The Spark Beneath the Ashes
Seraphina’s POV
The kiss haunted me.
Not in the way ghosts did cold, echoing things that left chills on your spine.
No, this was something different. This kiss burned.
It burned through thought and time, through silence and breath. It threaded itself into the very rhythm of my magic. I could still feel it, phantom-like, every time I touched my lips.
Every time I blinked, I saw it again. The moment Rael’s fingers brushed the flame in my palm, the hesitation in his eyes was swallowed by something reckless. The way his lips met mine, searing and fleeting, like a promise neither of us dared to speak aloud.
And now, the air felt heavier.
I avoided him all morning. Skipped the usual sparring drills. Ate alone. Hid in the unused wings of the fortress where the
