Todos los capítulos de CROWN OF GLASS AND ASH : Capítulo 1 - Capítulo 10

Chapter 1: The Burn That Holds the LieLyra pov The door handle turned the rest of the way, and the physician stepped inside as if he had every right.I was still seated on the edge of the bed, bindings half-unwrapped, the bruise on my wrist darkening into the clear shape of Ashford’s fingers. There was no time to cover it. The man closed the door behind him with the same soft click he always used, the one that sounded careful and kind. His smile was already in place, gentle, paternal, the exact expression that had kept me trusting him for years even while the rest of me learned not to trust anyone.“You overexerted yourself again,” he said, voice low and warm. He set his medical case on the small table and began unpacking without waiting for permission. “I felt the spike from the spar all the way in the east wing. Stubborn boy. You know better.”I kept my eyes down and let the meek gratitude settle over my face like a second skin. “I’m sorry. Ashford insisted.”“He always does.” The

Chapter 3:Leaking in the Lower City LyraThe lower city always smelled of dust, hot metal, and desperation.I had claimed a medical errand as cover, another dose adjustment, another quiet visit to the physician’s secondary clinic that no one of rank ever questioned. The suppressants were failing faster now. The emergency dose from the morning had already burned out. Every step through the crowded alleys sent a fresh wave of restless feet crawling under the bindings. My pulse felt too loud. My own scent pressed against the blockers like something alive trying to claw its way out.The scarred informant waited in the back room of a shuttered assay office, exactly where the first note had said. He was older than the messenger from yesterday, face mapped with old burns and the deep lines of a man who had survived the mines longer than most. He did not waste time with greetings.“Shipments are being tracked,” he said, voice low and rough. “Not by the usual officers. By the Empress’s priva

Chapter 5:Blood on the Practice Blade LyraThe training yard baked under the late-morning sun.Ashford found me near the weapons racks, exactly where a weak Beta prince would try to avoid notice. He was already smiling, that sharp, restless grin that never reached his eyes when he looked at me. Golden skin gleamed with a light sheen of sweat. The desert campaigns left him always slightly wild around the edges, and today the edges were aimed directly at me.“There you are, spare,” he called, loud enough for the handful of officers and trainees to hear. “Heard the Crown Prince finally put you on a shorter leash. Thought we should test how short.”He tossed a practice blade at my feet. The metal rang against the stone. I did not pick it up immediately. Every instinct screamed that this was another public performance, another chance for him to remind the yard that I was less than nothing. The bindings under my uniform felt too tight. The residual fever from the last two days still sat lo

Chapter 7: Four Walls and a Breaking Scent LyraThe sandstorm hit two hours after we reached the forward outpost.One moment the sky over the red earth was clear and brutal. The next it turned the colour of old blood, and the wind arrived like a living thing, screaming, driving grit into every crack. The outpost was little more than a reinforced stone bunker half-buried in the dune line. There was only one command room large enough to hold the four of us once the outer shutters were sealed.Kaelan claimed the central table without discussion. Maps already spread. Glacier eyes reflecting the single lantern. He did not look at me when I entered, but the temperature in the narrow space seemed to drop around him. Ashford threw himself onto the bench opposite, sandy hair full of dust, hazel eyes bright with the restless energy the storm only fed. Ren took the wall nearest the door, arms crossed, slate-grey gaze moving between the three of us in slow, measured sweeps. The air was alrea

Chapter 9: Chronic Unfitness LyraThe banquet hall glittered under heat lamps designed to look like captured sunlight.I sat in my assigned place near the lower end of the high table, shoulders curved, expression carefully blank, the picture of a chronically unfit spare who knew better than to draw attention. The ceremonial title in question was minor, an old honorific tied to the eastern watch towers that carried almost no real power and a surprising number of residual access privileges. I had kept it precisely because no one else wanted it. The access tokens attached to it had let me request certain logistics summaries without higher countersignature. Kaelan had clearly decided that quiet usefulness was no longer acceptable.He rose after the second course, wine cup in hand, and the hall quieted the way it always did when the Crown Prince chose to speak. Raven hair is perfect. Glacier eyes reflecting the artificial light. He did not look at me. He did not need to.“It has beco