Heiress of Embers

by J. A. Armitage

  Unclasping the necklace, I placed it back in the box and ran my fingers over the intricate metalwork. This was a part of my history, but I didn't know what it represented.

  It made me want to know more about my history. It seemed that everyone knew about my past but me. The natural person to ask would be my mother, but she was asleep. My father had flat out refused to tell me more than I already knew, and Dahlia was remaining tight-lipped on the subject. I couldn't shake the feeling that somehow my past was related to all that was going on. It couldn't be a coincidence that I arrived just after the worst part of history was over, nor that things happening to me now indicated that it was repeating itself. I'd never been magic before. So why now? Why when my mother was cursed, and the darkness was coming back?

  I jumped out of bed and dressed quickly. My father had relaxed the rules about me being in my room, but he was on an emotional knife-edge, and there was no telling when he'd fall back into his foul mood. Thankfully, Vasuki had kept to his word, and the dragons had kept to themselves, although that was probably because my father hadn't attacked yet. I still had to figure out what to do with the competition and my wedding, but that didn't seem as important as finding out who I was.

  Remy was the only one at the breakfast table when I got there. His mood was greatly improved from the previous day. I wondered if my father had let him sleep in his bed all night like he had done when he was a young child. Remy used to suffer from night terrors and would wake up screaming at all hours. My mother used to take him into bed with her, where he would sleep soundly. He gave me a joyful wave as I walked into the dining room.

  "Hi, Aza,"

  "Hello, Beautiful," I said, kissing his forehead and swiping a bit of toast from his plate.

  "Ha oh,"

  "Sorry, Remy, of course, I meant handsome. You are the most handsome."

  He seemed satisfied by my answer and went back to tucking into his eggs.

  I ate my breakfast more slowly, pondering who best to ask about my history. No one in the castle, that was for sure. If my father got wind of what I was up to, he'd only be mad again. So who? It had to be someone who was around when I was small. Someone who remembered me being brought to the castle from the adoption agency.

  There was no one I could think of. The only people I really knew were the people who worked in the castle and some of my parent's friends. They were a no-no too. I couldn't trust them not to tell my father.

  "Ok, Aza?"

  I looked up at Remy, who had the most worried expression on his face. He was mirroring my own expression.

  "I'm fine Handsome. I'm trying to think of someone who knew me when I was little...when we were little." Remy was only eleven months younger than me. We grew up together, almost as twins.

  "Olly Polly."

  Remy clapped his hands as though he'd just done something really clever, and he had. He was a genius.

  Olivie Polmer, or Olly Polly, as Remy called her, was Remy's governess when we were small. She was a sweet young thing with ringlets of bright red hair. Remy was always transfixed by her. She left when I was ten as she was pregnant and wanted to be a full-time mother. Just as Dahlia had been, she'd been in my parent's service when Remy was born. She was a secretary or something, but she became Remy's governess. She cried the day she left. She and Remy had a special bond, and even now, she visited a lot and bought presents for Remy's birthday. She was almost family, even though she'd not worked here for seven years.

  "Do you want to go and visit her?"

  Remy bounced up and down in his chair and clapped his hands violently. I had to stand up and hug him to calm him down. He had a tendency to over-excitement, and especially so when Olly Polly was involved.

  After breakfast, I told my father I was taking Remy to Zhore. It wasn't a lie. Olivie lived there with her husband and four sons. I just declined to mention why I was going. My father was too preoccupied to ask why anyway. He was knee-deep in paperwork. Waving a hand in my direction, he murmured an okay.

  "Just take a guard with you. I don't want you two going out alone."

  I ran back upstairs to ask Milo if he wanted to join us, but when I got there, Jack announced that Milo had the day off.

  I either had to find another guard to go with us and risk them telling my father where I'd been, or I could disobey my father's orders...again.

  A quick look at Jack told me that the second option was the most preferable. I knew where Milo lived. I could go and see him first. Then technically, I'd have a guard with me. Yeah, I was stretching the truth, but it was for the greater good.

  Remy was ready and waiting in the entrance hall, as giddy as a schoolgirl. I noted that he'd got changed for the occasion, wearing a bowtie. He'd been made to wear one once for some formal occasion or other, and Olivie had mentioned how suave he was with it on. He'd was six years old at the time and had to be told what suave meant. I'd never seen him look so pleased with himself. He wore that bowtie all the time, and even now, over a decade later, he still pulled it out when Olivie visited…or when we visited her.

  "Looking very suave," I said, using the term he'd come to associate with the bowtie. He grinned from ear to ear, as pleased as punch with himself, even though he'd paired the bowtie with a sweater and shorts.

  After sending him back to his room to change into long pants, I took his hand and left the castle quickly before my father could put much thought into where we were going and stop us. Olivie was my only chance to find out who I was without father finding out. She hadn't worked for us for years, and I trusted her to keep a secret. She still kept the secret that it was I that accidentally broke my mother's favorite looking glass by kicking a ball at it when I was eight years old. She told my mother a gust of wind had knocked it over.

  The walk to Zhore was long and uneventful, and yet, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to happen. The weather was dull, with gray clouds but, thankfully, no more snow. Looking up towards the Fire Mountains, I couldn't see the dragons. It wasn't them that I was worried about, though. No, it was something else, something I couldn't quite put my finger on. Maybe it was just the darkness that everyone was talking about. The shift in magical energy. Maybe it was nothing, and I was paranoid. Who knew?

  Milo was surprised to see me when he opened the door. He was even more surprised to see Remy, but he invited us both in.

  I told him quickly what we were doing, and so he decided to accompany us

  Olivie lived in a quiet part of town, away from the hustle and bustle of the main streets. Her little cottage had a garden, and though the soil here was not exactly ripe for growing things, she'd made the most amazing space out front with pretty stones and cacti. All of it was under a layer of snow as we walked up the path.

  The door flung open before we'd even had a chance to knock. A whirlwind of red curls launched herself at Remy, followed by four little red-headed tornados.

  Remy hugged them all, carrying Olivie's youngest inside with him. I didn't know why, but Remy never had to be told to unsquash around Olivie's children. He was delicate with them, and they loved him almost as much as he loved them.

  Olivie brewed up some tea while the three of us played with her young children.

  "To what do I owe the pleasure?" she asked, placing the tea tray on a table and ruffling Remy's hair.

  He responded with a wide smile.

  I picked up a cup of tea while I deliberated what to say. In the end, I decided to go with the truth. "I'm here about my adoption. I want to know where I came from."

  Olivie's face drained of all color.

  "You four," she shouted at her kids. "Go upstairs and play for a bit."

  There was a chorus of oh, Moms, but eventually, with a little help from Olivie's husband, all four of them went upstairs, leaving just the four of us.

  "I was never asked, specifically, not to tell you anything. I was asked not to tell anyone, but as it's you..."

  "My mother is asleep, my father is up to his eyeballs in
stress, and I've no one else to ask."

  She lowered her eyes and nodded. "What is it you want to know?"

  "Anything. Which adoption agency they used, where they picked me up from...anything."

  "I don't know about the first. There is only one adoption agency in Zhore as far as I know, but it was never mentioned. You kind of just appeared one day. The king and queen acted like it had been planned for a long time, but they were flustered and unsure of what to do. Your grandmother helped out a lot, but I had the feeling she didn't know that this was about to happen either. It was like we all woke up one day, and there was this new baby...except..."

  She'd basically told me the same thing as Dahlia. I appeared from nowhere. "Except what?"

  "I was doing a night shift the night you came. Your parents didn't pick you up from an adoption agency. You were delivered to the castle."

  This was new. Why would an adoption agency drop a baby off in the middle of the night?

  "There's more," Olivie continued. "I watched a woman bring you to the castle door and knock. She spoke to your parents for quite some time on the doorstep. I remember thinking that you must be awfully cold. It was a mild winter that year, and you were wrapped up warmly, but it was still winter, and I could see you were very tiny."

  "Did my parents know you saw them?"

  She shook her head. "No. I never told them, and I don't think anyone saw me. It was about two am, and I was looking out of one of the kitchen windows. The carriage that brought you was parked close to it, but I could still see past it to your parents..."

  She hesitated.

  "There's something else isn't there? Something you've not told me."

  She took a deep breath. "It's something I've never told anyone. Not even your parents."

  "What?"

  "There wasn't just one baby in that carriage. I heard another baby crying."

  Another baby. I wasn't the only one. Somewhere out there, I had a twin.

  Continue the adventure in Throne of Fury

  After the Happily Ever After…

  There is more to these stories. You want to know what happens next right? Fast forward eighteen years…

  Pick up book one now

  PREQUEL

  SLEEPING BEAUTY

  1. Queen of Dragons

  2. Heiress of Embers

  3. Throne of Fury

  4. Goddess of Flames

  LITTLE MERMAID

  5. Queen of Mermaids

  6. Heiress of the Sea

  7. Throne of Change

  8. Goddess of Water

  RED RIDING HOOD

  9. King of Wolves

  10. Heir of the Curse

  11. Throne of Night

  12. God of Shifters

  RAPUNZEL

  13. King of Devotion

  14. Heir of Thorns

  15. Throne of Enchantment

  16. God of Loyalty

  RUMPELSTILTSKIN

  17. Queen of Unicorns

  18. Heiress of Gold

  19. Throne of Sacrifice

  20. Goddess of Loss

  BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

  21. King of Beasts

  22. Heir of Beauty

  23. Throne of Betrayal

  24. God of Illusion

  ALADDIN

  25. Queen of the Sun

  26. Heiress of Shadows

  27. Throne of the Phoenix

  28. Goddess of Fire

  CINDERELLA

  29. Queen of Song

  30. Heiress of Melody

  31. Throne of Symphony

  32. Goddess of Harmony

  ALICE IN WONDERLAND

  33. Queen of Clockwork

  34. Heiress of Delusion

  35. Throne of Cards

  36. Goddess of Hearts

  WIZARD OF OZ

  37. King of Traitors

  38. Heir of Fugitives

  39. Throne of Emeralds

  40. God of Storms

  SNOW WHITE

  41. Queen of Reflections

  42. Heiress of Mirrors

  43. Throne of Wands

  44. Goddess of Magic

  PETER PAN

  45. Queen of Skies

  46. Heiress of Stars

  47. Throne of Feathers

  48. Goddess of Air

  URBIS - Coming soon

  49. Kingdom of Royalty

  50. Kingdom of Power

  51. Kingdom of Fairytales

  52. Kingdom of Ever After

  Join us

  Would you like FREE Kingdom of Fairytales Coloring pages? Click the link below to pick your free gift up.

  Kingdom of Fairytales FREE gift

  Check the Kingdom of Fairytales website for competitions, news and info on all the books and authors

  Kingdom of Fairytales Website

  Or Join us on our Kingdom of Fairytales Facebook page for fun, games and author takeovers

  Still want more? Completely immerse yourself in the Kingdom of Fairytales experience and pick up exclusive offers and gifts

  Become a Patron

  A note from the author

  The Kingdom of Fairytales authors hope you enjoyed this new way of reading. We don’t think that a series has ever been set with one chapter a day thought a whole year before and we hope we did it justice.

  With this in mind, please leave a review, but when you do, remember that these books were always meant to be short breaks in your day and the blurb reflects that.

  We would LOVE it if you can drop us a few words on Amazon

  Review here

  The Kingdom of Fairytales Team

  These books would not be written without a great many people. Here is our team:

  Many thanks to those who have made this possible.

  Thank you to Rhi Parkes without whom, this series would never have come about.

  Thanks to all the authors.

  J.A. Armitage, Audrey Rich, B. Kristen Mcmichael, Emma Savant, Jennifer Ellision, Scarlett Kol, R. Castro, Margo Ryerkerk, Zara Quentin, Laura Greenwood and Anne Stryker

  Also thank you to our amazing Beta team

  Nadine Peterse-Vrijhof, Diane Major, Kalli Bunch and Stephanie Pittser.

  Thank you to our Patrons

  Gigi Nickerson

  About the Author

  J.A lives in a total fantasy world (because reality is boring right?) When she's not writing all the crazy fun in her head, she can be found eating cake, designing pretty pictures and hanging upside down from the tallest climbing frame in the local playground while her children look on in embarrassment. She's travelled the world working as everything from a banana picker in Australia to a Pantomime clown, has climbed to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro and the bottom of the Grand Canyon and once gave birth to a surrogate baby for a friend of hers.

  She spends way too much time gossiping on facebook and if you want to be part of her Reading Army, where you'll get lots of freebies, exclusive sneak peeks and super secret sales, join up here

  https://www.subscribepage.com/v7o8k4

  Somehow she finds time to write.