Ashes of Our Flame
Episode 9: "Collateral Damage"
The night tasted like guilt.
Kara sat on the floor of the safehouse, the black book open beside her, but her mind was still with Adrian. His voice. His touch. The moment his father's gun pointed at her—and he stood in the way.
She clenched her fists.
Adrian Vale had saved her life.
And she left him behind.
---
Tessa stepped in from the kitchen with coffee, her eyes rimmed with fatigue. "Still no update?"
Kara shook her head. "I've checked every channel. Nothing. No arrests. No reports. Nothing."
Tessa sat beside her. "Maybe that's good. If Marcus caught him, we'd have heard something. Maybe he slipped out."
Kara didn't respond. Her eyes drifted back to the book. She'd read every page now—twice. Her mother had been deep undercover, pretending loyalty to Marcus to gather evidence of his criminal empire. But when she tried to come clean… the empire struck first.
There was a list.
People who had helped Elena Voss.
And Kara's name was at the bottom—marked for death.
Tessa leaned in. "We need to leave the city. Get this to the Feds or the press—someone who can take Marcus down."
Kara looked at her. "That's not enough."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm not running again."
"Kara—"
"He still has Adrian. Or worse, Adrian is still protecting him. Either way, I'm not leaving until this ends."
Tessa went quiet.
Finally, she nodded. "Then we take him down. For real."
---
Adrian's jaw throbbed.
He woke up tied to a chair, blood crusted to the side of his face. His head was foggy. Someone had hit him with something blunt. Or maybe just his father's words.
Marcus Vale stood a few feet away, holding a crystal glass of bourbon, untouched.
"You disappoint me," Marcus said, almost bored.
Adrian spat blood on the floor. "That makes two of us."
"You let her take the book."
"She earned it."
Marcus walked forward. "You think this is about romance? She's her mother's daughter. A snake. A liar. A threat."
"You killed her mother."
"I did what was necessary."
"And me?" Adrian asked. "What are you going to do with me?"
Marcus's eyes narrowed. "You're still my son."
Adrian smiled bitterly. "No. I was your heir. Not anymore."
Marcus slammed the glass against the wall. "You think love gives you freedom? That girl is poison. And if you don't cut her out… she'll be your end."
Adrian looked up, eyes burning. "Then let her be."
---
Back at the safehouse, Kara made a decision.
"We need to go back into the Vale tower."
Tessa nearly choked. "Are you insane?"
"There's more. That book—yes, it's evidence. But the tower is where the real secrets are stored. The digital archives, the surveillance logs, the off-shore accounts."
"You want to walk back into hell?"
"I want to burn it," Kara said coldly.
Tessa sighed. "Then we'll need help."
---
Help came in the form of a hacker named Lio, a former Vale techie who'd been fired for knowing too much. He was quiet, twitchy, always chewing on gum, and hated shoes.
Kara met him in an abandoned parking garage.
"You got a death wish?" he asked, glancing around nervously. "Messing with Marcus Vale is a one-way ticket to a body bag."
Kara slid the black book across the table. "What if I have insurance?"
Lio opened the book—and whistled.
"This is big."
"It's not enough," Kara said. "I want everything. I want his empire. His power. His lies—exposed."
Lio leaned back. "You want to bring down the devil himself…"
She met his eyes. "I want to take his throne and burn it."
---
That night, Adrian sat in his room—a room now locked from the outside. Marcus had made it clear: trust was gone.
But that didn't mean Adrian was finished.
He pulled a burner phone from a hidden panel in his bedframe. One he kept in case of emergency.
This was an emergency.
He dialed once.
No answer.
He dialed again.
Finally—
"Kara?" His voice cracked.
Silence.
Then—her voice. Cold. Distant. "You're alive."
"I had to make it look real," he whispered. "I didn't know he'd lock me up."
"You stayed behind."
"I had to. To protect you."
"Don't lie," she snapped. "You didn't stay for me. You stayed for him."
Adrian swallowed. "I'm trying to stop him. But I can't do it alone."
She paused. Then: "Then meet me at the docks tomorrow. Midnight."
Adrian smiled faintly. "You still trust me?"
"No," she said. "But I need you."
The line went dead.
---
Tessa stared at Kara like she'd lost her mind. "You invited him? After everything?"
"I need to know whose side he's on."
"What if it's a trap?"
"Then I'll know."
Midnight came. Fog curled around the docks like fingers dragging the past back to the surface.
Adrian was already there when Kara arrived, hood up, eyes dark.
She approached him slowly.
"You came."
"You called."
Silence.
Then Kara reached into her bag—and pulled out the black book.
Adrian's eyes widened.
"She died because of this," Kara said. "Because she wanted to protect the truth. Your father buried her. And now you want me to believe you're different?"
"I don't want you to believe anything," Adrian said quietly. "I want to prove it."
He reached into his coat and pulled out a flash drive.
"This is everything I could copy from the vault's server before he locked me down. Names. Locations. Transfers."
Kara hesitated. Took the drive.
"You're risking everything."
"I already did. For you."
Their eyes met.
No lies. No masks.
Just two broken people standing in the wreckage of a city built on lies.
"I don't know what we are anymore," Kara whispered.
Adrian stepped closer. "We're ash and fire, Kara. We don't get normal. But maybe… maybe we get to survive."
She didn't kiss him.
She didn't need to.
---
Later that night, Lio decrypted the drive.
Tessa rea
d the files in stunned silence.
"This… this is enough to start a war."
Kara's voice was steel. "Then let's light the first match."
---
To be continued in Episode 10...
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