“Some fires aren’t meant to burn the world. Some are meant to remind it that warmth still exists.”
— Echoes of Despair
The Fire That Never Asked to Burn
When I first wrote Xander Angel, I didn’t want a hero.
I wanted a man who had already lost everything worth saving — and still tried anyway.
He wasn’t born with a sword in his hand or destiny in his blood. He was just a father, a husband, a flawed man caught between worlds both literal and emotional. The kind of man who stares at the mirror long enough to see the cracks, then tries to piece them together with trembling hands.
Xander’s story is, at its core, the anatomy of perseverance.
The quiet defiance of a man who keeps walking through fire long after it’s burned him to ash.
Excerpt from Echoes of Despair
“He carried the flame not because it was sacred, but because it refused to die.
Each step forward was a prayer. Each scar, a verse.
The world called him Peacemaker — but peace was the last thing he’d ever known.”
The Weight of the Title
When I gave Xander the title of “Peacemaker,” it was never meant as a badge of honor.
It was a curse disguised as purpose.
Peace, in his world, is not tranquility — it’s sacrifice.
It’s the act of standing in the middle of chaos and refusing to let it consume what’s left of you.
The Peacemaker’s flame isn’t divine. It’s not bestowed by gods or bound by ritual. It’s the manifestation of will — the last flicker of defiance in a man who refuses to let despair be the final word.
For Xander, that flame became both salvation and punishment.
A light that showed him where to go, and a heat that reminded him of what he’d lost.
The Father Beneath the Fire
Every time I wrote Xander reaching for his children — even when the world itself conspired to take them from him — I felt something pull inside me.
Because being a father isn’t about perfection. It’s about persistence.
You fight the monsters you can’t see. You protect your kids from the pain you can’t even name. You make promises you’re not sure you can keep — because breaking them isn’t an option.
That’s what the Peacemaker’s flame represents: that quiet, relentless love that keeps burning when everything else goes dark.
I think that’s why people connect with him. Not because he’s strong, but because he’s tired and still standing.
Excerpt from Echoes of Despair
“He remembered the sound of Logan’s laughter — pure, sharp, alive.
It haunted him more than any scream.
For what greater torment exists than the memory of joy?”
Between Anger and Redemption
There’s a fine line between vengeance and love.
And Xander walks it like a man on a frayed rope, every step a balancing act between fury and forgiveness.
His journey isn’t about conquering darkness — it’s about learning to live with it.
Because the truth is, the darkness was never the enemy. The emptiness was.
He doesn’t fight because he believes he’ll win.
He fights because he can’t stomach the thought of surrender.
And maybe that’s what makes him dangerous. Maybe that’s what makes him human.
The Flame as a Mirror
Writing Xander forced me to confront my own demons — the moments when I’ve questioned my worth as a father, as a man, as someone trying to protect a family while still learning how to protect himself.
The Peacemaker’s flame became symbolic of something I think we all carry: the spark that refuses to die, even when we wish it would.
That small, stubborn light that whispers, “Not yet. Not today.”
It’s why Xander’s pain feels real — because it is. It’s mine. It’s every parent’s quiet panic, every night spent wondering if love is enough, if effort outweighs absence, if redemption is still within reach.
That’s what keeps him alive.
That’s what keeps me writing.
Excerpt from Echoes of Despair
“There is no peace in being the Peacemaker.
Only the burden of knowing that if you stop, everything burns.”
Why He Still Matters
Xander Angel isn’t a hero who saves the world — he’s a man who reminds it why it’s worth saving.
He doesn’t wield faith as a weapon or hope as a shield. He wields memory. Pain. Love.
The three most dangerous forces in existence.
The Peacemaker’s flame is what binds the story together — not because it brings light, but because it reveals what’s hiding in the dark.
And that’s the lesson I keep learning, over and over again:
You don’t overcome despair. You learn to walk beside it.
You make peace not with victory, but with the fact that the fight is what defines you.
Pull Quote
“He’s not searching for peace. He’s creating it one scar at a time.”
From the Author’s Desk
Every time I sit down to write Xander, I’m reminded that strength doesn’t always roar.
Sometimes it whispers, keep going.
The Peacemaker’s flame isn’t just his power — it’s ours. The part of us that refuses to stop caring, even when it hurts to.
In Echoes of Future Past, that flame will be tested again — not by the darkness outside, but by the light within. And sometimes, that’s the one that burns the worst.
— Brandon Fragale
Author of the Echoes Saga
Next in the Series
Up Next: “Love, Lust, and Lily: Reimagining the Succubus Myth”
A dive into the heart of temptation, redemption, and what it means when even demons learn to love.