Page 59 of Claimed By Flame

Cassian didn’t answer. Because she was right.

It hadn’t just been fear. It had been somethingelse—something deeper. The whispering.

The pull.

The Hollow didn’t just want his blood. It wantedhim.

“I’m fine,” he lied.

Seraphine narrowed her eyes. “You’re a shit liar.”

“Only with you.”

She leaned closer. “What’s going on, Cass?”

He looked at her and saw everything he’d ever wanted. Firelight dancing in her eyes. Anger masking fear. Love she wouldn’t speak aloud.

He couldn’t let her know. Not yet.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” he said. And that’s when the shadows flickered.

The shard pulsed again. And she was there.

Mirael.

No longer just a memory.

She stood at the far end of the chamber, veiled in black, her Hollowborn body shimmering with coalesced nightmares.

Seraphine hadn’t seen her yet. But he had.

Only him.

Mirael smiled.

“Getting closer, little fire. But you’re still clinging to things you can’t keep.”

He stood slowly, ignoring Seraphine’s confusion.

“You’ve seen your end. You know. Yet still you burn for her.”

He clenched his jaw. “You don’t get to use her against me.”

Mirael tilted her head.“I don’t have to. You’ll do that all on your own.”And then she vanished.

Seraphine touched his arm. “Cass?”

He didn’t meet her eyes. He just picked up the shard. And walked away. Because the voices were louder now. And one of them sounded too much liketruth.

TWENTY-FIVE

SERAPHINE

The silence between them could’ve split mountains.

Seraphine walked with her eyes ahead, boots crunching over brittle stone and frost-laced grass. The wind had teeth up here—sharp and wild, howling through the trees like it knew their names.

She could feel the weight of him behind her. Could hear every ragged breath he didn’t want her to notice. The fifth shard pulsed from his belt, warm and steady like a second heart, but not alive. Not really.

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