Heart of Ashes – Chapter One
This post is part of my book Heart of Ashes, a medieval romance filled with mystery, curses, and forbidden love.
Here begins the journey that led me to Tenebra — the kingdom where shadows have their own voice and where my fate was sealed long before I was born.
I hope you enjoy Chapter One. 💀🌙
Chapter One
They say we do not choose love — it is love that chooses us.
A mystery that, as simple as it sounds, carries a deeply unsettling truth.
And the cruelest part is knowing I will not have such luck.
I was promised — or rather, handed over on a silver platter — to one of the most feared families imaginable: the Corvins.
The Corvins are the royal family of the Kingdom of Tenebra, a place where shadows whisper stories of wars and curses. It is the largest and most powerful of all realms, known for its bloody battles and a past that even time itself fears to remember.
It is said that an ancient king had his wife torn from his arms and buried by his enemies. Consumed by grief, he sought revenge by making a pact with a shaman, who granted him the power of the moon — a force strong enough to destroy any army — in exchange for his soul.
But the king did not know that every blessing carries a price.
And the price he paid was his own humanity.
Thus began the curse of the Corvins.
Since then, he and his descendants have carried the same burden: lycanthropy.
By day, a man.
On nights of the full moon… something else entirely.
Travelers who dare cross the roads near the castle claim to hear, from afar, cries, wails, and the shrill clash of iron against stone.
Some say it is the echo of the king’s pain, still wandering through the walls of Tenebra.
The kingdoms surrounding Tenebra bow to the will of the Corvins.
Not out of loyalty — but out of fear.
For under the moonlight, blood flows… and no enemy survives.
As the years passed, the king’s sons grew strong; yet the monarch, aged and frail, fell ill.
Upon his death, his two sons, Adrian and Lucien, found themselves standing before the throne. To decide who would inherit the crown, nearby kingdoms sent their daughters, hoping to win the heart — and power — of one of the brothers.
Adrian and Lucien are twins, which made the succession even more difficult.
But their father left a single decree to determine their fate:
He who marries first shall rule Tenebra.
I come from a distant land — a small, nearly forgotten kingdom: Velmorra.
We suffered countless losses in battle and were left behind, a fragment of glory time insisted on erasing.
My father, bedridden and in his final moments of lucidity, made me one request:
that I would not allow our kingdom to be destroyed, that Velmorra would not fade into oblivion.
With a weak voice and eyes drifting between life and death, he begged me to travel to Tenebra — so that my beauty might be my weapon, and my fate, the last sacrifice to save our people.
He told me that if I succeeded, perhaps his life’s effort would not have been in vain…
and that Velmorra might finally prosper after so many years of ruin.
And that is why today I leave toward my destiny.
A drastic story, like so many lost in the shadows of Tenebra.
After all…
the girls who are not chosen rarely return alive from that kingdom.
I carry with me a mission far greater than a simple marriage.
It is not enough to win over one of the promised princes — I must survive twenty days in Tenebra, subject to the whims of the heirs to the throne.
During this time, I will be tested in everything: etiquette, posture, beauty… and perhaps even my own humanity.