Vows in Glass and Ash

by Ellis Carrington

Heat 3 / 5Novella · 12 chapters31,922 words2h 19m read~3h 33m listen

The flooded cellars of a ruined exile estate hold more than rotting ledgers and ash-caked coin. Dispatched to audit the crown debts buried beneath the drowned vaults of House Vale, royal throne-tax auditor Liora Morrow descends into the dark with ember-lamp in hand and guilt she has carried for years pressing against her ribs. What she finds is not merely missing silver. The forbidden winter masque disguise she secretly stashed in a sealed wardrobe is gone, lifted by hands she cannot yet name.

A falcon from the Glass Court follows close behind, bearing a summons she never signed: Liora Morrow will appear at the winter masque to declare a throne bargain with an exile house whose crest wax has been deliberately melted into silence. An impostor wearing her stolen guise intends to speak her name before the court and bind her to her enemies forever.

With ash stubbornly clinging to her silk gloves and the cellars rising around her, Liora is forced into a wary alliance with the last person she would choose — Rafael Vale, proud and embittered heir of the disgraced house, who despises the crown’s ledgerman and everything she signed away. He needs her access. She needs his knowledge. Neither is prepared for what ignites between them in the narrow dark of the Glass Court’s mirrored galleries.

Court IntrigueEnemies To LoversDark Romantasy