Chapter– The Girl of Fire and Silence

My ears rang.

It wasn’t from gunfire or the howling winds clawing at the broken windows—it was from her scream.

That unearthly sound, raw and burning, fractured the glass around her containment chamber and ignited the very air. It echoed through the estate, weaving between crumbling marble and shattered chandeliers.

Lucien pulled me back behind the terrace column. “Adeline—look at me. Don’t run to her yet.”

But I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

The girl in the capsule.

She couldn’t have been older than seven. Her small fingers trembled as they reached upward, coated in glowing embers that danced across her skin...