But Thalen knew me too well. If he wanted a second chance, he’d have to earn it. Slowly. Steadily. Because one wrong move, and I’d shut the door on him for good.
I lingered in the silence after Thalen left, the ghost of his almost-kiss still warm on my skin. Then I opened the door and stepped inside.
The room was as quiet as the halls outside.
Even Soehl’s bed sat empty. She was out in Wolventon with the twins, Shakari, and the otherfirst-years, probablylaughing over drinks and pretending we didn’t live behind stone and steel.
I hadn’t earned that freedom.
I hadn’t beaten anyone in the Hall of Mirrors. I hadn’t earned the right to leave Elarion’s walls.
I peeled off nothing, not even my uniform, still clinging to my skin with sweat and collapsed onto my bed.
Sleep took me like a tide pulling me under.
And the nightmare, like many that hunt me at night, came fast.
The world was on fire.
Not hearth-fire. Not candlelight.
Real fire. Wild, hungry, and merciless.
Flames leapt from rooftop to rooftop, moving faster, hotter, as if the blaze had intent. It didn’t just spread. It hunted.
The town was small, poor and worn and somewhere I didn’t recognize. Its crooked streets spilled toward a pale curve of sandy soil barely visible through the wall of smoke. The air stank of scorched timber, and something worse, charred flesh.
The wind blew hot enough to blister skin and strip the breath from my lungs. Emberkeep guards moved through the chaos, yanking people from their homes, inspecting them one by one like livestock. Looking for something. Or someone.
Screams tore into the air.
A female’s voice echoed from every direction, begging and sobbing for her child. A man stumbled through the smoke, coughing black ash, dragging the female from a crumbling doorway half-swallowed by flame.
I didn’t know her.
Grief ripped through me, sudden and electric, violent as a lightning strike. I screamed, as if I were losing someone I loved. As if it were my fault.
She was covered in burns.
Still begging, pleading that her child was still inside. Then her voice vanished. She died in his arms.
The male didn’t cry. He made no sound, just held her as the fire consumed her body. His face was shadowed, but I saw his eyes catch the moonlight, shining with something deep and unbearable. Pain beyond language.
Then he screamed.
A roar of fury, hate, and helpless rage that split the sky itself.
And just like that, his eyes stopped shining.
Behind him, a tall figure stepped out of the smoke. An Emberkeep uniform, an Emberkeep guard like those from the Glass Castle.
The grieving man didn’t rise. Didn’t lift his head.
He was buried in his sorrow, holding what remained of her.
And the Emberkeep guard didn’t hesitate.
He raised a hand and hurled a fireball, burning him alive.
