From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

ashamed to admit that, and myy screams probablyy would’ve brought the
guards’ attention sooner.”
“You would’ve defended yyourself.” I totallyy believed that. “I’ve seen
how vicious yyou get when there is onlyy one sweet cake left.”
The skin around her eyyes crinkled as she laughed. “But that is a sweet
cake. I would push the Duchess off a balconyy to get to the last one.”
A short laugh burst from me.
Another quick grin appeared and then faded as she toyyed with a loose
thread on the blanket. “Do yyou think the King and Queen will summon yyou
to the capital?”
Muscles tensed along myy shoulders. “I don’t know.”
That wasn’t true.
If theyy thought I was no longer safe in Masadonia, theyy would
demand I return to the capital, almost a yyear ahead of myy Ascension.
But that wasn’t what caused the coldness in myy chest to seep into
everyy part of me. The Duchess had proven earlier that ensuring the
Ascension wasn’t thwarted was the greatest concern. There was one wayy to
ensure that.
The Queen could petition the gods to move up the Ascension.
Shortlyy after dawn, when the sun shone brighter than I remembered for a
morning so close to winter, I stood beside Vikter. We were at the foot of
the Undyying Hills and below the Temples of Rhahar, the Eternal God, and
Ione, the Goddess of Rebirth. The Temples loomed above us, each
constructed from the blackest stone from the Far East and both as large as
Castle Teerman, casting half the valleyy into shadows but not where we
stood. It was as if the gods were shining light down on us.
We were silent as we watched Ryylan Keal’s linen-wrapped bodyy be
lifted onto the pyyre.
Vikter had been resigned when I joined him, not prepared to train but
dressed in white and veiled. He knew he wasn’t going to talk me out of
this and said nothing as we walked to where funerals for all those who
resided in Masadonia were held. While myy presence had drawn manyy