Bride of Ashes (Kingdom of Shadow and Ruin #1)

1. Reyla

1

REYLA

A s I peered through the window, the setting sun pierced the sky with bitter orange and ominous red in sympathy for my last day of freedom. Tonight, I’d marry a fae king I hadn’t met, solidifying a union born of duty and shrouded in secrets. Would I find a way to endure King Merrick, or would he be a tyrant I needed to outwit and destroy?

“You’re sure you won’t let us go with you?” my friend Tempest asked from beside me, concern knitting her brow to the point she’d have permanent wrinkles if she kept it up.

“I insist,” my brother Vexxion added, his glower taking in the room in general.

“You can insist all you want, but I’m traveling to the harbor alone,” I said. “I mean it.” I’d agreed to become the “willing” bride to a distant fae king, and I would walk into my new life without bringing any of the old along with me .

Tears shimmered in Tempest’s eyes, but she nodded. Vexxion came up behind her. He must sense her distress, because he wrapped one arm around her waist, tugging her against his chest. He gently lifted her hand and kissed the mating mark symbol on her wrist, a match to his own.

These two . . . I loved them. I was incredibly happy for them. But it gutted me to see them this way because it reminded me of the love I no longer had.

I’d miss them terribly, but this wasn’t forever. They’d visit when King Merrick gave them permission.

Part of this new life included traveling by ship to a continent I didn’t know existed a few months ago. From there, we’d travel on horse, or dragon if they rode them, finally arriving at the place I was expected to call home. We’d soon see if my arranged marriage would work or if I’d made a horrible mistake.

As for me being “willing,” I’d do what I must to secure this treaty, though I’d only been with one guy, and I wasn’t sure I could ever eagerly give my body to someone new.

Kinart.

My first love.

My lost love.

We hadn’t been fated mates like Vexxion and Tempest, but we couldn’t have loved each other more.

Would my chest ever stop aching?

“We want to make sure you’re alright,” Tempest said, the concern on her face mirrored on my brother’s. To think I’d only recently discovered he and I were siblings.

And that I was fae .

As for the magical abilities my fae heritage came with? I was a blade still being forged.

“I’ll be fine.” Someday. Maybe. With a nod, I grabbed my bag, swinging it over my shoulder. I assumed my new husband would provide most of what I needed, but there were things inside this worn pack I couldn’t leave behind.

A book that sometimes shared information that could change the future.

My favorite leathers I wore when training and riding dragons.

The treasures Kinart gave me before he was murdered.

“At least take guards with you,” Tempest said with a huff.

My brother kept scowling—nothing new there. He hid his soft side, only revealing it to a select few. Now, it shone in his eyes that were so different from my own.

Anyone looking at us would question our relationship. After all, he had our father’s dark hair and sapphire eyes, while I got my light red hair and brown eyes from our mother. Her petite, slender frame as well—though I was skinny mostly because I worked too hard and never ate enough. Now that I wasn’t riding dragons into battle on a daily basis, I might fill out a bit.

“It’s only a short distance to the harbor,” I said. “Who’d challenge the sister of the Beast?” The horrendous name my brother was given by those who never saw who he truly was inside. He’d earned the title. Vexxion had killed many, and he’d add to his count without a twitch of his spine, though only to protect those he loved.

Vexxion and Tempest grumbled .

“It’s time,” I croaked. “I have to leave. The ship sails on the tide.”

As I strode toward the front of the manor house they’d purchased near the harbor, they followed, stopping by the door.

“Let me know that you made it safely.” Tempest leaned into Vexxion’s arms for comfort.

“I’ll find a way.”

I knew why I was rushing out of here, though it would soon be dark, and the ship would set sail shortly after sunset. The crew wouldn’t leave without me. After all, I was the soon-to-be bride to their king and the only reason the ship had made port.

I hated saying goodbye. This one would be for a very long time.

“We’re coming to visit as soon as we can,” Tempest called out as I opened the door and stepped onto the wide expanse of stone along the front of the building. Yellow spears now jutted up through the setting sun’s orange and red, a portrait of sorrow.

They joined me on the stone landing.

Vexxion growled. “We’ll visit when we wish.”

No one could hold my brother back except my friend. And maybe me.

“The king specifically said you can’t come until his birthday.” He’d be thirty in two months, and his court must be planning a big celebration.

No guests were allowed before that time.

“I don’t listen to foreign kings,” Vexxion drawled.

Or any king, for that matter.

I placed my hand on his arm. “Listen this time. I mean it.” I tried to act stern, but inside, I was falling apart. I’d lost my parents when I was a child. I was raised in a border fortress alongside other orphans. Only my friends stood up for me until I met my brother.

Yet it was past time I found a new way to walk on my own.

“I’ll try,” he finally said.

I couldn’t ask for more than that.

“Bye.” If I could’ve gotten away with it, I would’ve slipped out the back door without them noticing. Anything to avoid the sobs I knew could be coming. Probably not from Vexxion. Maybe from Tempest, though my friend’s resolve had been forged in flame.

From myself.

Because I was scared. Nothing new about that. I’d battled fear all my life, standing with my head high but faking it because there was no way I’d ever let anyone know I trembled inside.

Kinart knew. Only with him could I be me.

My throat closed off, and while I couldn’t force air through the tiny gap, I could still lift my chin and meet their eyes.

Tempest wrapped her arms around me. “Farewell. We’ll see you soon. The time will rush by.”

“Love you,” I croaked, my eyes stinging. Not doing so good at faking it now.

“Love you too,” she whispered.

When she stepped back, I met Vexxion’s scowl.

“You don’t need to do this,” he snapped. “We’ll work something out.”

“We can’t go back on our deal.” We’d needed King Merrick’s help, and in exchange, he’d asked for a bride. I volunteered, and there was no turning back on that now. “They’re waiting. I have to go.”

Because I worried he’d stand there stoically, unable to give his feelings action, I barreled into him, hugging him, whispering against his tunic. “Love you, Vexxion.”

He patted my back before his arms went around me, and nothing felt better than the love of my older brother.

Finally, I had to leave. It would take time to reach the ship on foot, and I didn’t like keeping anyone waiting.

I stepped out of his embrace, trying not to cry when I saw the pain in his eyes. It was going to rip through me to walk away. “Don’t worry about me.”

“Be well,” Tempest said.

I nibbled on my nail and nodded.

She couldn’t wish me love, only good health. Because there was no way I was going to fall in love with the Evergorne king.

I took the broad stone steps to the cobblestone street with the weight of their sorrow dragging down my spine. To reach the harbor, I had to walk through or around the big open market set up in the town square. I chose to stride among those shopping, dipping my head in a polite way when anyone made eye contact.

Women wore simple blouses and skirts, the men tunics and dark pants. Boots. I didn’t see much adornment, but this part of Lydel had been overrun by a monster and he’d sucked away all the power and coin from the region. We’d killed him, but his rule had left a wide-open scab that would take time to heal .

Vendors had set up their wares around the periphery of the market, and they called out to everyone passing.

Jewelry!

Hot meat pies.

A new dress for the lady?

I ignored them, though I had enough coins to buy whatever caught my eye, thanks to my brother. He’d insisted, and I wasn’t above taking money I might one day need.

While I hadn’t met King Merrick, I abhorred fae kings in general. I’d helped kill the only one I’d encountered. If I’d learned anything since arriving in faerie, it was that the fae truly were wicked, and they’d happily use their wickedness on me. If this one was as nasty as the dead one, King Merrick might very well join the first in the grave. A woman needed money if she hoped to escape prosecution for doing something like that.

Because I wore a battle-scuffed black leather tunic and pants and had armed myself with my favorite sword in a sheath running down my spine and throwing blades at my sides, most cast me a wary look before giving me wide berth. I wouldn’t hesitate to poke someone with a blade if challenged, but I wouldn’t hurt anyone as long as they left me alone.

A dark cloaked male followed me, slinking from one shadow to the next while I remained beneath the lights. Did he think I hadn’t seen him stalking me? His muscular build and height well above my own told me he was male, though he’d hidden his face within the hood of his cloak. Whenever I looked back, I found him there, following the same number of paces behind .

I could feel his attention, and I didn’t like it. Did he hope to steal from me?

I picked up my pace, almost to a jog, and darted around people, aiming for the street on the other side of the market, leading to the harbor. I’d board the ship and if he still followed, I’d wave and send him a grin. He’d have to look elsewhere for an easy mark.

I’d nearly reached the other side of the market and could see the harbor peppered with tall ships silhouetted by the rising silvery moon when a vendor called out something odd.

“Live meat,” he shouted. There was nothing unusual about meat, but live ? “One slice of your blade and a quick blood draining, and you’re well on your way to a hearty meal.”

I wasn’t sure why I stopped or why I turned to look back. But when I saw the creature trapped inside the pen by his boots, its wild eyes spiraling at the crowd, I couldn’t make my feet go any farther.

Nyxins were rare. The shy, dog-like creatures might sneak into your chicken coop at night to steal eggs or a sleepy bird or two, but they ran before you could get a solid view. I’d only caught a few glimpses of the one that lived near the fortress, its steely gray fur ruffling in the wind, its ears pricked forward as it sprung at mice hiding in the deep grass. Catching one look at me, that one had bolted, its fluffy silver tail flipping out behind it as it scampered back into the woods.

This nyxin was about to become someone’s meal.

The fae ate nyxins?

When the creature’s panic-stricken gaze met mine, I had no choice. I couldn’t let someone murder it .

I strode toward the vendor, but people shuffled in front of me, making me come to jerky halts before I could move forward again. By the time I reached the man selling the nyxin, someone else was handing over coins.

“He’s a big un, too,” the vendor said with a grand smile. “I gave you a deal.”

“I’m buying the nyxin,” I said firmly.

The elderly woman with scars on her cheeks and dingy gray eyes scowled my way, her lips peeling back to reveal jagged fangs. “You can’t have this one.”

Oh, yes, I could. I rested my hand on the hilt of the blade strapped to my side.

Her gaze traveled to my waist, and she sneered. “What are you going to do with that, precious? Gut me over a nyxin? Find your own.”

The nyxin watched us, whining and scrambling its claws against the door of the cage.

“No other nyxin will do.” I directed my attention to the vendor. “I’ll pay twice what she did.”

“We made a bargain, Marlin,” the woman said. “I already gave you coins.” She shoved me aside to get closer to the cage, and my shoulder impacted with the wall of a stone building. I let out a wince.

A growl ripped out behind me, but when I peered in that direction, no one was looking this way except the cloaked man who’d stopped like me. Persistent, wasn’t he?

“Sorry,” Marlin told me with a shrug. “She purchased the nyxin. I plan to trap more in the next week or so. Come back then.” He turned away .

She bristled and huffed and lifted the cage, propping it on her shoulder, a feat that surprised me given her slight, almost emaciated form. “You’ll feed me for a week,” she told the nyxin, releasing a high-pitched cackle.

The nyxin shrieked, making us jolt, and flung its body into the side of the cage. His little paws flailed as he tried to dig his way through, but he wouldn’t escape before this woman killed him.

“I want that nyxin,” I barked while the poor creature howled.

“Fuck you.” The elderly woman slammed into me, trying to get past.

The cloaked guy growled again, but I was beyond caring about him. I pulled my sword and brandished it in the woman’s face. “Hand over the nyxin.”

“Don’t threaten me, girl.” She tipped her head back and lifted her voice to a shriek. “Help. Guards. Help. This wench is stealing from me. Help!”

Shit. My brother could handle this, but he’d chastise me for the rest of my life. And by the time he could intervene, it would be too late for the nyxin.

“Make way,” a deep voice called from nearby, and I caught a flash of dark blue uniforms shouldering this way. Lydel guards. Tempest was their high lady, and they’d drop to their knees if they saw her, but she wasn’t with me now.

Maybe I should’ve accepted an escort to the harbor after all.

My gaze met the nyxin’s, and it was the fragile hope I saw there that made me act.

I slashed my sword in the woman’s face. She yelped and scurried backward. The cage fell from her shoulder and clattered when it hit the cobblestones. The door snapped open and the nyxin burst out. His claws scraped the stone as he fled, spiraling into the crowd.

“What did you do?” the woman bellowed, her face . . . shimmering.

A wizard? If so, this was bad news for me. My guts twisted.

She pulled a knife from beneath her tattered gown and slashed it out at me. “You owe me, wench, and you’ll pay with your blood.” Her gaze lashed down my front. “Tasty, aren’t you?”

Someone else had once called me tasty, while he was draining my power, eager to turn me into an empty corpse who’d wander the ether forever. I swore no one else would ever try to control me in that way again.

I tugged a sack of coins from my pocket and flung it at her, hitting her in the chest. “This’ll pay you back.”

Spinning, I slammed into a guard who tried to wrench my sword from me, but I wasn’t having that. I struck out with my fist, impacting his belly. A grunt shot from his mouth, and he doubled over, groaning. Tightening my grip on my bag and my sword, I darted around him, following the nyxin weaving through villagers gasping and reeling away from the wild creature.

The guards and woman roared behind me and gave chase.

The night’s looming darkness helped hide me, as did the dimly lit road stretching between here and the pier. I hit the head of the street and didn’t slow, my arms spiraling, following the nyxin down the cobblestone road lined with two-story stone buildings. A few villagers scurried away from me, shouting for me to slow down, while others jumped in front of me with feral grins, determined to grab me for the reward.

I flung myself to the right and left to get around them. My feet stomped on the stone, and my lungs clawed for air, but I kept going.

The nyxin paused at the far end of the road, peering out at the open dock between here and the water. People strolled along the huge boardwalk while other vendors had set up tables to hawk their wares. Long wooden piers stretched out over the water, and with the tide high, boats had slid in close to dock.

The nyxin scrambled across the boardwalk and fled down one of the piers. If it was smart, it would jump into the water and swim until it was free of the village. And watch out for traps after that.

I reached the end of the street and smacked into something clear and solid. A magical wall.

“Got her,” a guard shouted from behind. “Grab her!”

A groan ripped up my throat. I gathered power and tried to flit, the magical way the fae used to travel that had so far eluded me. Even when I was desperate, I couldn’t move my body more than a few feet.

My heart thundered like a drum, each beat a scream for escape. My lungs burned and panic twisted my belly into knots.

With a snarl, I lifted my finger and used the only magic I appeared capable of, a light on the tip. Shoving more power into the end, I created a bolt of lightning and blasted it at the clear magical wall. Rather than see, I felt it collapse, and I was running once more, sweeping through the dregs of the guards’ magic and out onto the boardwalk.

Stopping, I peered around. Red and silver flag. Red and silver flag. I was told to go to the ship with the red and silver flag on the top of the tallest mast.

There. Straight ahead, at the end of the pier.

With the guards clambering behind me, I raced along the wooden platform, my boots creating heavy thuds as I scurried around sailors and those loading items onto the ships with magic.

A gangplank extended down from the Evergorne king’s ship, and I barreled up it only to have a guard grab my arm and bring me to a jarring halt. He yanked me down the gangplank, the heels of my boots skidding across the worn wooden surface, my sword flailing in the air. My bag fell onto the pier nearby.

The cloaked man who’d followed me stepped past the rail of the king’s ship and out onto the top of the gangplank, leisurely strolling down to join me and the guards on the pier.

“Release her,” he growled.

“She’s a thief,” one guard blustered. “Well see that she pays.”

“I told you to. Release. Her.” Though stars peppered the dark sky above, and the air hung heavy, without the hint of wind in sight, a storm swirled around the cloaked man. As it grew in intensity, it picked up water from the harbor below us, forming a mist-like mass.

The guards sputtered. Neither loosened their grips on my arms, however.

With a push of his hand, the cloaked man shot the wall of water at them. Gritting my teeth, I braced myself for impact, but the mass split, blasting around me close enough to dampen my exposed skin.

It hit the guards square on. Releasing me, they stumbled backward, one falling onto his ass. He hissed and sprang to his feet, brandishing his sword in my face.

“She stole a nyxin,” he snarled. “She’s under arrest.”

“I don’t see a nyxin.” The weight of the cloaked man’s gaze swarmed across my skin. “Do you, my lady?”

“A nyxin?” I blinked in confusion. “Haven’t seen one of them in ages.”

Some suggested the fae couldn’t lie. They were wrong because I sure could.

The man unbound the tie at his throat and shoved his cloak off his tall frame. It disappeared before it could hit the wooden planking.

I shouldn’t gape at him. I’d had my love of a lifetime, and I’d never find another. My heart should be immune to even the charms of an incubus.

I worried my heart would never be immune to this man.

While he stared down at me with a sneer curling his full lips and one dark eyebrow cocked, I couldn’t drag my gaze from the way he exuded strength, power, and a magnetism unlike any other.

Tall, but I’d already noted that. The rich, inky fabric of his tunic and pants did nothing to mask his muscular form.

Kinart had been perfect. Wiry and lean, with enough muscles to hold onto and carry him into battle, but not so many that he appeared grotesque .

This huge guy was anything but grotesque.

A sudden gust of wind caught his dark brown hair that glinted with strands of starlight, whipping it around his face, and he shoved it back with one hand. His dark eyes locked on me projected the same sneer as his mouth. Coarse stubble peppered his jawline, and the skin on his face and neck was tanned, not naturally brown. A scar started at his left temple and bisected his face to his right jaw.

“The nyxin was in a cage,” one of the guards cried out. “We saw her knock it off an elder’s shoulder. The nyxin escaped, and it’s her fault.”

“Then go hunt the nyxin,” the man rasped. “The lady said she hasn’t seen the creature. She is with me.” He extended his hand toward me. “Aren’t you, Wildfire?”

“My name’s Reyla.”

“Yes. I know. You should’ve boarded the ship at least an hour ago.”

Lovely. He hadn’t been following me. He was escorting me.

I studied his hand and the bit of skin revealed by his long-sleeved tunic. You could often tell a person’s age by their hands alone. His said he was about thirty. Tanned like his face. Tiny scars. Lots of those.

A warrior, then, or someone who was clumsy with knives, something I’d never believe of a person who exuded this much lethal grace.

What had he done with the water? I’d never heard of magic like his, though I hadn’t been around magic long myself. If I’d grown up in faerie, as was my birthright, I’d be as skilled as everyone else around me. Instead, I floundered, struggling to do more than zap something with my tiny bolts of lightning.

“Yes, I’m with him.” While I might be saved or damned, I took his hand.

A burning sensation seared its way around my wrist, and I gaped down at the mating mark appearing on my skin.