All Chapters of THE BRIDE OF ASH: Chapter 31 - Chapter 37

The ride back to Ashenreach was silent.Smoke still clung to Elara's hair. Her hands wouldn't stop shaking.They reached the castle gates just as the sun dropped behind the mountains.Sable was waiting."He's alive," Sable said. "The scout. He made it."Elara's chest loosened, just slightly. "Take me to him."The infirmary smelled of herbs and blood. The scout lay pale against the pillows, his shoulder bound tight, his eyes finding Elara the moment she stepped through the door."You came back," he said."I did." Elara sat beside the bed. "You gave us the location. It saved lives, whether you meant it to or not.""I didn't want to burn it." His voice cracked. "I have a daughter. I kept thinking about her, lying out there in the frost.""Then help her have a father worth remembering," Draven said from the doorway.The scout's eyes flicked to him, fear plain on his face. "He'll kill my family if I talk.""He'll try," Draven said. "I won't let him."Silence stretched between them.The sco

Sable's room was empty when Elara knocked the next morning. "Sable?" She pushed the door open further, unease already prickling along her arms. The bed hadn't been slept in. A folded note sat on the small writing desk, Sable's handwriting quick and slanted, like she'd written it in a hurry. *I recognized part of that name. I need to confirm it before I bring danger to anyone else's door. Don't follow me. If I'm wrong, I'll be back before nightfall. If I'm right, it's better only one of us carries what I find.* Elara's stomach dropped. She grabbed the note and ran, finding Draven already in the war room, his expression darkening the moment she handed it to him. "She left alone," he said, reading it twice. "In the middle of everything happening right now." "She said don't follow her." "I don't intend to honor that," Draven said, already moving toward the door. "Sable doesn't run from danger. She plans for it. This isn't like her." "Maybe that's exactly why she went alone," Elara

The first guard lunged before Draven could even finish stepping into the chamber.Draven met him head on, blades ringing sharp against the low stone ceiling, and Cassian moved fast to intercept the second guard before he could reach Sable, his injured leg finally strong enough to hold under the strain of a real fight."Go!" Draven shouted over his shoulder. "Get her out!"Elara didn't hesitate. She crossed the chamber toward Sable, dropping to her knees to work at the ropes binding her wrists, fingers clumsy with adrenaline."You shouldn't have come," Sable said, though relief cracked through the words despite herself."You should have known I would."The cloaked woman hadn't moved from her spot near the fire, watching the chaos unfold around her with an unsettling calm that made Elara's skin crawl."Impressive," the woman said, her voice carrying easily over the clash of steel. "I didn't expect the Ash King himself to ride into a mining tunnel over one handmaiden.""She's not just a

"Absolutely not." Draven's voice cut through the silence like a blade. "You're not walking into her hands just because she wrote you a letter.""I'm not walking into her hands," Elara said, holding his gaze despite the fear coiled tight in her chest. "I'm walking in on my own terms, which is different from being delivered like a gift wrapped in silk.""The difference won't matter much if she decides to kill you the moment you arrive.""She won't." Elara forced steadiness into her voice. "She wants to talk to me. She said so herself, in that tunnel. If she wanted me dead, she's had plenty of chances already.""That was before you humiliated her guards and escaped with Sable," Cassian pointed out. "People don't usually stay reasonable after something like that.""I'm aware," Elara said. "But sitting here, waiting for her to burn another village out of frustration, isn't reasonable either. At some point, someone has to actually face her instead of running from the next threat she makes."