The Flame Within

The fire that lives under her skin is no longer golden.It is black.It is hungry.It remembers every betrayal, every scream, every grave that was dug for her kind centuries ago.When it rises, cities do not burn; they simply cease to have ever existed. One touch from her fingers and flesh blisters, bone blackens, memories turn to ash.One look from her eyes and men fall to their knees, weeping for sins they haven't committed yet. She is trying so hard to stay human.She is failing. And still, in the midnight hush of a dying world, one man steps into the radius of her heat and refuses to run. Kael Draven was sent to kill her.He was forged for it—blade, bloodline, oath.But the first time her burning hand closed around his wrist, something inside him ignited that had nothing to do with pain.Now he carries her brand beneath his skin like a secret vow, and every night he dreams of the moment he will have to choose:drive the dagger home, or let her drag him into the inferno with her. Inside Asera, something ancient is stretching awake.Nyra.A voice made of funeral pyres and lovers' last breaths.She whispers promises of freedom written in rivers of fire, of a world remade in Asera's image.And the worst part?Asera is starting to listen. Love, in this story, is not salvation.It is the wick.It is the match.It is the last breath before the blaze. So come closer, reader.Feel the heat on your face.Listen to the crackle of a heart breaking open.But remember:once you step into the radius of a black phoenix,there is no walking out unburned. Some fires are meant to destroy the world.Some loves are the reason they do. Are you brave enough to turn the page…or will you let the flames take you first?