Page 2 of Crown of Ashes

“You’ve got a visitor, Majesty. She claims she’s the princess of Caer Lira. Zia. She’s asking for an audience with Fear.” Maura hesitated. “I’m not sure who she truly is. She might be the princess. Might not. She looks worn down and dirty.”

“Why didn’t she send word earlier?”

Fear had been hoping she’d reach us for sanctuary.

“I asked the same. She said the journey took some turns, and she came here the moment her ship docked.” Maura tapped the hilt of her blade with her long, pointed nails. “The only reason I believe it is her is because she doesn’t seem to know Caer Lira’s fallen.”

Her kingdom had fallen to Celyn, the rebel prince. “She couldn’t fly?”

Maura shook her head. “Unless she’s another pretender to the throne. Perhaps she’s not a shifter at all.”

“Well, when Fear arrives, he’ll know her face,” I said.

The royals of Caer Lira had hidden their true faces, which meant pretenders to the Caer Lira throne had risen before their kingdom itself fell.

Maura nodded. “All right.” Then, a little slyly, “Are you curious about her?”

“Curious about my husband’s first love? The ex-fiancée who almost certainly despises me?” I raised my brows as if she were ridiculous. “Yes, terribly.”

Most of all, I knew Fear dreaded telling her that we could not help her. I wished I could spare him that pain.

“Take me to meet her,” I said, and a grin spread across Maura’s face.

“I love when you’re petty,” she said cheerfully, which worried me.

“No killing her,” I reminded Maura.

“I can’t help what happens if she looks at you wrong. She’s much better trained than you. Much more badass.” Maura still sounded quite merry. “Even if it’s true that the rebellion suppressed her dragon somehow. I still might have to kill her…as your bodyguard.”

Maura’s loyalty was a terrifying thing.

“I’ve tried to free you,” I reminded her.

“You need me.”

“There is that.”

Maura and I went to meet her in the receiving room where Zia was waiting.

She rose when I walked in, her face brightening before she saw it was just me. She couldn’t hide how her face fell, or she didn’t try. “Who are you?”

“Cara. Fear’s wife.”

“Also queen of Caer Own. Also savior of our kingdom.” Maura bowed her head with subservience that she would only ever pretend as a lark. Her fingers were still wrapped around the hilt of her dagger.

Caer Lira had been an ally to Caer Own. Zia’s rotten grandfather had stood in that courtyard with Fear’s mother and destroyed a dragon to build their empires on its bones. Zia had been Fear’s friend.

I moved toward Zia, mostly to slow Maura down if she felt compelled.

What would the princess be to us now?

Zia

The receiving room in the capital castle had not changed, and I hated that. The same blue and silver tapestries hung along the far wall, including the hunting scene where one hound had been stitched back together, crooked eye and all.

When we were seven years old, I’d been trying to teach Fear how to throw knives, and his aim had been deplorable. He’d been afraid of what would happen afterward, which seemed so strange to me. If I had destroyed something trying to learn to be a better fighter, my parents would’ve waved it away.

But Fear’s terror had been real, and so I had used my fledgling sewing skills—essential for a princess, because we had to be able to stitch our warriors back together if they needed us—and I’d stitched the hound’s eye back together. Fear thought it was miraculous. He had thought at the time that I was miraculous.