(Caelum Ashborne)
The ember-flame stretched, sharpening into a rough outline of a man’s face—no clear features, just the impression of strong bone and old scars. Eyes like coals. A crown of shadowed horns made of smoke and memory. Heat radiated off the projection with such intensity that the nearby shadows hissed and shrank back, leaving Caelum momentarily exposed.
Arkael Ashborne. Leader of the Emberborn. The man who had taught Caelum to walk on hot stone before he could walk on grass.
“You felt it,” Arkael said. Not a question.
Caelum swallowed. “You sent it hard enough. The entire palace felt it.”
“Not my doing,” his father said. “Hers.”
Her flame, then. Unshaped and wild, reaching for its kin without meaning to.
Caelum forced his voice steady. “She’s in the palace.”
“I know.” T
