Inks and Embers Series #1 For years, Arrianne Laurier lived by one rule: don't let them in. In a world of extravagant things and hollow expectations, she has learned that being misunderstood is safer than being known. To her, people are constants, they are predictable, distant, and ultimately, temporary. Then there is this boy. He is a loud, and annoying flame in her dark deafening world. He is everything she isn't. He is warm, bright, and impossibly kind. He makes her blood boil with his relentless teasing, yet he is the only one that could make her laugh when she wants to hide. Beneath his annoying jokes is a warmth that makes Arrianne feel something she's never known, it was hope. He doesn't offer her gold, he offers her light. But as her dark world begins to glow, the old fear remains. In a world where everything beautiful is ephemeral, Arrianne must decide if the warmth of the flame is worth the inevitable sting of the cold. Every flame eventually flickers out, and she is waiting for the moment the darkness returns, even if she isn't ready to say goodbye. --- Started: 01/22/26