Chapter 27: The Bargain of Bone and Flame

Fire kissed his skin like memory.

Not to burn

but to remind.

Yousef gasped as he pulled himself from the ash. His hands bled. His robe smoked. His breath came in ragged sobs, as if he had been reborn not through a mother but through a furnace. The perfect city was gone. So was cia . So was the boy.

Only the mirror remained whole once more buried in the dir…