. Smoke curled faintly into the air, leaving behind the sharp smell of burned fabric and lingering heat clinging to the curtains. Silence fell over the room. Heavy. Unbelieving. Slowly… very slowly… I turned my head toward Adrian. The boy blinked sleepily in Maureen’s arms, his tiny lashes fluttering as if nothing unusual had just happened—as if he hadn’t nearly burned down half the nursery with a single sneeze.

His face was scrunched up in an expression that was either confusion or shock… or the combination of both and I braced myself because I knew that the worst was yet to come. “The only problem right now is the fact that we still cannot ascertain the exact time of her death because an unknown chemical which has traces of silver nitrate and something else in it had been used to burn her corpse… not beyond recognition but as a means of erasing evidence.” He finished and I gasped in shock. “Did it really end up erasing all the evidence then?” Elder Liam asked this time and I could only shake my head at him because the doctor had just talked about all evidence being erased.

“Stay here.” I immediately followed him. “Althea,” he warned. “You agreed I could speak to my people,” I said. “This is not speaking.” “This is walking.” Shaun muttered something that sounded like a prayer. We approached the entrance, stopping at the safety line. The firefighter came out holding a partially burned metal canister sealed inside a plastic evidence bag. “Accelerant,” he said. “Found near Section C.” My stomach dropped. So it wasn’t an accident. Alexander’s face went dangerously still. “Anything else?”

Just stumbled away, leaving nothing behind but silence and the echo of his fear. And for the first time since I’d walked into that mall, my pulse finally slowed—just enough. I snapped my visor shut, sealing out the store’s stale air. Behind me, Kaden was likely hyperventilating into the phone with 911 dispatch, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. I walked through the mall with a measured stride, the heavy thud of my shoes cutting through the ambient noise. I paused just long enough to let a couple of girls snap a selfie with the "mystery guy in the helmet"—I’ll never understand the obsession, but I’m not one to turn down the ego boost.

she said firmly, her voice taking a chastising tone. "No, this is exactly the time," I interjected stubbornly. "I saw fire today. Once you light a fire, it has to burn and it doesn't care if this is the time or place. Fire either burns brightly or it fizzles into nothingness and smoke. Without the fire, there is no light. So, are you two burning or fizzling?" I demanded. I wanted an answer. Andrew looked at me, and I shrugged. I might be confused from the drugs, but it had sounded poetic in my head.

It was funny how I'd been kept in the dark for five years, as I'd fallen for her claim of wanting to keep a low profile again and again. It wasn't that she didn't want to celebrate it. It was that I didn't deserve to be celebrated. With my eyelids drooping and my breathing growing faint, the paramedic started crying out of desperation. Seeing how bloody I was and how close I was to death, she borrowed an electric scooter from a kind stranger and rushed me out of the ambulance. We were so close to the venue that I even heard Brandon ask, "Babe, what's that thing on the scooter? It's gross…"