The night was a bruised shade of violet, the sky painted in ink and secrets. The air in Prague's Old Town was thick with the scent of woodsmoke and the echoes of ancient footsteps. Among its cobbled alleys, where legends slumbered and shadows danced with the wind, a woman named Elira walked as if she had nowhere to go - but everywhere to be.
She wore a crimson coat that hugged her frame and boots that clicked like metronomes on the wet stones. Her eyes, grey as ash, reflected not the flicker of gas lamps but the burning storm within. She had not returned to Prague to sightsee or to reminisce. She was hunting a memory - or perhaps a ghost.
Ten years ago, on the cusp of winter, she had fallen in love with a stranger whose eyes held the fire of a dying sun and whose smile could melt frost. He had not given a name, only a warning.
"I am not for you. I was born in fire."
She had laughed then. And kissed him. And tasted ruin.
His name, she learned later, was Asher. But by then, it was too late. He had vanished, as if burned out of existence. But the dreams never stopped - dreams of fire and brimstone, of a world below that pulsed like a wounded heart. Dreams of Asher reaching for her through crimson flames.
Tonight, Elira stood before the door of the Caf� Diabolique, a place rumored to open only at midnight and only to those who had tasted hell.
She pushed the door open.
The scent of cinnamon and sulphur washed over her. Inside, red candles flickered with unnerving steadiness, and music whispered from the walls like a forgotten lover's lullaby. At a corner table, with his back turned, sat a man.
She knew it was him.
"You came back," Asher said, not looking up.
Elira's throat tightened. "I had to know if you were real."
He turned.
His face was the same - chiselled, hauntingly beautiful, but his eyes now glowed faintly, like embers hidden beneath ash. She sat, suddenly unsure if she was dreaming.
"You were never supposed to remember," he murmured.
"But I did. And I burned for you."
He reached out, hesitated, then let his fingers graze hers. The touch was warm - almost too warm. Her heart raced.
"What are you, Asher?" she whispered.
He gave a bitter smile. "A fallen one. Exiled. Once an angel, now an ember. The longer I stay, the more the world burns around me."
Elira's gaze didn't flinch. "Then let it burn."
They walked the narrow lanes until they reached the edge of the Vltava River. Mist curled around them, a cloak of secrets. He told her of his fall - how he had loved too fiercely, questioned too boldly, and was cast down for his heart's defiance. How he wandered the earth with eternity smoldering in his veins.
"And then I met you," he said. "And the fire quieted."
"But it never went out."
"No. It waited."
They stood in silence. Then she turned to him.
"Let me see it."
He hesitated. Then with a sigh, Asher stepped back. His coat disintegrated like smoke. And from his shoulders unfurled wings - vast, charred, and magnificent. They glowed with molten veins and the soft shimmer of agony and awe.
Elira stepped forward and touched the black feathers. They hummed like coals.
"You're beautiful," she said.
He bowed his head. "And cursed."
"Then curse me too. If it means I can stay."
He stared at her. "You don't know what you're asking."
"I do. I'm asking for love. Even if it's hell."
Asher cupped her face. The fire in his hands did not scorch her. It warmed her soul. With a desperate sound, he kissed her - and the kiss pulled them both into an abyss of heat, memory, and flame. Time stilled. The river roared. And somewhere far below the earth, something ancient stirred.
They made a home on the edge of two worlds.
By day, they walked among humans. He took a name - Ashir Malik - and worked in a bookshop that smelled of ink and forgiveness. She painted, her art wild with infernos and constellations.
But at night, they returned to their in-between realm - a small attic lit by firelight and liturgy. Here, Asher read her the oldest stories. And Elira gave him new ones.
Their love was not peaceful. It was volcanic.
There were days when Asher would vanish for hours, fighting the pull of his old self, the wrath and darkness that bubbled beneath. Elira, patient and furious, would wait, and when he returned, they would make love as if at war - burning away doubt.
And yet, peace never lasted.
One day, a man appeared at the bookshop. Pale, tall, and cruelly elegant.
"You're wasting your power, Asher," he said, placing a black rose on the counter. "Come back. Before she dooms you both."
Elira entered just in time to hear.
"Who is he?" she asked.
Asher's jaw clenched. "An old friend."
"A gatekeeper," the man corrected. "The longer he stays with you, the faster he burns. Do you want to watch him die again?"
She looked at Asher. His glow was dimmer. The edges of his wings, now always hidden, were beginning to crumble.
That night, she wept. Asher held her. They didn't speak.
The next morning, he was gone.
No note. No scent. Only silence.
Elira searched the city. The Caf� Diabolique was closed. The attic cold. The river silent.
Then, at the cusp of despair, she found the rose.
A black bloom, burning gently at its core.
She closed her eyes, and the world vanished.
When she opened them, she was standing at the gates of the underworld.
They rose like obsidian towers, veined with fire. Beyond them, a land of shadows and sparks - of lost souls and fallen stars. And in the center, chained but defiant, knelt Asher.
She screamed his name.
Demons turned.
Elira walked forward.
"I want him back."
The gatekeeper appeared.
"He chose to return. You can't save him."
"Then let me burn beside him."
The demon laughed. "Foolish girl."
But something ancient surged through her - a light not of angels or devils, but of love. A flame that could not be chained.
She walked into the fire.
The chains shattered.
Asher stood.
And together, they burned the underworld down.
Not with wrath.
But with love.
Now, legend says, in the heart of Prague, on certain nights, a crimson-clad woman and a man with embered eyes dance on the rooftops. They leave trails of smoke and stardust. They laugh like sinners. And kiss like saints.
Their love is a fire eternal.
An infernal romance.
