Page 43 of Lost in Fire

The front door unlocks with its familiar soft click. Inside, the house smells like the lavender and the Earl Grey tea Ember favors and the faint ozone trace of magic carefully contained.

“Mom?” Her voice carries from the living room before I’ve even hung up my coat. “You’re back early. Is something wrong?”

Something wrong.Of course she can sense it. The careful mask I’ve worn for decades is cracking, and Ember has always been sensitive to the emotions I try to hide.

I pause in the entryway, suddenly aware of how heavy my coat feels. How the familiar space seems to pulse with unspoken truths.

“I’m fine,” I say, although I’m really not.

She appears in the doorway, laptop balanced against her hip, those deep brown eyes studying my face with unsettling intensity. “Really? You look like something fundamental just shifted. Like the world changed while you were gone.”

It did.

“We need to talk.” The words come out steady, though my pulse races. “About your father.”

Ember goes completely still. The laptop slides from her hip, and she catches it automatically, never breaking eye contact. “Now? Not on my birthday? You said after my birthday—”

“I can’t wait anymore.” I move into the living room, our familiar space suddenly feeling like a stage set for the most important performance of my life. “What I’m about to tell you changes everything.”

She sinks onto the couch, setting the laptop aside with shaking hands. Her face cycles through emotions—hope, fear, anger, confusion. “You’re serious.”

“More serious than I’ve ever been about anything.” I take the chair across from her, the same one where I’ve deflected her questions about heritage and bloodlines and the father she believes died a hero. “Your father isn’t dead, Ember.”

“What?” The question barely qualifies as sound.

“He never died. The story I told you—about him sacrificing himself for our bloodline—it was a lie.” I feel like the words are torn from me. “I lied to you about everything.”

She stares at me for heartbeats that stretch into forever. When she speaks again, her voice carries a tremor that makes my chest ache. “He abandoned us?”

“No!” The denial explodes from me because it couldn’t be further from the truth. “He never abandoned you.” I pull in a breath. “He never knew you existed.”

“I don’t understand.”

I close my eyes, gathering the courage for confessions I’ve never allowed myself to voice. When I open them again, Ember’s face reflects such a desperate hunger for truth that it breaks my heart.

“Your father’s name is Hargen Cole,” I begin, each word measured and deliberate. “He works for the Aurora Collective—an organization advocating for peaceful integration of dragons into human society. Our relationship was forbidden by every law of Ivory League society.”

“Because he’s not an Arrowvane?” Her voice carries careful understanding.

“Because he’s not dragon at all.” The distinction matters in ways she doesn’t understand yet. “He’s witch.”

She rocks back against the couch cushions, eyes wide with shock.

“Witch?” The question comes out strangled. “But you said—you told me I was pure dragon. That my bloodline was ancient, powerful—”

“Your dragon bloodline is ancient and powerful.” I lean forward, desperate to make her understand. “The Arrowvane family has maintained genetic purity for millennia. But you’re not just dragon, Ember. You’re half witch.”

“That’s impossible.” She stands abruptly, striding to the window with sharp, restless movements. “My magic—it’s dragon magic. Fire and transformation and—”

“And healing that shouldn’t exist in dragon bloodlines.” The truth cuts through her denial. “And empathic sensing that’s purely witch-born. And it’s why your fire sometimes burns cold instead of hot.”

She freezes at the window, her reflection ghostlike in the dark glass.

“You’re hybrid,” I continue gently. “The living proof that two magical bloodlines can create something new. Something unprecedented.”

“Something forbidden.” Her voice sounds hollow.

“Something magnificent.” The words carry every ounce of maternal pride I’ve held back since she was born. “You’re brilliant and powerful and beautiful, and you exist because love can create miracles even in the darkest circumstances.”

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