Page 1 of Kingdom of Ashes & Bone
ChapterOne
“Want to meet the demons?”
I’d just ditched out on my princes Zion and Zariah, and all my friends in the castle to get to the bottom of the dragon curse and what was going on with the Nobles. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fight Zariah and I had just had.
He’d said that’s whyyourpeople had been slaves. He’d said that.
It hurt. It hurt so badly.
I left for my people, for the little girls in the mud district that were just like me, girls who were given an impossible choice of either marrying and breeding monsters, dying along the way, or falling victim to the discarded men who roamed the back allies. I’d suffered and scraped and clawed my entire life.
Or at least, that’s what I was going to keep telling myself.
Pitch black and silent, the tunnel’s air cloying. I could feel the presence of my two friends next to me. There was another sound in the background that I couldn’t make out yet. Whatever it was, it was loud and constant.
“You people always see the worst in everything! That’s why you were slaves!”
Zariah’s voice wouldn’t leave my head.
I’d learned when I was four that words didn’t matter; if you let them get to you, you’d be hungry and dead, or worse. Fireguards and mean men had called me every name in the book and it had never bothered me before.
You people.
That was the crux of the matter, wasn’t it? The king had tried to warn me. No matter how elevated his station, he was still just a mud boy with no real power. My fate would be the same, wouldn’t it? Even though mud blood ran through the prince’s veins, they didn’t grow up in the slums like the king and I had. They didn’t understand.
In a way, I could understand the curse. People who gorged themselves on wine and food while others starved just down the mountain was enough to burn your veins and wish ruin upon every spoiled brat in the Seat.
That didn’t mean anyone actually deserved to be cursed to turn into monsters, however.
You’re running from your problems. You should stay and make them understand. You should stay for your mother. Heather and Hyacinthe need you. You’re just abandoning them like you abandoned the mud quarter.
I bit my lip to chase away such morbid thoughts.
“Sorry for yelling,” called out a familiar voice.
A small lit lantern illuminating Oleria, one of the girls I’d competed with but who had been too injured to continue, and Shava, my best friend from childhood who I never thought I‘d see again.
“You set off one of the booby traps and then jumped me.… I wasn’t ready.” Oleria grinned crookedly, the twisted scars from the dragon’s heat marring her once smooth face.
Shava rolled her eyes, but couldn’t stop looking at me. I felt the same way; it had been years since we’d seen each other. What had she been up to? Did she know about the demons?
You wanted answers. Here they are.
I hadn’t expected answers to literally fall into my lap courtesy of old friends who I’d thought dead or lost.
Zariah’s words had left a gaping hole in my heart. Perhaps my friends could help fill in the chunks that had been torn out.
“Mari? Are you ok? Do you want to see a demon?” Oleria tilted her head at me, lips pursing with concern. I probably looked like a fright covered in dirt and muck from my descent down the balcony.
“Uh … yes?” I squeaked out. I tamped down the worry that lingered in my gut about my mother, and tried to reassure myself that Ell would take care of her. He’d promised.
Oleria’s scars from the dragon fire looked more defined and rigged where the small bit of light threw them into sharp relief. Shava looked older—that was to be expected. Her black hair was tied tightly back into a sleek ponytail, falling like an inky river down her back and fading into the utter darkness around us. Her eyes were just as they’d ever been—dark and haunted like mine, but with an underlying passion to care for everyone around her. There were small lines on her face that weren’t there before her reaping, and she had a long, jagged scar on the left side of her neck.
Oleria reached out a wrapped hand to me, resting lightly on my shoulder. “I’m glad you made it out. I heard you won, though. Seems strange you’ve found your way here.” She shot a glance at Shava. “The things we’ve heard and seen. There’s much to catch up on. We can explain everything once we get there.”
I nodded tightly, not trusting myself to speak lest hundreds of questions burst from my lips. It was surreal—my childhood friend and one of my palace friends, here together, leading me down into the depths of hell.
Maybe it was all a dream.
