The Firethorn Crown Read Free

slippers.
    “This was a bad idea.” Eben stalked around, studying the area, on duty even when he wasn’t. “He’s been trying to get you alone for days. I shouldn’t have let you come in here.”
    “ Let me.” She squinted up at him. All the sunlight that had been missing in the narrow passageways poured into the clearing. She’d thought Eben understood her need to get away from the palace. “You’re not on duty right now, and you couldn’t stop me, anyway.”
    He clenched his jaw, but didn’t respond.
    Of course. She was the crown princess, and he was a royal guard, and she’d just slapped him with it. And possibly implied that she’d wanted to have a private run-in with Runson. Sighing, she stood and entered the passageway nearest the bench.
    Why was everyone trying to tell her what to do lately? Even Father. She thought he was the exception, but after what Runson said, she wasn’t so sure. Since her birthday almost three months ago, she suspected the entire kingdom of laying wagers on when she would announce her betrothed. Her future husband and co-heir to the crown. The man she would share the rest of her life with. The romantics were rooting for the third and final ball of the Dragon Festival, less than a week away. No wonder Runson followed her into the maze, despite his fear of spiders.
    She glanced over her shoulder at Eben, who followed three steps behind. She would have liked to walk side-by-side with him.
    She spotted movement behind him. He took in her expression and spun, hand on his dagger. Melantha’s jade dress blended so well with the leaves and shadows that she seemed to be all freckled arms and face and copper hair weaving down the passageway, somehow managing to evade most of the grasping branches.
    “I’m lost.”
    Lily’s eyebrows shot up. Eben’s drew down.
    “I’m not kidding.” Melantha paced in the narrow passageway, elbows cupped in her hands, staring at the ground as if trying to read the map she had drawn long ago.
    A map Lily hadn’t needed in years.

Chapter Two
     
    L ily led them back to the clearing.
    Guessing her intentions, Melantha climbed the prickly fountain in practised moves, her vantage point the only place to see the palace from inside the maze.
    “Just where it’s supposed to be.” She leaned down, put her arms on Eben’s shoulders, and jumped. He swung her around and placed her lightly on the ground.
    Lily wanted to be daring enough to climb fountains, but she was too afraid of thorns.
    *
    Melantha led them, peering suspiciously around each corner before choosing a path. Finally, they pushed their way through a curtain of branches drooping from the old willows standing sentry over the entrance. A riot of rhododendrons and ripening pomegranate trees burst with color just beyond the green-on-green hedge.
    Ruby and Wren, twin portraits of Lily at that age, seized her hands as she exited. “Is he gone? What happened?”
    “He’s gone.” Lily counted heads. Everyone had made it out.
    “Was there a snake? I’m not going back in if there was.” Coral hugged herself as if to guard against the non-existent reptile. Her red hair blended in with the ripe pomegranates hanging over her shoulder.
    “Runson’s the snake.” Melantha flopped onto the ground near Mara, swishing her hair out of the way at the last second to avoid sitting on it.
    “Mel!” Mara nudged her twin with her foot.
    “Lily said it first. I think it’s pretty accurate.”
    “Accurate or not, you don’t call lords names.”
    “It’s unladylike.” Hazel stood apart, as pristine as if she’d never been in the maze.
    Ignoring the old argument, the other girls brushed leaves from each other’s skirts and picked twigs from braids.
    Gwen knelt on the ground with her arm around Ivy, who was barely two years older than the twins. Dirt smudged Ivy’s pewter gown, and tears replaced her usual serenity.
    “I’m sorry.” Ivy shivered in the warm air. “I didn’t see him. I couldn’t