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Chapter 1 The day everything burned

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.

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Chapters
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1

Chapter 1 The day everything burned

23/06/2025

2

Chapter 2 A job in the mansion

23/06/2025

3

Chapter 3 A house of secrets

23/06/2025

4

Chapter 4 A Glimpse of Him

23/06/2025

5

Chapter 5 Rules of the mansion

23/06/2025

6

Chapter 6 The servant's quarters

23/06/2025

7

Chapter 7 The broken prince

23/06/2025

8

Chapter 8 The first spark

23/06/2025

9

Chapter 9 The memory mirror

23/06/2025

10

Chapter 10 The garden of whispers

23/06/2025

11

Chapter 11 His touch

24/06/2025

12

Chapter 12 The revelation

24/06/2025

13

Chapter 13 The key

24/06/2025

14

Chapter 14 The First Bride

24/06/2025

15

Chapter 15 Between worlds

25/06/2025

16

Chapter 16 Hellbound

25/06/2025

17

Chapter 17 Bone and light

09/07/2025

18

Chapter 18 Blood and rebirth

09/07/2025

19

Chapter 19 Heir of the flame

09/07/2025

20

Chapter 20 Child of the flame

09/07/2025

21

Chapter 21 Whispers

10/07/2025

22

Chapter 22 First Threat

10/07/2025

23

Chapter 23 The Gathering Storm

10/07/2025

24

Chapter 24 Embers in the Sky

10/07/2025

25

Chapter 25 Bloody betrayal

10/07/2025

26

Chapter 26 The voice within

12/07/2025

27

Chapter 27 Arrival of the council

12/07/2025

28

Chapter 28 The first trial

12/07/2025

29

Chapter 29 Trial of Blood

12/07/2025

30

Chapter 30 The Final trial

12/07/2025

31

Chapter 31 Beginning of the fire war

14/07/2025

32

Chapter 32 Crown of fire

14/07/2025

33

Chapter 33 In flames

14/07/2025

34

Chapter 34 The book

14/07/2025

35

Chapter 35 A Storm of Memory

14/07/2025

36

Chapter 36 The last soulbinder

18/07/2025

37

Chapter 37 The summit

18/07/2025

38

Chapter 38 Trial of the Twin Flame

18/07/2025

39

Chapter 39 Reborn

18/07/2025

40

Chapter 40 Cradle of Storms

18/07/2025