Publisher's Synopsis
The Ink and the Flame follows Alexandra Rayne, a weary journalist seeking quiet in the haunted town of Durnwood. What begins as a retreat into solitude quickly spirals into a reckoning with the town's buried secrets and her own forgotten past. After a strange voice whispers. "It's waking." Alexandra is pulled into a world where symbols bloom like bruises, magic coils in shadows, and dreams leave real scars.
Guided by the acerbic yet wise Magda, and joined by Ayla-a mysterious girl marked by the same spiral symbol-Alexandra uncovers a forgotten lineage of witches bound to protect the veil between worlds. As Kage, a sinister figure from Alexandra's hidden past, awakens and spreads subtle corruption through Durnwood, Alexandra must piece together who she was in order to become who she is meant to be.
Her columns for the town gazette stir unrest, her memories fracture, and the spiral's pull deepens. As Durnwood becomes a mirror of the spiral's unraveling chaos, Alexandra and Ayla must follow the trail to Gravemoor, a decayed town where the veil thins completely-and where Kage's plan for severance threatens to consume both the mundane and magical realms.
In the end, only by embracing her voice-through ink, fire, and truth-can Alexandra ignite what was meant to remain burning. The Ink and the Flame is a gothic, poetic tale of identity, healing, and resistance, where magic is memory and every flame begins with a spark.
