The Prince of Zammar

From the Ashes - Chapter One

This wasn’t good, Sadie thought worriedly. Everything she had learned at her mother’s side about healing rituals warned against interruptions. Contact had to be cut only once the healer was done, and even then it needed to be done carefully. “Do you know how Jalen is faring?”

“No. He didn’t seem conscious the last I saw of him.”

Sadie bit her bottom lip and closed her eyes. She could feel a scream—or maybe a sob—build in her throat. Without a healer to complete the ritual, he might never wake up.

“And so I ended up in this cell,” she concluded, defeated.

“Without Jalen there to refute it, it was easy for her highness to lay all the blame for the curse at your feet. Her highness, Queen Devi, is demanding your execution as a traitor to Zammar.”

Sadie’s palms began to sweat and her heart pounded. Responsible for the curse? Execution? “What do you mean?”

“The queen’s formal accusation to the king is that you cursed Jalen for your own political gains. Your red hair is being touted as proof of your foreign origins. Clearly, you acted for a rival kingdom.”

Sadie was stunned into silence. She had nothing to do with Jalen’s curse. She wanted to save him, not kill him.

“And you are in the cell next to mine?”

“So I am.”

“Why?”

“When I dared argue your innocence, I was accused of being your co-conspirator.” His voice grew quiet. “The very fact that I insisted you were trying to help him was what finally damned me to the cell next to yours. But I had to defend your honor.”

“Oh, Kadar! I would have understood if you’d said nothing.” Tears prickled her eyes. “You should have saved yourself and stayed by Jalen’s side. Instead you are stuck here.” The tear slid down her cheek. “I truly am sorry.”

“I was already suspect. I ordered my men to engage her highness’s guards. That alone was enough to bring about my arrest. Defending you just made my imprisonment happen sooner.”

“What do we do next?” she finally asked after a long silence.

“For now, we wait. I’ll think of something.”

***

Jalen was trapped in a nightmare—unless this was what death felt like. He didn’t know how long he had been stuck there, but it seemed like an eternity.

The last thing he had been aware of was Sadie placing her hands on his chest to start the ritual. Then the energy from her fingers poured into his veins, slowly at first, but with rapidly increasing strength and speed. Her magic coiled around the curse tendrils wherever her power encountered it, and dragged it toward the cage Jalen had built in his mind to contain it.

The whole process burned like the desert sun at noon.

Jalen had used every ounce of his willpower to control the curse’s natural desire to retaliate against Sadie’s energy. He pulled and pushed and tugged on the shadowy tendrils, and between Sadie’s power and his strength, they had made progress. The itch of the tendrils slowly retreated, leaving coolness in their wake. And it felt good.

Then she had disappeared. Gone! Nowhere to be found within his mind or body.

Jalen almost lost everything they had gained when her presence left him. He’d desperately sought her energy until he felt the Shifting Sands try to take over his mind. At that point, his search transformed into a struggle for survival. His willpower against the curse’s endless hunger. For what seemed like forever, Jalen struggled to rebuild the cage around it, to contain it once more. But he knew, even if he managed it, he still needed Sadie to come back and finish what she had started. Without her, he would never be free.