Page 8 of Lady of Ashes

A soft chuckle escaped from underneath that hood. “I know plenty about Blood Magic, Scarlett. For example, I know that is how you obtained your powers of ?re and ice.”

“My mother’s magic was ?re and ice. I inherited them from her,” Scarlett snarled.

“No, child,” he said with a shake of his head. “Those were Eliné’s gifts. Not your mother’s.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Scarlett said with a shake of her head, as if to clear her thoughts.

“Your mother’s gifts were of shadows and night, Scarlett, not ?re and ice.” And Scarlett couldn’t decipher the Assassin Lord’s tone. It wasn’t gentle, but it wasn’t harsh either. It was just … factual. “Your mother is also the one who could have done the Blood Magic to transfer Eliné’s gifts to you, since she did not have an heir of her own.”

“You’re lying,” she whispered. Tears were burning in the back of her eyes, but she refused to let the Assassin Lord see them.

And with no small amount of shock, Scarlett watched as the Assassin Lord reached up and wrapped his long ?ngers around the edges of his hood and pulled it back. Long onyx black hair was tied back at the nape of his neck, and eyes just as black were ?xed on her. He had a long, handsome face with thin lips that were pressed together and pointed ears arching up into his hair. “I do not think you will believe me unless you can look into my eyes,” he explained.

Scarlett couldn’t say anything. She had lived with this man for over half her life, had trained with him even longer, and had never seen his face. Not once.

“I am not lying about your mother. Your mother is the one who bonded you to Cassius, and she is the one who linked Eliné’s gifts to your own,” he said. There was nothing soft in his features. Only a calculating stillness as he watched her take in the information.

“I don’t believe you,” she ?nally managed to say to him.

His brows rose in surprise. “Tell me, Scarlett, did Prince Aditya tell you that the Fae cannot practice Blood Magic? Nor can the Witches? In fact, there are only two bloodlines in this world who can practice such magic.”

“Which ones?” Scarlett whispered, closing her eyes. She knew.

She knew in her gut that whatever the answer to this was, it was going to crush her in some way. Because if what he was saying was true, then that meant the woman from the memory, the woman with the silver hair who had called her Star?re and who had told her she loved the night and the dark and the stars, was her real mother. That meant that she had been standing on that beach under the night sky with her mother.

The Assassin Lord seemed to know what she was ?guring out, because now his features were morphing. They were becoming the face of the Assassin Lord that she had always imagined, as a cruel grin came across his lips and lined his sharp features. “The Avonleyans and the Maraans,” he ?nally said.

Scarlett felt the air whoosh from her lungs, but she managed to get out, “And how exactly do you know all this?”

“Because before my father was defeated, he made sure I knew our people’s history,” the Assassin Lord said coldly, his eyes boring into hers.

Any air she had managed to get down was ripped from her lungs once more as she gasped, “Deimas was your father? And Esmeray your mother? You are a Maraan Lord?”

“I am a Maraan Prince,” the Assassin Lord corrected as he stood. “You, however, are not Maraan, and perhaps now you ?nally understand why you have been kept under constant watch and caged.”

“You … You were keeping me as a weapon. Not just to kill the Fae, but …” She trailed off as her eyes came back to the black eyes of the Assassin Lord.

No. Of Alaric. The Maraan Prince.

“You plan to use me to break the wards and enchantments around Avonleya.”

CHAPTER 4

CALLAN

Crown Prince Callan was lying on his bed in their guest suite, staring at the ceiling as the morning sun streamed in the window. It had to be nearing midday by this point. He didn’t care. Books were scattered around him, but it was all for nothing now. She was gone. She had married him. She was his twin ?ame. She was his. All his. No longer his own.

He had been a fool. An idiotic, lovesick fool to think he could keep up with her wildness. But that was why he’d clung to her, wasn’t it? She was unknown and untamed. He never knew what she was going to say or do next, and she utterly fascinated him. Scarlett had shown him a side of the kingdom he hadn’t known existed. She had shown him the ones who lurked in the shadows. She had shown him the ones who fended for themselves, who did not look to a king or nobility to take care of them, but made their own justice. The ones who recognized no one was coming for them, and that they needed to take care of themselves. Needed to save themselves.

She had made him believe that he could actually do something about it. That with his knowledge of the crown and her knowledge of the Syndicate, they could truly make a difference. He did not want her chained to a throne in his shadow, but serving the people of Windonelle at his side.

Teaching him how to do just that, not as a woman with a crown on her head, but as someone who grew up as one of them.

Scarlett had never once looked at him with the awe-struck eyes of the Court Ladies or the vindictive desires of those wanting to move up in their noble positions. He was never seen by her as aprize to be ensnared or a prince to be worshiped. From the very ?rst note she’d left for him, she had mocked him for falling asleep in the middle of a clearing while reading. He would never forget her teasingly calling him ‘princeling’ the ?rst time they danced at the Samhain Ball. She had thought he’d been offended, but he had been relieved. She had been a breath of fresh air, the ?rst rain of spring after a long, cold winter. He had been relieved to have found someone who didn’t feel the need to ?atter him or wear a mask around him.

Until he’d learned just how many masks she wore.

Until he’d learned that perhaps the only person who had ever truly seen her for what she was, was the Fae Prince who now held her heart.

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