Page 1 of Only Flames Remain

CHAPTER 1

Aveline

In all my time in the kingdom of Myros, I had never seen so many henbane flowers in one place. I had scoured the shores of the Saltale Sea every summer, but I was lucky if I found even three or four blooms to harvest. I reached out with my gloved hand, plucking the creamy purple leaves covered in dots from their stem. The foul odor filled my nostrils as the petals stuck to my glove. Oh, how I craved crushing a few of these poisonous leaves and slipping them into Queen Dyata’s tea.

I shook my head as I slipped the petals into my satchel, dispelling the thought. These leaves were only for me. Despite my hatred for the queen of Myros, I needn’t be so impulsive. She was Kallias’s mother after all, and if we were to wed one day, I would need to learn to be civil with her—at the very least.

I could hear my name ringing out across the open field, but I didn’t turn my head. I only needed to grab a few more. There was no telling when I would have time to come back to harvest again. King Faris expected Gothryn—the kingdom across the sea—would attack at any moment. The entire kingdom of Myros was on high alert. Prince Kallias was sure to have me safely tucked away in the castle for the impending months. I might be skilled with the bow and arrow, but I was lackluster with the blade. Fighting didn’t thrum in my blood the way it did for others. I blamed it on my heritage, as did the rest of the kingdom.

Humans would always be lesser than fae.

“Aveline!” The soft hum of Enora’s voice reached my ears once more. I tossed my silky black hair over my shoulder, picking as many of the sticky leaves as I could before she reached me.

I would need them later.

“There you are! Didn’t you hear me calling your name?” Enora huffed, her hands on her hips as if she had run across the kingdom in search of me.

I turned toward her, shielding my eyes from the flare of the sun as I met her sapphire gaze.

“I was lost in thought,” I mused, a smile playing across my rouge-stained lips as she raised her pale brows at me.

She gave me a playful shove that had me falling back a step. Enora might not have been that much taller than me, but she was Veytari. She had the strength of the fae on her side.

I was merely human.

Her might could eclipse mine even on her worst day. Despite having grown up together, she still hadn’t grown accustomed to the fact that I was fragile. Breakable. Painfully mortal.

She tucked an ivory lock of hair behind her pointed ear, her gaze squinting across the sea behind me. The cliff where I had been harvesting herbs for the apothecary had become eclipsed in shadow within moments of her approach. The sky darkened with roiling thunderclouds as the waves beneath the steep cliff’s drop thrashed angrily against the weathered stone. I stepped back toward her, and she wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me against her side.

“Prince Kallias sent me to fetch you. A storm is coming.”

I nodded, the smile that lifted the corner of my mouth not reaching my eyes. I hadn’t had nearly enough time to harvest today, and I wasn’t sure when I would be able to sneak out of the palace again. I was running low on belladonna and black hellebore, too. I would have to see what could be done about it in the coming weeks.

I sent a silent prayer up to Orrithan—the god of the forest—that I would have another opportunity to scavenge after the summer solstice and that I would be granted a plentiful forage. Not that the prayer would do me much good.

The age of the gods was long over.

“I have to stop at the market before heading back,” I told her, following along as she dragged me across the overgrown field toward the palace of Myros.

The grass had grown tall this summer. Tall enough to brush my elbows as I fished through my satchel, counting off the elixirs I could make with what I had gathered today. It would have to be enough to last me these next few weeks.

“I’ll come with. We don’t want Mother Dearest to worry,” she teased.

I elbowed her in the side and she had the decency to at least pretend it hurt.

“She isn’t my mother…yet,” I replied tensely.

My relationship with Queen Dyata was strained, and that was putting it lightly. I had to admit that if I were in her shoes, I might feel the same way. Kallias Ashbourne was the sole heir to the throne of Myros. It was unheard of for Veytari fae to mix with humans at all, let alone royalty. Queen Dyata didn’t intend for Kallias and I to be the first.

“But she will be if Kallias has his way.” Enora nodded to herself, letting her arm drop from my shoulders as we turned toward the worn dirt path south of the castle.

I narrowed my eyes at her back as she trudged ahead of me, but I knew she was right.

One glance behind me was enough to confirm that no one could see the henbane from here. The grass across the field had grown high enough to conceal the alcove by the sea wall where it had begun to grow. It was illegal to harvest poisons, but that had never stopped me before.

I followed her billowing dark cloak along the dirt-laden path around the castle, toward the markets of Majur. I was hoping to find at least one mandrake root before returning to the apothecary.

The alley to the marketplace steeply sloped toward the Saltale Sea, a narrow vein of cobblestone glistening with remnants of the high tide. Weathered stone buildings on the verge of collapse leaned inward overhead, their balconies bowed with age. They were draped in nets and rope, windows gaping out onto the street with shutters weathered by salt air and age. Gulls wheeled and cried overhead, wings flashing white against the darkening sky.