Chapter 140

Kaelen

Fire has always felt like certainty to me.

Predictable. Honest. It burns or it doesn’t. It destroys or it warms. It obeys strength and punishes hesitation. Fire never lies about what it is.

That’s why bringing Maren here should have felt like relief.

It doesn’t.

The firehouse looms ahead of us through the early dawn haze, red doors closed, the building quiet in that deceptive way that only