Page 74 of The Madness Within

Don’t do this. Don’t fall for him.

But the damage was already done.

Later, I locked myself in the studio he built for me, my private space. It was too thoughtful. Too perfect. Everything in here saidI see youin the ways I’d spent a lifetime pretending I didn’t want to be seen.

Dead Wrongwas live in five minutes. My podcast had become a lifeline, even if Dorian insisted I never worked alone.

Not since… Everything.

The first few callers were nothing unusual. A woman who believed her dog was possessed. A man who thought his neighbor was harvesting souls in his basement.

Then the fifth call came through.

Static crackled. Then silence. Then… “Hello, Ember.”

I froze.

I knew that voice. But it couldn’t be. Itshouldn’tbe.

“Mom?” My voice cracked.

But it wasn’t her. Not truly. Just a distortion of her voice, masked by magic or memory, I couldn’t tell.

“You think you’re running a show,” the voice rasped. “But you’re running from the truth. Your mother didn’t die the way you think. She was hiding. Protecting something.”

My skin crawled.

“Protecting you. Because you’re not just her daughter, Ember. You’reher legacy. A Watcher, just like she was.”

“What the hell is a Watcher?” I whispered.

But the call cut out. Dead silence. Nothing but the buzz of the mic and my pulse screaming in my ears.

That night, I dreamed of her.

My mother stood at the edge of a cliff, wind tossing her dark hair, her eyes filled with sorrow.

She looked like she did the day I last saw her, like someone running from something I never understood.

“Ember,” she said, her voice distant and breaking. “You must understand. I didn’t want this for you. But you were always meant to carry it.”

“What isit?” I asked, desperate.

“You’re a Watcher,” she whispered. “And he, Dorian, he can help you. If you let him.”

I tried to step toward her, but she began to fade. Her hand reached out, mouth still moving as her form turned to mist.

I jolted awake, drenched in sweat, Dorian’s arms already pulling me tighter against his chest.

I didn’t say anything.

I couldn’t.

Because now, I didn’t just want him. Ineededhim. Not for protection. Not even for the sex.

But for the truth.

Whatever I was… He was the only one who could help me understand it.

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