THE CROWN OF ASH AND MOONLIGHT

p. Ysolde knew becau

ere the assassin had died. She lay on the couch with her ribs aching and pretended to rest. Neither of them spoke.

had said. I

ys w

e wall and told hers

e king summon

t hall was packed with captains, Elders, and curious nobles, and th

said. His voice was bored and cold. "A Stormclaw spy

not move, but her fingers tightened. Storm

knew which tower I sleep in." His gaze swept the room, slow as a blade drawn across a table. "I have told

rap. Tell three suspects three different s

or sighed. "Majesty, I confes

ren." The king's smile was t

shape of his plan, and by a

d her in his study, with the door shut. "Hesper will esc

u," she s

. That I've been questioning you for hou

's a

ost to himself. He turned away and pick

which of them leaned forward at the words not himself. She counted three. She told the king as

od at this

er." She shrugged one shoulder. "It's

at do I

t the heat climb her throat and

ying to you," she said. "

and turned back to the window. "Hesper has something for you. It came

one room and left her alone

d it down the stairs at nine years old. She knelt, and her fingers shook, and when she

comb with three teeth missing. At the bottom lay a thick, scorched b

her's s

pages were fused together by heat. Ysolde pressed it to her chest and let the grief come, a silent, shaking wave that bent her

Where

yes burned. She wiped her face with a sleeve and opened the

ell out of

on's skin, tucked into the spine where the stitching

k was

l on the night of the new moon. The three keys will be as

ol

The words swam, stea

mall slant she'd never been able to correct. If she'd seen it anywhe

ha

he same calm that had held her upright in the burning hall. They'll say I

She should run, right now, down

ack to a single line, and

harm my

Not the pack

had known exactly what would hurt. The note would never have asked about

ack, in a tiny, cramped hand she d

e third

topped b

llaby for a frightened little girl who didn't like the dark. Lady Maeve had hummed it into her hair, and she

w that song, and one of th

easured and heavy, and Cinder's nail

. His eyes went to her face, then to the pap

ust no one. He'd taken her key and put it in his coat. For

haking hands, and the wa

lde held ou