Page 95 of A Kingdom of Shadow and Ash

‘See, I always had the feeling we could not be related.’ Kai pointed his finger at his younger brother, chuckling.

Kage rolled his eyes. He did that a lot with them. ‘I have asked mother countless times. Unfortunately, weare.’

Mal gasped exaggerately. ‘It cannot be true! How can Kai be related to the rest of us? He is insufferable.’

‘Insufferably handsome.’

Kage sighed, exasperated. He gave them one last look before heading out, his shadow bird following in silence. Mal grabbed another piece of bread and threw it at Kai. ‘You made him leave,’ she said.

‘Will you stop wasting food?’ Kai’s smile kept growing. ‘I know you are a princess, but you ought to be a bit more appreciative. A few weeks in this cursed land and you are acting like a real drakonian.’

Mal’s mouth formed the shape of anO, a moment of wide-eyed surprise before it shattered into laughter. It burst from her, raw and unrestrained, her hand slamming against the table as mirth overtook her. The sound rang through the room, fillingthe spaces between them like warmth against the cold.

Kai watched her, a slow smirk tugging at his lips, before reaching for a cup and filling it with wine. Drakonian wine—because there was no other in this sweltering, wretched land. It was thick and golden-red, drowning in honey, so sweet it felt like sin. He slid the goblet towards her.

‘Was it terrible?’

Mal was rubbing at her eyes when he asked the question. The laughter drained from her like water slipping through cupped hands. She stared at him from between her fingers, as if looking at him in fragments—bits and pieces instead of the whole—made it easier to speak.

Kai’s smirk vanished. His voice dropped, a quiet promise wrapped in steel. ‘I will kill him.’ There was no hesitation. No trace of the teasing brother who had spent the night making her laugh. ‘If you ask me to. I will do it. You know I will. All these kingdoms can find another princess to save them. They can curse us for an eternity for all I care. We can get on our wyverns and return home—stay there for the rest of our lives. We do not need the rest of the world. Just us.’

Mal let her hand fall from her face. She stood, stepping around the table, her movements slow, deliberate. When she reached him, she didn’t speak. She simply lowered herself onto his lap, curling into his arms the way she had as a child, when the world had felt just as heavy. She pressed her cheek against his chest.

Kai’s body tensed, his arms trembling where they hovered at his sides.

‘He did not touch me,’ she whispered.

The breath he had been holding released in a rush. His entire frame slackened, the tension bleeding from him in a single exhale.

‘Good,’ Kai growled. ‘I will break his fingers if he tries.’

Mal closed her eyes.

A single tear escaped before she could stop it. She buried her face deeper against him, hiding it—hidingeverything.What it meant.

That she was married to a man who could barely speak to her. A man who looked at her like she was an obligation, something to be tolerated, something to be avoided. A man she would have to kill to save the world. A man who had carved her homeland into the walls of his. A man she sometimes caughtwatchingher—not with hatred, not with resentment, but with something softer. Something almost…curious.Like she was a mystery. Like she wasworth looking at.The only man who had ever looked at her that way.

‘If he touches you, he will understand what wrath truly looks like.’ Kai ran his fingers through her wild, tangled hair, his voice a dark whisper.

Mal exhaled, the words sitting heavy in her chest. ‘He won’t touch me,’ Mal whispered, her heart squeezing at the rejection. ‘I don’t think he ever will.’

Princess Aithne has no brothers. The future ruler of the drakonians shall be her son—if she has one. I am pretty certain the king does not want his daughter marrying a phoenixian because he does not want them ruling his kingdom. That is why, I am almost sure he wants her to marry a wyverian. If she marries Hadrian, he will still be bound to his duties in his own land so their son will be trained to become the next Fire King. It is a perfect solution for the drakonians. The wyverians will not get involved as they will have their own affairs to deal with and all Hadrian will have to do is create a male heir for the drakonians.

I am pretty sure the phoenixians have caught on, and they are not happy.

Tabitha Wysteria

Alina moved through the castle like a storm roiling on the horizon, a tempest barely restrained, ready to break at the slightest provocation. Her fury crackled in the air, thick as thunder, and those who sensed it quickly stepped aside, pressing themselves to the walls as she passed. Servants dipped hurried curtsies, their eyes darting nervously after her, wondering what—orwho—had ignited such wrath in their princess.

Her rage simmered, coiling tight in her chest, but she kept her stride purposeful, her breath measured. She reminded herself, again and again, that her parentslovedher. Even if they were distant, even if they so often stood in opposition to her and Ash, theycared. That was the only thought keeping her from running.

She had dreamt of it since she was fifteen—of leaving, of slipping past the castle gates and never looking back. But she had never done it. Shewouldnever do it. Not with Ash here. Not now. Even though he had awife.

It hardly counts, Alina thought bitterly.

Mal Blackburn was not arealwife to Ash. She could never be. She knew nothing of him, nothing of his burdens, his struggles, the quiet battles he fought beneath the weight of expectation. And worst of all—she did notcareto know him.

Alina snorted.Of courseshe didn’t. The wyverian princess had been forced into a marriage she had never wanted. Alina wouldn’t care for her husband either, if she had been shackled to a stranger in such a way.

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