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

by C.C. Peñaranda

“In Ungardia’s darkest hour, when all shall burn and fall, only the Phoenix Queen can find a throne from the ashes, and rise it true for all.”

“Because you are my biggest weakness,” he began in barely more than a whisper. Faythe blinked, stunned. “But you are also my greatest strength, Faythe.

“You brought me back,” she whispered. “You always bring me back.” Reylan shook his head. “No, Faythe.” Both his palms held her face. “You brought me back.”

“Because you’re not the monster in this story, Reylan. We’re all someone’s villain.” His brow pinched, and a dose of treasured wisdom from a dear lost friend echoed past her lips. “It’s not the act but the intention that separates the good from the evil.”

Without question, she followed him, knowing it wouldn’t matter if she stared in the face of beauty or horror. She would always follow him.

“But I’ve come to realize tomorrow isn’t my promise to give. What I can promise…is me. Until the last tomorrow comes. I want you to know every broken piece of me belongs to you.”

“You’re not broken, Reylan. Not to me,”

“I was going to say I love you…” She took a short pause. Pain swelled in her chest, stealing her breath. “But it’s not enough. Not for what I feel for you.”

“You are my heart, Faythe Ashfyre. When you lose yourself to anger, when you are consumed by passion, when you risk yourself defending… Gods, do I love every impossible, reckless, and fierce part of you.” Faythe released a laugh mixed with a cry. Her eyes blurred, but elation kept her tears from falling. “And I will spend the rest of my days showing you when words fail that you are everything. In this life or the next, I will always find you.”

“I plan to worship every inch of you. Again and again, until you believe it. My love and desire for you knows no limits.”

She forgot everything but his name as she cried it out while her release surged through her like the forming of a galaxy. Colors, stars, darkness—it exploded like a blissful end and a new beginning behind her eyes, which clamped shut as her body bowed off the ground.

“You are my Phoenix, Faythe.” She couldn’t be sure what he meant by it, but the adoration quieting his words surged her with strength. Then his tone dropped to a husky murmur. “This is only the beginning of what I plan to do with you.”

In this cave, Reylan was simply a fae, and she simply a human, and all that mattered was their love for one another.

For a long time, Faythe thought she would never find where she truly belonged. In High Farrow, in Rhyenelle, in anywhere else on the map of Ungardia and beyond—never did she believe she would find it. Feel it. Now she knew why. It was not in any one place where she would be bound by duty over heart. It was by his side. No matter where they traveled or settled, if the kingdoms fell and the world burned to ash, by Reylan’s side she would always belong, and she’d never expected to find her true home in a fae so raw and fierce.

“You saw me. As more than just a twisted existence. And I saw you, Reylan. I saw that you deserved everything you thought you didn’t.” Her fingers traced over the marks on his bare chest, a painful lump of emotion constricting her words, reducing them to a whisper. “Everything and so much more.”

“There is only one moral that will see us through to the other side,” Izaiah chirped up from the front. “And what, dare I ask, is that?” Livia questioned. “That we remember, no matter what, to always have Faythe.” He turned to her with a beaming grin and shot a playful wink. It lifted her skittish mood, and she shook her head with a loose laugh. “To live as if death is a game,” Kyleer joined in lightheartedly. “Love is a prize,” Livia continued. “And danger is desire,” Izaiah finished.

“My last breath would be yours,” she heard his truth. “To make sure you knew…I will always find you.”

“My last words would be thank you. To the family I found who shaped me into who I am.”

“And thank you. Because I never knew how lost I was until you found me.”

I will not be weak. I will not cower.

The moonlight softened every sculptured angle of his face and offered light to one who had lost the will to search for

“I hate you,” she whispered. Though it held no meaning, no impact. What she hated…was her want for him. His eyes held hers, and a new life sparked within their cold, black depths. “Show me,” he challenged, eyes dipping to her mouth. “Show me how much you hate me.”

They were darkness on darkness. Fire on fire. Together, they could blissfully destroy each other and the world in their wake.

Their blades locked, bringing their faces mere inches apart. Amber flame blazed into amethyst lightning, at risk of destroying the world in the wake of their rage and defiance.

I help you release that power, your body will fail. You need to keep fighting just a little longer. Fight through this night. Fight for everything I haven’t had the chance to give you yet. For the life I promise to always stand by your side throughout.” His eyes connected to something within her. Not his ability, but a striking will to survive. For him, for herself…for the time they deserved to have together. “Until the end of days.”

it would be without fear. Zaiana stood confidently. She was the storm against the rolling clouds; the thunder in the silent air. She was darkness triumphant. She wouldn’t go out standing idle.

“She is Faythe Ashfyre of Rhyenelle. And she is the Phoenix Queen.”

“Atherius,”

Atherius—bonded of Matheus Ashfyre, the first King of Rhyenelle.

anticipation of the presence that lingered like a ghost. “A peculiar mind you have,” a voice sang, sending a coat of ice down every notch of her spine. “So much conflict. You love so passionately but hate so precisely. You fear so truly but have a bravery so rare.”

But she always came back to him, to Reylan, as the single thing she wanted to be in this life…was his. Something he would always have when he thought he deserved nothing.

Love was damning. But it was also absolution.

With every evil born—” “A way to destroy it is conceived in turn.”

“The Great General of Rhyenelle, the one they call the White Lion of the South, and the one who will be remembered in history within stories of battles and reign for millennia…is your soul-bonded mate, Faythe Ashfyre.”

“You are two parts of the same sword. A blade without a hilt cannot be wielded. A hilt without a blade is forgotten potential. With the weapon you could become, together, you could change the world.”

“You live, and you fight, for the world of the dreamer.”