Page 18 of A Fate in Flames

Then quietly, almost too quietly, she said, “I don’t know.”

The words were like a slap to the face.“What do you mean, you don’t know?”

I shot up from my seat, knocking over the cup of tea.She sucked in a sharp breath and reached for a nearby cloth.

“Leave it!”I snapped, pacing across the room, my bare feet slapping against the cold floor.“How could you not know?You made the bargain!”

She grabbed my wrist, her touch light.

“Elira,please,” she whispered.

“No!”I yanked my hand away, nearly crashing into the low table.I stared at her in disbelief, my chest heaving.“How do younot know?!”

Tears welled in her eyes.

“When she told me, I was still in shock.I could barely hear a word.It was like my mind refused to absorb it.”Her voice wavered, breaking like thin glass.“I caught pieces of what she’d said.Glimpses, but not everything.”

A broken sob escaped her.

I wanted to reach for her.To comfort her, like she had comforted me countless times throughout my life.

But I couldn’t.

I was drowning in unanswered questions—in the weight of something I didn’t yet understand but could already feel looming over me like a curse.

“Okay,” I exhaled, rubbing my temples where a piercing headache was beginning to form, still pacing in a tight circle.“What did you hear?Maybe I can figure it out.”

Silence stretched between us like a fraying thread.My mother stared past me, lost in memories she’d tried to bury for years.

“Something about fire and flames.”

I stopped dead in my tracks.“That’s it?”My voice pitched higher, echoing off the walls.The frustration in my chest was unbearable, tearing me apart inside like a beast desperate to break free.“That’s all you remember?Fire and flames?”

She hesitated, twisting the gold ring on her finger.“And… on your quartered life.”

My brows furrowed as I tried to make sense of her words.“What the fuck does that even mean!”

“I believe—” She swallowed, the sound audible in the tense silence.“I believe whatever the bargain is, it will be called in on your quartered life.”

The words sank in, twisting into place like pieces of a puzzle Ididn’twant to solve.

“Wait.No.” I shook my head, taking a step back.“A quartered life… When I turn twenty-five.”

The room tilted beneath me.

“Tomorrow.”

I met my mother’s gaze and for the first time in my life, saw pure, unfiltered fear.

“SHIT!SHIT!SHIT!”

“Language, Elira.”The reprimand was automatic—hollow.

I snapped my head toward her, my nostrils flaring.

“Are youseriousright now?”I bent down and grabbed the edge of the table, my knuckles white with the force of my grip.

“You bargained with a Jinn—can’t remember what the bargainis, and you’re worried about my language?!”