The Princess of Ash novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: The Princess of Ash
Auren Vask went down on one knee on the stones of my father's balcony, and asked me properly.
"Thessaly Orme."
His voice shook, and he let it.
"I have no flame to offer you, no Council and no treaty.
"I have a mountain that smells of sulphur and a sister who steals your shoes.
"I have a bed I would like to share on any night you choose.
"Will you marry me in a garden, with whoever you love around you, and nobody counting to ten?"
I looked down at the sovereign of the Cinder Throne with his bare hands open.
"Yes," I said.
"I'll have the garden in the Emberhold, in the black soil behind the forge hall."
"Why there?"
"Because it's the one garden where nothing was ever meant to grow."
He laughed, a short astonished sound, and stood and kissed me hard enough to rock me onto my heels.
The ash garden lay in a hollow on the shoulder of the volcano, where the old dragon-kin burned their dead.
The soil was fine and black as soot.
Red flowers grew out of it by the hundred, small stubborn things with petals.
Marit had planted them the night before and sworn at them until they bloomed.
Three hundred dragon-kin stood in the grey light along the paths.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of The Princess of Ash are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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