Page 24 of House of Ashes

I was alone, of course, because this was Jhazra Eyrie. Deep within me had been a wriggle of fear that this was only a dream, that I’d open my eyes and see Mistward around me, feel ice water on my skin, smell the distant rot of the tidal flats.

If I wanted to form a Court, I would need to shed this wild animal I’d become, but the habits were deeply ingrained now.

When I was done washing, I avoided looking in the mirror as I dried off and pulled the borrowed clothes back on.

A new tray of food had been left on the table in my room. I didn’t like that I hadn’t heard so much as a single step, much less the door opening and closing.

I quickly ate several fruit-filled pastries, and wrapped several more in a cloth that I stuffed in my pocket. They were giving me fattening foods: dense breads, cream-based soups, nuts and fruits.

A servant was posted outside my door. I discovered her when I peered into the hall, nearly jumping back into the room at the sight of another living being.

It was the same Bloodless woman who had delivered this morning’s breakfast. This close to her, I could examine the livery she wore in greater detail; the hems of her overcoat were thick with gold embroidery, depicting dragons in flight.

She bowed to me, her pale hair catching the light of the eyrie crystals. “The prince has asked me to bring you anything you might need,” she said, and when she straightened, I saw the faintest hint of disapproval in her gaze.

Was it because they all knew our mate bond was a sham? Or was it because he could’ve had a pretty princess, not a walking skeleton with bad manners?

“What’s your name?” I asked, filching another pastry from the table and eating it in three bites.

“Nilsa, your highness.”

“I would like to know where Rhylan is, Nilsa.” She watched as I grabbed another two pastries. There was no point in leaving them to go stale.

Nilsa led me to the spiral stairs that wound both deeper into the mountain, and upwards to the dragon terrace.

But she led me down, rather than up. We descended two flights to a hall lit only by those sparkling crystals embedded in the walls, and I couldn’t stop myself from being amazed when she brought me to a large room with a roaring fireplace.

Rhylan was there, slouched insouciantly in a chair before the flames and staring into them intently. He looked every inch the brooding prince, his brow creasing as he looked up at us.

He was not alone.

A massive dragon laid near him, his clawed forelegs crossed neatly near the flames. Hundreds of short, spiky nubs grew from the crown of his head to the tip of his tail. He was so deep in color he seemed less like the color black, and more like the absence of light itself: a void cut in reality, taking a dragon’s shape.

Only the strands and chains of gems draped over him, from the rings on his horns and claws to the necklaces draped across his back, reflected the flames.

I almost backed away. This was not a dragonblood with an earthbound male form, but a true dragon, the Ascendant of this House.

Every House possessed their own Ascendant, the ancestral dragon who had built their eyrie, and created their bloodline by feeding their blood to a chosen Bloodless human.

The gems would have given it away if his sheer size hadn’t. True dragons were known for their deep and abiding love for jewels and precious metals, guarding their hoards with jealous determination.

Guilt and despair sucked at me when I thought of my own Ascendant, alone for four years in the darkness of an abandoned eyrie—although those years were the blink of an eye compared to the thousands of years she had already lived.

Ascendants thrived so long as their descendants did. Rhylan’s Ascendant was massive, the picture of glowing health.

And he was examining me intently, in a way I didn’t care for very much.

“Come sit with us, Serafina,” the Ascendant invited. He gestured to a plush and empty armchair with a single claw.

His voice was so deep, I felt the vibrations of it in the floor beneath my feet. He sounded like more than one dragon speaking at once, a chorus of voices in one.

“It’s Sera, if you don’t mind.” Nilsa had disappeared, leaving me alone with them. Strangely, I would’ve preferred her presence.

I took the proffered chair, and realized the Ascendant had deliberately chosen one with its back to the wall. I had a full view of the room and its entrances and exits.

I glanced at the jewel-dripping dragon, and he stared back with a rather knowing look.

“This is our Ascendant, Erebos,” Rhylan said, gesturing towards the dragon unnecessarily. It would be hard to miss him.

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