Lady of Ashes

A ten-year-old Talwyn hides beneath a table while Sorin, her aunt Eliné's Second, hunts her during magic practice at the Black Halls.

A ten-year-old Talwyn hides beneath a table while Sorin, her aunt Eliné's Second, hunts her during magic practice at the Black Halls. When he finds her by sensing her unshielded power, she tries to extinguish his flames but accidentally summons flowers from across the Courts—lavender and dogwood blooms that shouldn't grow anywhere nearby. Eliné arrives and promises her niece will master her gifts in time. Sorin sneaks the girl frozen cream, teasing her to practice fire control before it melts. When Talwyn asks if he will still be beside her when she becomes queen, he promises to stay at her side as long as he lives. These are the last uncomplicated memories either of them will have.

Scarlett blocks her twin flame and vanishes into enemy hands

Talwyn wakes in the White Halls to learn from Ashtine, Princess of the Wind Court, that Scarlett has disappeared. No one informed the Eastern Fae Queen. Meanwhile at the Fiera Palace, Sorin throws Scarlett's name down their twin flame bond and feels it slam into an ancient wall—she enacted a Blood Magic Mark before letting herself be taken from the Earth Court border, where she had fought and killed nearly an entire clan of Night Children alone. The twin flame Mark on his hand has not faded, so she must be alive. But he cannot feel her, find her, or reach her. When Ashtine reveals the winds saw Scarlett near the Earth Court border, Azrael confirms dead Night Children there along with an unidentified scent of Earth Court descent. The hunt begins on both sides.

Alaric reveals himself as a Maraan Prince and Scarlett as Avonleyan

Scarlett wakes shackled in shirastone in the Assassin Lord's dungeon study, her magic completely suppressed. A Fae named Tarek—working with Alaric—captured her after the border fight. Alaric feeds her water drop by drop, then reveals what her Blood Mark truly cost: it blocked not just Sorin, but Shirina her spirit animal and Cassius her Guardian. He tells her Eliné was not her birth mother. Her real mother wielded shadows and night, transferring Eliné's fire and ice to Scarlett through Blood Magic. Then Alaric pulls back his hood for the first time in her life. Black eyes, black hair, pointed ears. He is a Maraan Prince—son of Deimas and Esmeray, the architects of the Great War. His plan: use Scarlett to breach the wards protecting Avonleya.