The scent of smoke would haunt Melody for the rest of her life.
It had started as a quiet night. The stars blinked gently over the Benson household, nestled at the edge of a small town just beyond the hills. Melody, barely nineteen, had been humming softly as she arranged the last of her mother's dried lavender on the kitchen shelf. The soft voice of her father's laughter drifted in from the sitting room, and her mother's familiar hum echoed with hers - a sweet melody they always sang when peace settled over the house.
That peace shattered with a sudden scream from outside.
Flames erupted without warning - a crashing roar of fire devouring dry wood, smoke curling under doors, windows exploding in the distance. Melody's father yelled her name. Her mother shoved her toward the back door, her eyes wild with terror.
"Run, Melody! Go!"
She didn't want to leave them. She screamed, begged, but her feet moved.
She never saw them again.
The house burned to the ground in less than fifteen minutes. Fire trucks arrived too late. Neighbors held her back as she collapsed in the street, her body heaving with sobs as ashes floated down like snowflakes. Somewhere in that blaze were her parents - the only family she had ever known.
Two Weeks Later
The church bells rang dully in the gray morning air. Melody stood at the edge of her parents' graves, numb, silent, staring at the soil like it might open and let her fall in with them.
She had no one left. No siblings. No close relatives. The bank had already begun seizing the property - her home, her past, all reduced to ashes and legal files.
She had a single bag, one good dress, and fifty cedis in her purse.
Just as the gravediggers began their final shovelfuls of earth, a black car pulled up behind her.
A tall, stone-faced woman in a dark skirt suit stepped out and approached. Her voice was crisp and distant. "Melody Benson?"
Melody blinked, throat dry. "Yes."
"I'm Mrs. Grant. Head housekeeper of the Calloway Estate. Your father once did some work for Mr. Calloway. I've been instructed to offer you a position... as house staff. You'll have food, a room, and wages."
Melody's heart squeezed in her chest. Work. Shelter. A roof.
It felt like begging for survival. But she didn't have the luxury of pride anymore.
"When do I start?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
Mrs. Grant didn't smile. "Immediately."
Later That Day
As the car approached the grand gates of the Calloway Estate, Melody pressed her fingers against the window. The mansion towered in the distance - elegant, enormous, cold. A world completely different from her own.
The gates creaked open, and the car rolled through.
Melody didn't know it yet, but she was about to walk into a house full of secrets, shadows... and a man who would change everything.
Not just her life.
Her heart.
Chapter 1 The day everything burned
23/06/2025
Chapter 2 A job in the mansion
23/06/2025
Chapter 3 A house of secrets
23/06/2025
Chapter 4 A Glimpse of Him
23/06/2025
Chapter 5 Rules of the mansion
23/06/2025
Chapter 6 The servant's quarters
23/06/2025
Chapter 7 The broken prince
23/06/2025
Chapter 8 The first spark
23/06/2025
Chapter 9 The memory mirror
23/06/2025
Chapter 10 The garden of whispers
23/06/2025
Chapter 11 His touch
24/06/2025
Chapter 12 The revelation
24/06/2025
Chapter 13 The key
24/06/2025
Chapter 14 The First Bride
24/06/2025
Chapter 15 Between worlds
25/06/2025
Chapter 16 Hellbound
25/06/2025
Chapter 17 Bone and light
09/07/2025
Chapter 18 Blood and rebirth
09/07/2025
Chapter 19 Heir of the flame
09/07/2025
Chapter 20 Child of the flame
09/07/2025
Chapter 21 Whispers
10/07/2025
Chapter 22 First Threat
10/07/2025
Chapter 23 The Gathering Storm
10/07/2025
Chapter 24 Embers in the Sky
10/07/2025
Chapter 25 Bloody betrayal
10/07/2025
Chapter 26 The voice within
12/07/2025
Chapter 27 Arrival of the council
12/07/2025
Chapter 28 The first trial
12/07/2025
Chapter 29 Trial of Blood
12/07/2025
Chapter 30 The Final trial
12/07/2025
Chapter 31 Beginning of the fire war
14/07/2025
Chapter 32 Crown of fire
14/07/2025
Chapter 33 In flames
14/07/2025
Chapter 34 The book
14/07/2025
Chapter 35 A Storm of Memory
14/07/2025
Chapter 36 The last soulbinder
18/07/2025
Chapter 37 The summit
18/07/2025
Chapter 38 Trial of the Twin Flame
18/07/2025
Chapter 39 Reborn
18/07/2025
Chapter 40 Cradle of Storms
18/07/2025