Page 65 of Crown of Ashes and Awe

I asked about her life back on Earth. Sleep didn’t matter. And it gave me an excuse to stay on my feet and fidget, to warm up my body with movement. Lennon, as it happened, had led a fairly lonely life that wasn’t dissimilar to my own, but that all changed when she fell in with a band of witches, which led her to Griffon. Before discovering her dragon, it sounded as if they had an exciting time unraveling the mysteries of the Hestians there, whom they called Fae.

It had all culminated in a flight through the stars to deliver their passenger to the palace and then finding themselves prisoners of the very people she expected to see her as family. “I hope that when the people at the palace find out where the blue dragon has been taken, that they’ll come find us.” After a sigh, she added, “I can’t help wondering if, deep down, I’m like these DeNoy. Or maybe I might have been if I hadn’t met Griffon.”

“Impossible,” I told her. “My entire life has turned upside down since Demius was killed, and I’m the same person I was before I left the canyon. I take that back. I’m a lot colder.”

We both laughed but stopped abruptly when the guard jumped to his feet. His chair fell back and hit the floor, his rope fell to the ground, forgotten. As he rushed toward my door, his eyes were wild, his mouth slack. I quickly backed away, grateful for the barricade between us—which he could open if he wanted to.

“You said Demius!” he accused, then repeated it in a whisper.

I didn’t dare admit anything.

He disappeared for a few seconds and came back with a torch held up to light the inside of my cell. Far enough back so he could see me, look me up and down. “You know Demius.”

“Iknewa Demius. He was killed…days ago.”

“Days ago! Where?”

He had to know someone else by that name, and I said as much. “We lived in Redstone Canyon, in the south.”

“We…lived…You knew Demius.” His whisper was almost…reverent.

“We are talking about two different men. The Demius I knew never left the canyon?—"

He grabbed a window bar and shook it, his eyes even wilder than before. “The key! Do you have the key?”

For the second time since being imprisoned, I forced myself not to reach for the heavy weight resting below my breasts. I pinched my brows together and pretended ignorance. “What key?”

“He took it. They know he took it…when he took everything else.” He shook the door again, with excitement now, not menace. “Tell me, quickly, how I find this canyon—” A loud ruckus caught his attention, and he turned frantic again. “You should know…they will force you to fight tomorrow, in the arena. All of you.” Reluctantly, he released the door and stepped away. To Lennon he said, “no one at the palace will know you are here. Every guard, every dragon, down to the smallest skylith, was slaughtered. No one knows Ciro took you.”

I had to know. “Who are you?”

He pressed a finger to his lips, warning me to stay quiet. “I am Zelan.”

Lennon whispered, “Can you help us, Zelan?”

The staircase filled with footsteps and the murmur of many voices, and Zelan backed away. “We are trying,” he said.

“We?”

He smiled. “There are moreArd Draoihere than Ciro knows.” Then he was gone.

30

DANCING WITH THE DEVIL

Irecognized our host’s sharp footsteps before he came into view. I immediately backed away, not wanting to catch his notice, but it didn’t matter. My door was his destination.

“Come forward, Asper. I have a wonderful surprise for you.”

If he’d brought along Griffon’s severed wings to show me, I intended to puke through the window in his direction. And I braced myself for just that as I moved back to the door and looked out.

He stood back, grinning, with Mother Semel’s long purple gown draped down the front of him, like he was tempted to try it on for size. The hole in the waist, the rips, they’d been mended and it shimmered in the torchlight, looking as perfect as the day I’d found it in the keep.

“Do you see? All repaired. And lest I forget…” He lifted his free hand and placed the delicate, jeweled crown on his head. It was too small, so he had to hold it in place. “Look what they found in your sack. Isn’t it magnificent?”

“Yes, lovely,” Lennon drawled. “It will be a pity if it gets blood on it.”

Ciro ignored her. At the wave of his hand, a guard righted Zelan’s chair and moved it closer to our host, who draped the gown over the back and set the crown on the seat. “I’ll just leave this here for you. I’ll expect you to wear it tomorrow. We’re holding a big celebration, the one I told you about, where we will celebrate the arrival of the blue dragon. You’ll sit with me. And as a supposed princess of Hestia, I expect you to be civil.” The words or else were left unspoken.

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