Blade of Ash (Scepter and Crown, #1)

by C.F.E. Black

“But those gophers got what was coming to them. No more tunnels under the roses.” “No more roses.” “Small matter.”

“Things appear to be changing. History tells us that when things change, it is either because we have learned something new or because we have forgotten something old.”

“Sometimes people are put in our lives for a reason. We cross paths, and the entire course of our existence is changed, leading us toward a future we never expected but were always meant to have.”

“In the meantime, simply tell me what I’m supposed to do.” Her green eyes blinked at him. “Stay alive.” “You really do want me to live.” He said it like it had just dawned on him. “Of course,” she breathed.

His face was speckled with the moving sunlight filtering through the trees, as if the light and shadow were dancers and his skin was the stage.

“I wish I could keep you safe,” he muttered,

He did not want it to end. Unexpectedly he wanted only one thing: to cross the distance between them.

“I will save you,” she muttered, then hopped down from the carriage.

“The sorcerer prior to me, his name was Augustus; he helped me understand why it was hard to ignore your Truthwell. Now I’m supposed to search out the depths of what was, for years, off limits to me.” “Off limits?” His words were so quiet, he didn’t think she heard them. “I’ve been off limits to you?” he said, a little louder. “All this time, I’ve wanted to know who my father’s secret sorcerer was, but you were off limits to me.”

For the past six years, they’d both been held back. From each other.

Magic had kept them apart, and now magic Bound them together—in a strange, twisted dance toward death.

The truth was that his sorcerer had bewitched his heart.

she didn’t just want Red to live because it was right, she wanted him to live so he could look at her the way he had started to on this trip.

“Okay, Red. Go save the world. Then come back here so I can save you.”

Mira might have been an attractive face to Red once, but nothing more. Now the woman he couldn’t stop thinking about was not available to him.

He needed the magic of relief that she alone could give, but he wanted more than that, which he hated to admit.

Because, for the first time, he needed her—and not only for her magic.

“Aly!” He was the crown. “Can you hear me?” She was the scepter. “Wake up!” He could not rule without her.

He didn’t want to rule without her.

She was supposed to reign with him. With him.

It wasn’t her magic. It was her.

“Come back to me.”

She was his mad hope.

She was the flame. He was the bird. Together, they were Tandera. Truth will rise.

“But I have you.”

“You’ll be just fine. I’m right beside you.” “But what if no one even looks at me?” “I assure you, they will.” Her chin down, she whispered, “And will you?” She was giving him permission. Even though it broke the rules of logic, Red didn’t care. In that moment, he was on fire. His hand dropped over Aly’s, so that his fingers slid between hers. “I already am.”