Of Ash and Iron (Flame Cursed Fae #3)

1. Maddy

Chapter 1

Maddy

I can't make sense of what I just saw.

I'm somewhere between reality and my mind, and the image of Kain before me is half real and half… monster .

I just watched him kill my sister.

How? Why?

The gallery of ice statues in my mind is made up of memories. Nothing but memories .

And obviously, this has not happened.

"Princess?"

I'm in the vault again, everything sharpening, and Kain is staring at me.

My hands are trembling, and I'm panting.

All I can see is him. His beautiful, dark face, his ash-gray eyes with sparking embers drifting through them.

His body alight.

A dagger in his hand.

"What happened?" His voice is commanding, but soft.

I open my mouth. No sound comes out.

The wolf statue has been there forever. How can it have contained that all this time?

Is it a possible future? Is that what the three statues are? They all contain different possibilities?

Brynhild's words come to me.

"The futures I see are varied and unpredictable. I can see one of many outcomes, but usually a theme is present if I can take more than one reading."

But I don't have future knowing magic like Brynhild. I have memory magic.

You're new.

You're different.

There's nothing, nobody , like you.

The statements shoot through my thoughts, one after another, and I shake my head.

It can't be a future. Kain wouldn't stab my sister.

Why? Why would he ever wish her harm? He couldn't even be in the same place as her—he's bound to Featherblade.

I didn't see the background clearly, I realize with a jolt. I didn't see where the horrific scene took place.

I'm back in the gallery in an instant, ignoring Kain repeating his question.

The wolf is there, dripping ice melt, and I reach out, my fingers shaking as they pause inches from the fur.

I don't want to see it again. But I need more information.

My fingers close around the fur.

Fire. There's so much infernal fucking fire. It's not just him—it's all around us. And they are not in Featherblade. There are figures behind Freydis, but they are all blurred, indistinct hazes of figures. The room is pale beyond the flames, and… are the walls shimmering?

My breath leaves in a rush as recognition hits.

It's the Ice Palace.

My home.

The vision ends, and this time, when reality settles, my hands are on my chest, which is heaving.

"Princess, you need to tell me what the fuck is happening."

His eyes are trained on me, his head bent to look into my face.

"Have you ever been to the Ice Palace?" I whisper.

His expression changes, a frown replacing the concern. "I'm a fire-fae," he growls.

It's not an answer. "Yes or no?"

"Of course not."

Would it make a difference if he had? Clearly, he didn't go there and stab Freydis—she is very much alive.

This isn't a memory, Maddy.

But it's in my memory gallery!

My control is slipping, my thoughts spiraling, and abruptly, my breathing isn't working right. I'm taking down air, but it's somehow not filling my lungs.

"You're hyperventilating," Kain says slowly, still staring intently into my face. "Sit. Head between your knees."

Fear is crawling over me, but I know I don't need to be scared of him. What I saw didn't happen.

I use my hands to lower myself to the polished stone floor, draw up my knees, and tip my head between them. The dizziness lessens, air moving easier.

Also, I'm not looking at him now. My thoughts clear along with my windpipe.

It didn't happen. Of course it didn't happen. So why in the name of all the gods is it in my gallery? Why has it been there since I was born?

Could it be fear? Could those three statues be my greatest fears?

But I've never considered Kain killing my sister.

I do fear losing her, though. And I fear losing myself to him. Could those two things be connected somehow in my head, and result in that awful scene?

I want to go back. I want to remove the wolf, to rip him from the gallery, to never have to see him or that agonizing image again.

"What happened?"

It's the fourth time he's asked. I have to tell him something.

"I saw… something that isn't a memory." I don't lift my head as I speak. It's easier when I can't see him.

"Has that happened before?"

"No."

"Why did you ask if I had been to the Ice Palace? Was I featured in this… non-memory?"

I close my eyes. My breathing has settled, but my mind is still racing. I must be careful. I can't tell him too much.

But the way he made me feel just scant hours earlier, the connection I feel to him in my Freya-cursed soul, lurches up, clawing at me.

I had just decided to trust him. I made the decision to lead him into this vault, to take him closer to his Helm of Embers.

And now…

Fear, Maddy. The image must have been born of fear. My brain took the worst possible thing Kain could do with the power I am helping him get, and showed it to me.

Kain isn't going to hurt me. And there is no reason in all of Yggdrasil that even my wild imagination can come up with for him to hurt my sister.

Birds see the future. Gods see the future. I do not.

I open my eyes and lift my head. "I can't look for ship names right now. We'll have to come back."

His body is tense, his jaw tight, but he nods. I stand, carefully. The wonders around us, the incredible artifacts I was desperate to investigate just moments ago, are not really registering as I walk slowly past them.

All I can see is my sister, surrounded by flames, a dagger sinking into her body.

I haven't dealt well with her rejection, or even with the loss of her presence. And I haven't dealt well with my tumultuous obsession with the ridiculously dangerous convicted criminal walking beside me. I let him in. I stood naked before him and obliged his every command.

He knows my secret.

My brain has put the two things I can't handle together, that is all.

It is fear.

Which makes me wonder what is in the other two statues, still frozen solid? Are they fears too? Or could they be dreams? Hopes?

"Will you tell me what you saw?" Kain's voice is still soft. He hasn't raised it once, or even growled at me, since it happened.

"No."

"Is it important?"

I glance sideways at him. He is looking ahead, at the exit to the vault. At the door my magic just got us through.

"I don't think so. Just… unsettling."

He gives a curt nod. "You are still willing to try to get through the next door?" Now he looks at me.

I stare back. All we need are the names of four ships, and we will find out what else Featherblade has hidden here. And he gets closer to fixing the Helm of Embers and somehow exacting his revenge.

"Ask me tomorrow."