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Chapters
Prologue
The Silence Before the Storm
Seized
The Branding
The Dinner
The Flame Game
The First Blow
The Second Mask
Echos in the Wire
The Red Room
Collared Fire
Mirror Teeth
The Judas Kiss
The Inferno Show
The Smoldering Hunt
The Thorn Crown
The Velvet Guillotine
The Bed of Knives
The Obedience Ritual / The Poison Kiss
The Rite of Flesh and Fire
The Taste of War
The Pleasure Siege / The Beast Reborn
The Black Guard’s Shadow
The Confrontation
Voss’s Choice
The Bait and the Blade / Voss Breaks the Chain
The Lovers’ War Room / The Reckoning in Smoke
Dehn’s Betrayal / Lysia’s Name War
The Broadcast of Her Name
The March and the Trap
The Gate and the Ghost
The Mask of Liberty
The Remains/The Ashes Speak
The Fire That Stays
Into the Maw of Smoke
The Wages of Fire
The Knife Inside the Veil
Ashes that Breathe
Sparks in the Hollow
Edenfall
The Man in the Ashes
What Monsters Learn
The Broken Crown
Embers in the Blood
Fault Lines Beneath
The Ties That Burn
The Edge of Flame
Beneath the Smoke
The Seeds of Collapse
The Poison Within
The Burning Bluff
Sparks in the Ash
Cleansers
The Hollow Crown
Smoke Signals
The Woman in the Cell
Dust and Dawn
The Burning Map
Echoes of the Girl
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The Second Mask
Chapter 7: The Second Mask
By now, she had learned to smile.
Not the real kind. Not the smiles she used to give her little sister before the collapse, or the ones she shared with lovers before everything was taken.
This was the second mask—a weapon disguised as warmth.
She wore it when Voss made her...