A Bargain Sealed in Cinder

by Ellis Carrington

Heat 3 / 5Novella · 12 chapters29,162 words2h 7m read~3h 14m listen

At a frozen checkpoint in the border mistlands, Jovie Morrow has spent years surviving under borrowed names, carrying secrets for exile courts and keeping the ghost of her ruined house alive from the shadows. Then a sealed glass-and-cinder decree arrives, bearing the Ashen sigil and her true blood-mark, and every careful distance she has placed between herself and the Glass Court collapses in a single, breathless moment.

The terms are simple and merciless. A secret bargain sworn in her father’s name comes due at winter solstice. Jovie must return to the glittering jaws of the Ashen Palace and present herself as the devoted intended of Commander Jonas Ellery — the ruthless Ashborn officer whose campaign turned House Morrow to ash and rubble. The ember clergy are watching, tallying every hesitation. If she refuses, her scattered kin will be branded heretics before the solstice fires die.

Jonas is colder than she remembered, and more dangerous. He moves through the mirrored galleries of the Glass Court like a man who has already won every room he has ever entered. Jovie knows how to feign loyalty — she has done it for years in exile courts far less treacherous than this one. What she cannot account for is the way his quiet warnings feel like protection, the way his hand at her back no longer feels entirely like a weapon.

Court IntrigueEnemies To LoversDark Romantasy