The Princess of Ash novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Six Days

"I can't kill you," I said.

He had left the balcony door open, and the volcano's glow lay red across the floor of his chamber.

He sat on the edge of the bed with his boots off and the bandage gone from his hand.

The wound had closed to a pink line.

I stood in the doorway with the crumpled paper in my fist, and I held it out.

Auren read it by firelight.

He read it twice, and the muscle in his jaw jumped.

"A child," he said.

"My brother."

"Nine."

"Yes."

"He holds a boy of nine over my head for a throat he cannot reach himself."

He folded the paper small and set it on the table.

"I have known about the boy," he said.

"Since the hall."

"Why didn't you say?"

"Because you would not have believed me.

"Would you?"

I looked at him, at the scar on his throat and the grey in his eyes where the orange had faded.

"No."

"Then I will say it now.

"Tell me what you want, Thessaly."

Nobody had ever asked me that.

I'd been asked whether I was ready, whether I'd practised, whether I had memorized the plan.

"I want my brother out of that house," I said.

"And I want to know what happened to my mother.

"And I want," I said, and my voice broke, "to stop feeling like this about you."

"Which is the one you want most?"

"The first."

"Liar."

I laughed, a wet, ugly laugh.

"The second."

"Liar again."

I crossed the room.

He rose to meet me, but I put my palm flat on his chest and pushed.

He sat back on the bed, hard, and looked up at me with those slow-burning eyes.

"Don't move," I said.

"You are giving me orders."

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