Page 1 of Court of Secrets and Flames

Chapter One

Sunlight gleams on the ocean, painting the azure water gold as we soar high above the waves. Unfortunately, the current predicament I find myself in detracts from my ability to enjoy the scenery. As much as I’d love to knee the man serving as my personal air-transportation service in the family jewels, now is not the time. My life might be a huge disaster, but I’m not ready to end it just yet with a deadly plunge into the sea.

Oh, excuse me, did I say family jewels? I meantroyalfamily jewels. Because as it turns out, the man hauling me across the ocean in his arms is actually a prince. And not just any prince. No, my flight instructor and former lover is the crown prince of Tirene.

Brother to King Jasper.

Enemy to my kingdom.

Never, and I mean never, in my wildest dreams did I predict that the man I knew as Sterling Thorne would snatch me from Flighthaven, reveal himself as an interloper by popping open a pair of wings, and haul my ass to an enemy kingdom with me clinging to him like a baby monkey.

Now, instead of finishing my first trial at the Aclarian flight academy, I’m caged by a cluster of winged Tirenese warriors in my own personal version of the three hells.

Is “cluster” the correct term for a group of winged Tirenese, or is the right word “swarm”? Or wait, maybe “flock” works best. With the way they swoop through the cloudless sky, their feathers gleaming in the late afternoon sun, flock does seem appropriate.

The wind ruffles my hair, and I spit out a strand that zips into my mouth while squeezing my eyes shut. Ziva save me, I must be losing my mind. Why else would I be debating the proper terminology for a group of flying soldiers when the important detail to focus on is that these feathered jerkoffs abducted me and are carting me off to Tirene?

When I open my eyes, the prince’s magnificent, metallic silver wings come into view as they glide us through the chilly air. During the first part of this voyage, I cycled through an array of emotions—betrayal, shock, grief, anger, hurt—but now I only feel numb.

I’m good with that. Numb beats drowning in pain over lost lives and heartbreak.

Numb beats worrying about my sister, Leesa, especially when none of my unwanted flying companions will answer my questions about her.

Numb beats fretting over whether Nick and Abel—friends and members of my flight unit at Flighthaven—survived the Tirenese attack. Or what happened to Zephyr, my alicorn, or all the other alicorns and dragons that were freed.

Numb definitely trumps succumbing to guilt over my best friend Olive’s senseless death.

Pain spears me in the heart. I shove the emotion into a hole and ice over the top, trapping the hurt like fish under a frozen pond.

Not yet. I can’t deal with any of that yet. If I do, I’ll lose it, and I’m not about to display that type of vulnerability in front of any of these fuckers.

The wingedflockof Tirenese soldiers remains silent as we finish crossing the ocean. The air this high up proves a struggle to breathe. No matter how deeply I inhale, it’s as if I’ve just surfaced after spending too long under water. All I can do is cling to Sterling as I struggle to make sense of everything that’s happened since he kidnapped me.

The revelations of the past twenty-four hours keep cycling through my head.

Head Flight Instructor Sterling Thorne of Aclaris isn’t a flight instructor.

He’s a prince of the Royal House Barda.

Younger brother to His Royal Highness Jasper Barda, King of Tirene.

My betrayer.

And I’m his…what? Captive? Refugee? Not to give him any credit, but I suppose he did rescue me from the chaos that ensued after a rogue dragon attack wreaked havoc on our trial.

After hours of silent flying, I still haven’t come to any conclusions as to what’s going on. I’ve only produced more questions.

The biggest of which is,why?

Why would a prince ingratiate himself to the king of an enemy kingdom under an alias just to pose as a flight instructor? Was he sent on some sort of mission to spy on Aclaris? On King Xenon? On me? Did he plan to kidnap me all along? If so, why didn’t he grab me weeks ago?

He could have snatched me and flown me to Tirene dozens of times over.

Despite my attempt to lock up my emotions, fear snakes down my spine as unanswered questions continue to paradethrough my mind. What could the Tirenese royal family want with a nineteen-year-old fire wielder from Aclaris who only had a handful of weeks to learn how to use magic, train with weapons, and ride an alicorn? As far-fetched as the idea seems, is it possible I’m not Aclarian at all, but Tirenese? And not just any old Tirenese citizen, but a dragoncaller?

Prior to being summoned to Flighthaven, I was a nobody who spent the majority of my life locked away under my mother’s watchful eye.

Though I lived in a castle, she rarely permitted me to roam the grounds or leave the premises. After my fire magic set the stables ablaze and nearly killed someone when I was younger, my terrified mother refused to let me out of her sight. Even with the tablets I started taking to nullify my powers.

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