Page 32 of The Madness Within

A scar.

Every time I dug deeper, something burned back.

First came the banshee, her mouth sewn shut with silver thread. I paid in blood and breath to pry it open.

“She’s not meant to live,” the banshee rasped, black foam spilling from her lips. “The Gate marked her. The Hollow King wants her back.”

Then came the witch who read time backward. Said she saw Ember wrapped in flame and prophecy, the girl with a scream that split the Veil.

Said she was dangerous.

Said she’d burn us all.

I smiled.

Danger was always my favorite flavor.

I left with more than intel, I left with a name that tasted like prophecy.Ember Carr.It slipped past my lips like a secret I wasn’t meant to know, and now I’d follow it to the girl fate tried to hide.

I found her in the last place I expected, tucked into a shadowed corner of the Stygian Café, laughing quietly behind a chipped porcelain mug like the world hadn’t been hunting her since birth.

The place stunk of burnt coffee and demon residue. Nothing but the damned and the curious come here. The walls breathed softly, like they remembered the last time someone died inside them.

She didn’t see me at first. Too busy scribbling in a leather-bound journal, headphones resting around her neck, one fingernail tapping a rhythm into the wood. The nail’s painted black. Chipped. A single silver ring on her thumb.

She looked…Ordinary.

Until she lifted her eyes.

Then it hit me.

There wasweightbehind them. Old weight. Fire buried under fresh grief. She had seen things she shouldn’t and kept walking anyway.

I slid into the seat across from her like I’d always belonged there.

Her brows shot up. “Excuse me?”

“You’re Ember Carr,” I said, voice low and even, like her name was a password. “I’ve been looking for you.”

She stilled. Not fear. Calculation.

Then she smiled, slow, sharp. Not warm. Not for me. “I don’t do interviews with men who skip introductions.”

“Cassian Black.” I extended a hand I knew she wouldn't take.

Her expression flickered. “If this is about the latest episode of my podcast, my lawyer would advise you to fuck off.”

I grinned, settling back. “Relax. I’m not here to sue you. I’m here to understand you.”

“That makes one of us.”

I studied her. She didn’t squirm under the attention. Good. The girl had backbone. And secrets curled beneath her skin like sleeping vipers.

I watched her like she was carved from starlight, wild, dangerous, and far too beautiful for this broken world. Even in the dark, she burned too brightly to look away from. A wildfire, wrapped in skin and secrets, and gods help me… I wanted to burn.

“You’ve been asking the right questions,” I said. “The kind that get people buried.”

Her lips twitched. “You threatening me, Mr. Black?”

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