Ashes Of Betrayal

Ashes Of Betrayal

IBB

5.0
Comment(s)
35
View
15
Chapters

Evelyn Ashford seemed to have it all: a loving family, a promising future and a love that lasted forever. But in one night, it was all torn apart. Framed for treason by the man she loved and the stepmother she trusted, Evie is plunged into darkness, her name unsullied and her soul in tatters. Left to rot in a berserk branch of a Neapolitan prison cell, she curses the world that turned its back on her, swearing vengeance as her life drains from her. But death is not the end. Revived in a forbidden ceremony, Evie wakes with dark powers beyond her control and a heart hardened by betrayal. Along the way, the mysterious sorceress Liora guides her as she embarks on a dangerous path to reclaim her life and kill those who had wronged her. But the more Evie learns, the more she realizes that the line separating justice from vengeance is razor thin and the price of the power she has gained may be her very soul. Friends become foes and foes become friends as Evie navigates the assassin underbelly of a magical world she was never meant to be a part of. But as she gets closer to her revenge, she also risks losing herself in the darkness. In a world where love and betrayal are two sides of a single coin, what will Evie be a savior or a monster? Ashes of Betrayal is a dark fantasy story about love, loss, and a burning desire for revenge. If you enjoyed The Shadows Between Us, The Cruel Prince, Red Queen, then you can't miss this latest from Carla de Guzman, which will leave you breathless to the last page.

Ashes Of Betrayal Chapter 1 The Last Night

The air was heavy with the smell of roses and wine in the grand hall, but all Evelyn Ashford could do was choke. The chandeliers overhead shone like stars, bathing the crowd of nobles who had come to celebrate her engagement in a warming light. At the middle of it, in her ivory gown that sparkled under the lights, she was at the center of it all; but her grin felt like a mask she'd grown out of, couldn't bare to put on anymore.

Beside her stood her betrothed, Kael Ardent, his hand lingering lightly at the small of her back. He was everything the bards sang of heroes - tall and broad-shouldered with storm-cloud-colored eyes and a smile that could melt the frost off a mountain. But tonight, his touch felt far away, his laughter empty. Evie told herself it was only her nerves, that she was imagining the way his gaze flickered toward the shadows, where her stepmother, Lady Seraphine, was watching them like a hawk.

"You're quiet tonight," Kael said, his voice low and warm, but there was an edge in it that made her shiver.

"Just overwhelmed," Evie said, mustering another grin. "It's not every day that a girl has to become the future queen."

Kael's lips curled, though he didn't look at her. "You'll be a lovely queen," he said, though it sounded practiced, as if he'd said it a hundred times before.

Evie's chest tightened. She wanted to believe him, to believe in the future they had dreamed of together; but something was wrong. The whispers in the court, the way her stepmother's lips would curl wryly at the corners whenever she thought no one was paying attention - it all penetrated her like a splinter she couldn't dig out.

"Evie," Kael said, suddenly breaking into her thoughts. "I have something I need to tell you."

Her heart skipped a beat. "What is it?"

Before he could respond, the great doors of the hall flew open, and a dozen guards strode in, shining like a dozen stars in the light. The music stopped and silence reigned as the captain of the guard stepped up, his face somber.

"Evelyn Ashford," he called, his voice ringing in the hall, "you are under arrest for treason against the crown."

The words struck her like a blow and for a second she thought she had misheard. But then the guards were closing around her, hands calloused as they snatched her arms. The nobles gasped and began whispering amongst themselves as the room erupted into chaos, but Evie just barely noticed, instead struggling to comprehend what had just happened.

"Kael!" she wept, looking at him, but he didn't shift. His skeletal face was a mask of ice, and his stormy gaze was cold without a hint of the warmth that she had grown accustomed to. "Kael, what is this? Tell them they're mistaken!"

"I'm sorry, Evie," he said, toneless. "But the evidence is inescapable."

"Evidence?" she said again, her voice shaking. "What evidence?"

Lady Seraphine moved forward then, her red gown flowing behind her like blood on the ground. She carried a sealed letter, stamped with the crest of the kingdom. "This," she said, her tone thick with feigned sympathy. "A letter describing your plan to depose the king and put your lover on the throne."

Evie's blood ran cold. "That's a lie! I would never"

"Enough," Kael said, cutting him off, his tone curt. "You've done this to yourself, Evie."

The guards pulled her away, her pleas for mercy ignoring. She caught sight of her step siblings in the crowd, Cassian smirking, Isolde refusing to look at Feb, and Lucien staring at her with wide, terrified eyes. But no one spoke up for her. No one came to her defense.

As they dragged her through the palace hallways, her treachery weighed down on her like a cloak. Kael's cold eyes, Seraphine's triumphant smile, the silence of the court all replayed in her mind, a nightmare from which she couldn't wake.

They dumped her into a dark, damp cell, the iron door clang shut behind her with a finality that brought her knees to the floor. Her dress was rent and marred and her heart was breaking into a thousand pieces. As the darkness closed in around her, the last thing she saw was the moon glimmering faintly through the empty window grating, a cruel reminder of the life she had lost.

And then, as the cold chilled her bones and the tears dried on her cheeks, one thought planted itself in her fertile mind, growing stronger with every passing minute:

When I get out of here, I will make them pay.

Continue Reading

Other books by IBB

More

You'll also like

No Longer Mrs. Cooley: The Architect's Return

No Longer Mrs. Cooley: The Architect's Return

Xiao Xiaosu
4.5

I went to the City Clerk’s office for a routine copy of my marriage license to finalize a trust fund audit. I expected a simple piece of paper, but the clerk’s pitying look told me my entire life was a lie. "The license was never finalized, Ms. Oliver. In the eyes of the state, you are single." The three-hundred-guest wedding at the Plaza and the Vogue features meant nothing. My husband, Gray Cooley, had intentionally filed the documents with a "procedural defect" so he could discard me without a legal divorce. Moments later, an iCloud invite titled "Our Little Secret" popped up on my screen. It was a photo of my best friend, Brylee, holding a positive pregnancy test at our Hamptons estate. Gray’s text to her was the final blow: "Happy anniversary, babe. This baby is the best gift. Once the trust unlocks today, we’re done with the charade." I soon discovered they were even stealing my career, reassigning my architectural masterpiece to Brylee while preparing my eviction notice. Gray's mother called me a "barren mule" in a leaked recording, mocking the infertility I suffered after saving Gray’s life in a construction accident. I wasn't a wife; I was a three-year placeholder used to secure his inheritance. How could the man I bled for treat me like a disposable prop? How could my best friend carry his child while pretending to comfort me through my darkest moments? The betrayal burned until it turned into a cold, hard stone of fury. I didn't cry. Instead, I walked into the penthouse of the Barretts, the Cooleys' most powerful rivals. I signed a marriage contract with Kane Barrett, the man the tabloids called the "Beast of Wall Street." "I want a wedding," I told his father, my voice steady and lethal. "Bigger than the one I had with Gray." If they wanted me gone, they would have to watch me become the woman who owns their world.

Rising From Wreckage: Starfall's Epic Comeback

Rising From Wreckage: Starfall's Epic Comeback

Huo Wuer
4.5

Rain hammered against the asphalt as my sedan spun violently into the guardrail on the I-95. Blood trickled down my temple, stinging my eyes, while the rhythmic slap of the windshield wipers mocked my panic. Trembling, I dialed my husband, Clive. His executive assistant answered instead, his voice professional and utterly cold. "Mr. Wilson says to stop the theatrics. He said, and I quote, 'Hang up. Tell her I don’t have time for her emotional blackmail tonight.'" The line went dead while I was still trapped in the wreckage. At the hospital, I watched the news footage of Clive wrapping his jacket around his "fragile" ex-girlfriend, Angelena, shielding her from the storm I was currently bleeding in. When I returned to our penthouse, I found a prenatal ultrasound in his suit pocket, dated the day he claimed to be on a business trip. Instead of an apology, Clive met me with a sneer. He told me I was nothing but an "expensive decoration" his father bought to make him look stable. He froze my bank accounts and cut off my cards, waiting for the hunger to drive me back to his feet. I stared at the man I had loved for four years, realizing he didn't just want a wife; he wanted a prop he could switch off. He thought he could starve me into submission while he played father to another woman's child. But Clive forgot one thing. Before I was his trophy wife, I was Starfall—the legendary voice actress who vanished at the height of her fame. "I'm not jealous, Clive. I'm done." I grabbed my old microphone and walked out. I’m not just leaving him; I’m taking the lead role in the biggest saga in Hollywood—the one Angelena is desperate for. This time, the "decoration" is going to burn his world down.

The Discarded Heiress: Marrying My Lethal Husband

The Discarded Heiress: Marrying My Lethal Husband

Xiao Wang
5.0

The rain in Detroit was slick with grime when my family finally came to fetch me. They didn't want a reunion; they wanted a sacrificial lamb to marry into the Kaufman empire to save their failing business. I thought I was just being sold off, but the limo ride ended under a dark overpass where six hired thugs were waiting with chains. My own sister had ordered them to "break my spirit" so I’d be a shaking, pathetic mess by the time I reached the altar. They called me "Detroit trash" and sprayed air freshener when I sat on their leather seats. My stepmother wanted a video of me begging for my life, and my father was ready to trade me like a used car to a man everyone called a "vegetable." They expected a submissive country girl, unaware that I was a high-level "cleaner" who could snap a radius bone before they could even scream. When I finally reached the Kaufman estate, I found my fiancé, Barron, slumped in a wheelchair, drooling and silent. But as soon as the doors closed, the "invalid" grabbed my wrist with a grip of iron and whispered a command that changed everything. I didn't understand why my own blood was so desperate to see me destroyed. What had I ever done to deserve a hit squad and a forced marriage to a man they thought was a corpse? But Barron isn't a vegetable, and I'm not a victim. We just touched down at the Moon family gala in a matte-black helicopter, and as the doors slide open, the "broken" bride is about to show them exactly what happens when you throw away the wrong daughter. "If we're going to crash a party," Barron whispered, his eyes burning with lethal clarity, "we should make an entrance."

Betrayed Bride: Claimed By The Brother

Betrayed Bride: Claimed By The Brother

Reilly Mcardle
5.0

I arrived at the hotel with Julian's favorite takeout, ready to surprise my fiancé before our big merger. But the moment I swiped the keycard, the silence of the hallway felt heavy and wrong. Inside, a red-soled stiletto lay on the marble floor-the same one I'd watched my best friend Lila try on at Saks last week. Through the cracked bedroom door, I watched Julian's back arch as Lila looked me straight in the eye and smiled, wrapping her legs tighter around him to mock my heartbreak. I fled to the penthouse to hide, only to find Grafton, Julian's "crippled" brother, waiting in the dark. To my horror, the man who was supposed to be paralyzed stood up from his wheelchair, gripped my chin with cold fingers, and forced me to sign a contract that gave him control of my family's shares. He knew about my mother's secret medical bills and used them to buy my silence, effectively turning my life into a calculated game of corporate chess. The betrayal tasted like acid, and the injustice of it all burned in my throat. My fiancé was a liar, my best friend was a thief, and the man now controlling my fate was a predator who had been faking his disability for years. I couldn't understand how everyone I trusted had turned out to be a monster. I was trapped between a man who cheated on me and a man who wanted to own me, with no way out and no one to turn to. But when Julian came looking for me, Grafton didn't hide; he stood tall, looming over me with a possessive glint in his eyes. "Help me destroy Julian," I rasped, realizing that to survive the Faulkner men, I had to become the most dangerous player of them all.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
Ashes Of Betrayal Ashes Of Betrayal IBB Fantasy
“Evelyn Ashford seemed to have it all: a loving family, a promising future and a love that lasted forever. But in one night, it was all torn apart. Framed for treason by the man she loved and the stepmother she trusted, Evie is plunged into darkness, her name unsullied and her soul in tatters. Left to rot in a berserk branch of a Neapolitan prison cell, she curses the world that turned its back on her, swearing vengeance as her life drains from her. But death is not the end. Revived in a forbidden ceremony, Evie wakes with dark powers beyond her control and a heart hardened by betrayal. Along the way, the mysterious sorceress Liora guides her as she embarks on a dangerous path to reclaim her life and kill those who had wronged her. But the more Evie learns, the more she realizes that the line separating justice from vengeance is razor thin and the price of the power she has gained may be her very soul. Friends become foes and foes become friends as Evie navigates the assassin underbelly of a magical world she was never meant to be a part of. But as she gets closer to her revenge, she also risks losing herself in the darkness. In a world where love and betrayal are two sides of a single coin, what will Evie be a savior or a monster? Ashes of Betrayal is a dark fantasy story about love, loss, and a burning desire for revenge. If you enjoyed The Shadows Between Us, The Cruel Prince, Red Queen, then you can't miss this latest from Carla de Guzman, which will leave you breathless to the last page.”
1

Chapter 1 The Last Night

13/02/2025

2

Chapter 2 The Dark Ritual

13/02/2025

3

Chapter 3 The First Flame

13/02/2025

4

Chapter 4 Shadows Of The Past

13/02/2025

5

Chapter 5 The Path To Redemption

14/02/2025

6

Chapter 6 The Shadow's Edge

14/02/2025

7

Chapter 7 Heart Of Blackthorn

14/02/2025

8

Chapter 8 The Raven's Warning

15/02/2025

9

Chapter 9 The Gloom Of Encounter

15/02/2025

10

Chapter 10 The Shattered Agreement

15/02/2025

11

Chapter 11 The Lost Order

15/02/2025

12

Chapter 12 The Shield Of Night

15/02/2025

13

Chapter 13 Burden Of Sacrifice

22/02/2025

14

Chapter 14 An Inquiry

22/02/2025

15

Chapter 15 The Whispering Shadows

22/02/2025