Page 97 of Lost in Fire

The confession drives pain deeper into my soul. He doesn’t know. Doesn’t understand that every choice I’ve ever made has led to this moment. That loving him means destroying him, that saving our daughter requires his death.

Forgive me.

I draw breath, feeling fire build in my throat like molten metal. The chamber falls silent except for Ember’s muffled sobs and the whisper of air filling my lungs. Time stretches, each heartbeat an eternity as I aim for his chest, knowing exactly how much fire it will take, how long he’ll survive—

I release the flames.

“Mom, please don’t do this!” Ember’s voice cracks across the space between us. “Please, there has to be another way!”

But there isn’t. There never was.

Dragonfire erupts from my throat in a concentrated stream, white-hot and merciless. It engulfs Hargen completely, turning his form into a writhing silhouette against the blaze. His scream tears through the chamber—raw, agonized, the sound of flesh meeting fire—and something inside me dies listening to it.

The scent hits me next. Burned skin, charred cloth, the copper tang of blood flash-boiling in an instant. My dragon instincts recoil even as I maintain the flow of flame.

How long? How much?

Each second stretches his suffering, but stopping too soon means Vex will demand I continue.

“Dad!” Ember’s shriek pierces the roar of fire. “Mom, no, please no!”

I force myself to keep breathing flame, to watch the man who held me through countless nightmares burn because I’m too much of a coward to let our daughter die instead. The chains holding him glow red hot, but they don’t melt. Syndicate steel, designed to withstand dragonfire.

Designed to make him suffer longer.

Finally, mercifully, Hargen’s body goes limp. The screaming stops. I cut off the flames and stare at what I’ve done—what I’ve had to do.

“Excellent,” Vex purrs from his safe distance. “You served your clan well, and—”

The words die in his throat.

Pressure builds in the chamber like the moment before lightning strikes. Magic crackles along the walls, making my scales. I spin around just as the first chain around Ember’s wrist shatters with a sound like breaking glass.

Her eyes glow molten gold. Not dragon-gold. Something else.

Somethingmore.

“You’ve made your last mistake,” she says, and her voice carries harmonics that shouldn’t exist—dragon resonance layered with witch-song, power given vocal form.

Another chain snaps. Then another. The guards flanking her step back, hands moving to weapons, but they’re already too late.

Vex’s face goes white. “Impossible. The suppression chains were designed specifically for—”

“For dragons. For witches.” Ember rises to her feet, the last chain falling away like discarded jewelry. “But not for both.”

Power erupts from her in visible waves. Her form shifts—not the clean transformation of a purebred dragon, but something unprecedented. Scales shimmer across her skin in patterns that follow witch-line tattoos I’ve never seen. Her eyes burn with twin flames, one dragon-gold, one witch-silver.

The nightmare every purist faction has spent centuries trying to prevent stands before us in all her terrifying glory.

“Abomination!” Vex stumbles backward, gesturing frantically at his guards. “Contain it! Kill it if you have to!”

Ember’s laugh sends ice through my bones. “You think you can stop me now?” There’s murder in her eyes. “After what you’ve done to us? You think anything can stop me?”

She moves too fast for human eyes to follow. One moment she’s twenty feet from Vex, the next she’s in front of him, claws wreathed in witch-fire tracing across his chest. He screams and falls, his ceremonial robes smoking where she touched him.

The room explodes into chaos.

I roar with rage, the sound reverberating through the chamber loud enough to shake the pillars. Syndicate guards pour toward my daughter from every direction. In dragon form, I sweep my tail across the floor, sending the first wave flying like scattered pins. My wings create buffeting winds that knock others off their feet as I position myself protectively near my child.

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