A Throne From the Ashes (An Heir Comes to Rise, #3)

by C.C. Peñaranda

“I’ll get on my knees for you anytime, Zaiana. You know you need only ask.”

The Ashfyres were fabled, dating right back to the first ever King of Rhyenelle and the first Phoenix Rider, Matheus Ashfyre.

“All I ask is that you be careful and remember your destiny is far greater than what you are. It is who you are that carries the hope for this kingdom. I know you will return to us.”

She couldn’t promise what wasn’t within her power to ensure, but knowing what she had to return to gave her a fierce will to live.

The fae were made of human origin by the power of the Spirits, and Lilianna believed there may have been some way to make contact with the Spirit of Life. If not to have her turned fae, then to have me turned human.”

He was a king, a powerful Nightwalker…but even reminding himself of those things did nothing to cure the ugly seed that grew, watered by his loneliness.

the war will not come because it has surrounded us for centuries. Not a war of man against fae, or fae against fae. This was never a war against Valgard, but a war against the Spirits.”

“Yes. But what you do not know is that Faythe is not just human, not just half-fae. She is an Heir of Marvellas, born of a line of direct ancestors that can be traced over the centuries, right back to the Spirit herself in fae form.”

If she succeeds…may the Gods have mercy on us all.”

Appropriately ominous

It was a helpless feeling of confinement, as though his throne were a cage and his crown the shackles that held him back while everyone close to him set off on their own perilous quest and he could do nothing but watch.

“Keep it. It would match your eyes if you dared to let a sparkle of joy into them.”

“If I kiss you, Tauria…I won’t be able to stop.”

“Don’t let it become a clash between courts. A word of counsel, Your Majesty. One heart can tear down an empire faster than any army.”

There were no healers under the mountain. Such a talent as magick healing was only known to exist in fae, and Zaiana was forbidden to bring one here unless she was prepared to kill the captive afterward. She was ruthless, born heartless, but even if she were to find one with the rare skill, she was conflicted about wasting such a life.

“Thank you,” she said to the fae. The words were so unused they felt foreign on her tongue. Her cruel mind sang weakness, but her gratitude was too strong to listen to its taunts.

“We are made of nightmares, not dreams, and you’d be wise to be fearful of that.

“No one’s seen a Stormcaster since the Old Age of the fae, and even then, they were extremely rare—an unexpected development of the Firewielder ability, but far more lethal.”

“I was born in Lakelaria,” she confessed.

“You have been before.”

wut

Every time she did, she felt her presence alone was a dark stain on the beauty of the kingdom of ice and water.

She found bliss in the stars—the one thing of beauty that would remain the same no matter where she went. It could not be taken from her.

Yet even barely knowing the fae, Zaiana couldn’t stand the thought of such a waste of talent.

His smile only widened to a grin that showed his elongated canines. Unlike her, the Blackfairs could not retract the teeth they needed to feed. Silverfairs didn’t need mortal blood to survive like them. It was a curse of the ritual performed to change their species.

“Why think of the ending of something that has not been given the chance to begin? Why deny yourself the chance to be happy and damn whatever the ending may be?”

Then the sun and moon collided. A ray of the brightest light flared in her mind, shooting to her chest and bursting with a warmth so pure and safe.

“You were healing and needed time to adjust. We both had demons we had to face, and I didn’t want you to think for one moment that this was a distraction.” His eyes were pained, a look of terror filling them that pierced her chest. Every closely guarded emotion opened like a book before her, and she embraced each page of him. “You are not a distraction, Faythe. You are everything.”

“I don’t know what the future holds or where the path may end, but I plan to follow you down whatever perilous, reckless, adventurous road you lead, Faythe Ashfyre.” His lips curled in tender amusement. “I vow to stand by your side. I vow to protect you with my sword and my life. And I vow to bind my fate to yours, if you will have me. I’ve lived enough years in this world to know should you leave it, so too shall my desire to stay here without you.”

the one who understood her from the beginning, saw every flaw and strength she never knew she harbored.

“Until the end of days, Reylan Arrowood.” His smile—warm, genuine, and heartbreakingly rare—had become the light in her eternal shadow. “Maybe even longer, Faythe Ashfyre.”

“You are more than I could have wished for in this life, Faythe. And I know…I know you have it in you to change the world. Not with the power you wield or the crown that may befall you, but with that golden heart that sings in your chest. For what is good, for what is right, and for what is fair.”

“But sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. Watch the world burn and then rise from the ashes.”

While they were dull, cold, and perhaps already dead, Zaiana imagined the faint amber to have once been an envious gold.

oh nooo

Triumph would be hers with steel and will. As it had been throughout her whole life.

“Now, I am yours. This kingdom is yours. Freedom is yours to take and do what you want with. On my life, you will always have that.”

“You are going to be the end of me, Faythe Ashfyre.”

“I have more than everything I could have asked for in this life. I should be a better male. I shouldn’t be selfish and should let you go to find someone far more deserving of you,” he said fiercely. Faythe opened her mouth with a string of protest, but Reylan powered on. “As it turns out, I am not that male. I choose you, Faythe. I will always choose you. And I will always hope, as selfish as it may be, that you will choose me too.”

“You are right to fear, Nerida. I tried to warn you…” Zaiana’s gaze drifted to Maverick just as he pulled away from the body he had nearly drained dry. “We are made only of nightmares.”

“We wear our evil for all to see, but your kind…? Evil lies within you too, behind the illusion of forced peace and false kindness. So tell me, what makes you so different?”

He was wicked, evil, and brilliant. Her enemy…but her equal.

“You should be afraid of her capturing you.”

aka what happened to Reuben

“There are far more realms than our own. More than you could possibly imagine. It is why such Spirits were placed to act on their will, to keep our balance. I don’t think even they could have predicted the turn of events that unfolded a millennium ago,” he explained. “The will of the heart is a powerful thing even to the high and mighty.”

Faythe tried to recall what she knew of Marvellas and why she had gone against her Gods to ascend. What she did remember was the love tale that had struck her with foolish awe from the book The Forgotten Goddess.

“You cannot pick and choose when to stake your belief in me. I cannot choose. If I am to be Rhyenelle’s heir, this is it. Responsibility. No matter how harsh or burdensome it may be to accept.”

“This kingdom will burn before you claim it.” “Then it’s a shame you won’t bear witness,” Faythe said calmly, “when I sit upon a throne from the ashes.”

“You can torment in the Nether knowing you died on your knees before your queen.”

“Phoenixfyre.”

“You will know what it means soon enough. Good luck to you, Faythe Ashfyre. The beginning of the end is near.”

Zaiana was right: darkness spared no pure heart.

“Indeed. Though she is not the only royal highness I seem to have the esteemed pleasure of sitting with tonight.”

“You might find there are secrets within truths; that one answer is not always the only answer.”