All Chapters of THE BRIDE OF ASH: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The guard didn't knock, not that he ever did for me."War room. Now. The king wants you."I froze with the ledger still open on my lap, ink not even dry on the line I'd been staring at without reading, because nobody wanted me anywhere. My sisters got summoned. I got informed, days later, of things that had already been decided without me."Me?" My voice came out smaller than I wanted. "Not Rosalind, not Bree?""You, Princess Elara."Something was wrong, and every part of me screamed it before I understood why, my pulse kicking hard and fast and animal in my throat.I ran, not sprinting, because a princess doesn't sprint through marble corridors, but close enough that my skirts fisted in one hand as I passed portraits of ancestors who'd never spared me a glance either. The war room doors stood open, and my father's voice cut through them before I even reached the threshold."She won't fight it. She's not built for fighting."I stopped dead in the doorway.Six men sat around the long t

The letter was short. Shorter than I expected from a king."*Princess Elara,**You do not know me, and you have no reason to trust anything I write. But I need you to hear this before you cross into my lands. You are not being sent away to marry a monster. You are being sent away from one. Watch the people closest to you. Trust nothing that feels safe. I will explain when you arrive, if you arrive.**— D.A.*I read it twice. Then a third time, because the words didn't make any more sense the second time than they had the first."What does it say?" Cassian asked.I handed him the letter without a word, because I didn't trust my own voice yet. He read it fast, his eyes moving quickly over the short lines, and when he looked up his face had gone pale."This doesn't make sense," he said. "Why would the Ash King warn you about your own family?""I don't know." I took the letter back and folded it carefully, like it might fall apart if I wasn't gentle with it. "But he knew my name before Vi

I didn't pack first, I went to the cells.Nobody stopped me on the way down, mostly because nobody expected me to go there at all. I moved fast through the lower halls of the palace, my shoulder still aching from the fall, my mind fixed on one thing. I needed answers before I left, and my father clearly wasn't going to get them for me in time.The guard at the cell door looked surprised to see me. "Princess, you shouldn't be down here.""I need five minutes with the prisoner.""Your father gave orders that no one...""I'm not asking your permission," I said, and something in my voice must have carried more authority than I actually felt, because he stepped aside.The cell was small and cold, lit by a single torch on the wall outside the bars. I expected to see the man from my room, still calm, still smiling that terrible satisfied smile.Instead I found him slumped against the far wall, unmoving, blood pooling dark beneath him on the stone floor."No." I grabbed the bars with both han

"We have to go back." I was already turning my horse before Cassian could argue."Elara, that dragon could kill everyone on that road in seconds.""Or it could be the only reason anyone on that road survives." I kicked my horse forward, and after a second of hesitation, Cassian followed.We broke back through the treeline just as the dragon dropped low over the fighting, and the sound it made when it landed shook the ground hard enough that both our horses stumbled. The attackers scattered immediately, dropping weapons, running for the trees, all their careful coordination falling apart the moment the massive creature folded its wings and let out a sound that wasn't quite a roar, lower than that, something closer to a warning.My guards stood frozen where they were, weapons still raised but no longer aimed at anyone, because there was nothing left to fight. The remaining attackers had vanished into the trees, leaving only the wounded and the dead behind, and the dragon stood in the mi

The gold light under my skin didn't fade. It spread."Draven, it's not stopping." My voice cracked with panic I couldn't hide. "What do I do?""Breathe." He gripped both my wrists now, steady, grounding. "Fighting it makes it worse. I've seen this before.""You've seen this before?""Once." His jaw tightened. "It didn't end well for her."The terrace doors slammed open before I could ask what that meant. Sable froze in the entrance, eyes locking on my hands, on the light still tracing beneath my skin, and every ounce of composure drained out of her face at once."That's not possible," she whispered."You know what this is." I forced the words out through gritted teeth, the burning under my skin sharpening into something closer to pain. "Tell me what's happening to me."Sable didn't answer. She crossed the terrace fast, grabbed my hand from Draven's grip, and turned it toward the light like she was searching for something specific, some pattern only she would recognize."Sable." Draven