That, more than anything, told me what kind of night this would be. I’d always known he loved the fight in me. I also knew what happened when it faded. If I stopped resisting, if I went still, he didn’t grow gentle.
He grew worse.
He led me into the corridor, and the space changed as we walked. The ceiling rose inch by inch, the walls curving outward, the air widening as if it were drawing a breath. Eventually, the hallway gave way to a chamber carved deep into the ground, larger than the room I’d come from, circular and intentional. The floor was etched with symbols I recognized even if I wished I didn’t.
At its center, a ring lay embedded in the concrete. Stone darkened by age and fire. Around it, shallow channels branched outward in symmetrical arcs. Empty now, but unmistakable.
Fire paths.
My stomach tightened. I didn’t show it. Fear wouldn’t help me here. Butawarenessmight.
“Familiar,” Jasper murmured, though his eyes stayed on me. “The Prophet Gabrial had these hidden all over the place.”
“It brought nothing but pain,” I said. “You dressed it in sacred words to make it look clean.”
He didn’t flinch. “Pain is a language,” he replied. “You always understood it better than the others.”
That wasn’t praise. It was ownership.
He knelt beside the grooves and ran his fingers over the stone with a kind of reverence. “Tonight isn’t about punishment. It’s about alignment. The Flame burns away what doesn’t belong.”
“And if I don’t agree?”
He looked up at me and answered without hesitation. “Agreement isn’t required.”
Of course it isn’t.
He moved to the wall and turned a valve. I heard the hiss before I smelled the fuel—burning, metallic, unmistakable. The liquid filled the channels in quiet ribbons, glinting beneath the low amber lights.
I swallowed once. Controlled. Measured. Still.
“Why send everyone away?” I asked. “You usually like an audience.”
He considered me for a moment, then answered in a voice that held no performance. “Because this isn’t for them. And it’s not for Zach.”
The way he said Zach’s name left no room for interpretation. He had lied to Zach. Used him. Discarded him.
Not that I cared anymore.
“This is for us.”
The lights dimmed further. Shadows stretched long across the walls. Jasper struck a match, and the sound echoed louder than it should have in the hush of the room. For a heartbeat, memory surged, another ring, another night, flames too close, hands blistered and screaming.
But I didn’t let it take me.
I anchored myself in the now. The heat. The stone. The even rhythm of my breath.
The match touched the fuel. Fire bloomed, quick, clean, elegant. It rushed through the circle in a flawless line, closing in on itself until the ring was sealed in flame. The heat pushed outward, folding the air into ripples. The hum beneath us deepened, like a second heartbeat.
Jasper stepped back. Eyes steady. Satisfied.
“Remove your clothes and step inside,” he ordered.
I didn’t.
The flames rose higher. Light flickered across the stone. Sweat beaded along my spine, but I didn’t move. It wasn’t unbearable—yet. This wasn’t execution.
It was ritual.
