Chapter 4 — Echoes of the Fire

Alternating between Emma and Luka

The early morning mist clung stubbornly to the trees, shrouding the ruins of Luka Hayes’s family estate in an eerie silence. Emma Carter stood at the edge of the overgrown property, her boots scuffing against the moss-covered path as she hesitated. The air felt heavy, not just with moisture but with memory—ashes of the past still clinging to this place like ghosts refusing to leave.

She hadn’t meant to come here. Her restless feet had carried her, as if some invisible thread had pulled her back to the scene she’d avoided for years. What was left of the estate lay skeletal and abandoned, bordered by dense woods that seemed to press closer with every passing year. The blackened remains of beams jutted toward the sky like accusing fingers, clawing desperately for something just out of reach.