An Ember of Chaos: A Slow Burn Romantic Fantasy (Fireheart Book 2) by Amber Lynn Natusch

Author:Amber Lynn Natusch [Natusch, Amber Lynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amber Lynn Natusch
Published: 2024-07-25T00:00:00+00:00

ARIEL

When the sun did indeed rise, I awoke to find a different maid fussing about my room. “You must get dressed,” she said, flinging my comforter off me. “The master will not be made to wait.”

“Yes,” I said with a smile, “I’m beginning to understand his love of punctuality.”

She looked over her shoulder at me, exposing a cheek marred with a ghastly scar. She stood there still as stone, willing me to take in the warning she must not have heeded in the past, then placed a new dress on the chair.

“I can dress myself,” I insisted.

She nodded once before heading to the door. “Be in the dining room in ten minutes.” The door clicked shut behind her.

Though I wanted to chase after her and ask a million questions, I hurried about the room, opting to prepare for my meeting with Vesstan. He may or may not have been able to burn me, but I wasn’t at all interested in finding out—or learning what other types of wounds he could inflict.

After managing to secure the dress around my wings, I rushed from my room. I cast a glance at Hemming’s door, desperately wanting to see him and tell him what my father had told me. But when I looked down the lengthy hallway to the room I’d dined in the previous evening, I saw Vesstan standing in the arched entryway, staring.

“Good morning,” I called as I hurried toward him. “I hope you haven’t been waiting long. I couldn’t seem to get this fastener to behave.” I stopped before him, pretending to fiddle with the hook at the small of my back. “Ah! Got it.” I smiled at him in mock victory while his eerie deep blue eyes raked over me.

“I thought this dress would suit you better,” he said in a flat, unimpressed tone.

“Oh.” I tried to act disappointed by his words when they secretly gave me joy. “Shall I go put on the white one from last night? I think the maid left it⁠—”

“No, this will suffice for now. Come,” he said, offering his arm, “let me show you the grounds. You’ll love them.”

With hidden trepidation, I linked my arm with his, and he guided me out into the blinding sunrise. It took my eyes a moment to adjust, but once they did, I gasped. Floral gardens stretched out before us as far as the eye could see in a kaleidoscope of color and texture. Kaplyn’s estate was a beautiful landscape filled with touches of such grandeur, but this was something else entirely. And the longer words seemed to fail me, the more entertained Vesstan became.

“As I said...” I looked up to find him smiling at me, but it lacked even a hint of warmth. He was a spider spinning a web around what he presumed to be an unsuspecting victim, and his satisfaction with himself was plain. I wondered if he’d look so pleased when I buried a blade in his heart.

“It’s exquisite.”

“Let us get a closer look, then.

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