A Heart So Fierce and Broken (The Cursebreaker Series) Read Online Free PDF

her feet without laying a hand on him. Mother granted an audience after that. They disappeared into the throne room for hours.
    Nolla Verin and I had hung back to whisper about it. You didn’t have to be a great student of history to know that anyone with magic had been driven out of the Iishellasa ice forests decades ago. They used their magic to cross the Frozen River, then asked to settle in Syhl Shallow, but my grandmother refused. They sought shelter in Emberfall—where they were granted asylum, but later, after some kind of trickery on the king, they were all executed.
    Except, apparently, the enchantress.
    “Of course,” I say. “She was the last one.”
    My sister shakes her head. “Apparently another survived somehow. Mother told me last night while we were preparing for our journey.”
    Of course Mother told her, and not me. Because Nolla Verin is the heir.
    I am not jealous. My sister will make a great queen.
    I swallow. “Another survived?”
    “Yes. She was seeking the other.”
    “Why?”
    “Because he is more than a man with magic in his blood.” She pierces the fabric with her needle. Scarlet thread flies through the white silk like a bleeding wound. “The other magesmith is the true heir to the throne of Emberfall.”
    I gasp. “Truly?”
    “Yes.” Her eyes flash. Nolla Verin loves a good bit of gossip. “But the prince has no idea who he is.”
    What a scandal. Magic is no more welcome in Emberfall than it was in Syhl Shallow. I wonder if Rhen’s people know. I wonder how they will react.
    I imagine living the rest of my life like this, learning information about warring kingdoms like a dog seeking scraps beside a butcher’s block.
    I swallow again. “Does Mother know who the heir is?”
    “No. Before she left, the enchantress said there was only one man who knows his identity.”
    “Who?”
    “The commander of the prince’s guard.” She ties off her thread and snaps it with her teeth. “A man named Grey.”

    By nightfall, we are miles from the last town we’ve passed, and my mother orders the guards to stop and make camp. If we were traveling through Syhl Shallow, large tents would be erected for our comfort, but here in Emberfall, we must be discreet.
    Nolla Verin and I share a narrow tent. Sorra and Parrish, my guards, have spread blankets along the ground to make a round space resembling a nest of pillows and blankets. We haven’t shared a space like this since we were very young, and I’m grateful for the chance to be close again.
    My sister has already reclined among her pillows, and her eyes narrow mischievously. “These blankets are quite soft. Are you certain you would not prefer to share them with Parrish?”
    My cheeks flare with heat. It was one thing to joke in the privacy of our carriage. Entirely another to say such things when the man in question stands on the other side of an opaque length offabric. Being named heir has emboldened her—just as it’s stripped away some of my own confidence.
    “Hush,” I whisper at her.
    Her smile widens. “I am merely asking. It may make for a more interesting evening.”
    I glance at Parrish’s shadow on the other side of the curtain, then shift closer to Nolla Verin. “I believe he fancies Sorra.”
    Her eyebrows go up. “You do?”
    I arrange the blankets around me carefully and force my voice to be bored, because I do not want her to needle my guards. “I have long suspected.”
    I have done more than suspect. A year ago, during the midwinter celebration, I found Parrish and Sorra kissing in the wooded darkness beyond our palace. They broke apart hurriedly, stars in their eyes and a blush on Sorra’s pale cheeks.
    “Do not stop on my account,” I said to them, then turned and fled back to the party before my own blush could flare.
    No man has ever looked at me the way Parrish was looking at Sorra. I thought about that kiss far longer than I’d admit.
    Sorra is always cool and distant, stoic and fierce like all the