Fae Heir

FAE HEIR ROYALS OF EMBERMERE BOOK 1 LUCÍA ASHTA ABOUT FAE HEIR Win the trials, earn a crown—or fail and lose everything. The heir of Embermere has unexpectedly died, and now a new prince and princess must be crowned. I’ve been hiding out with the dragons, but then mysterious fae show up at the dragons’ stronghold and abduct me at the King’s command. The royals of Embermere are hosting the Fae Heir Trials to find their successors. The winners will marry and become the next to rule the fae lands. Turns out I’m the King’s illegitimate daughter and the wicked queen intends to kill me off during the challenges. I find myself thrust into a barbaric tournament where death is all but guaranteed. I’m competing against the most gorgeous, deadly fae warriors of the realm. Determined, agile men who’ve been training to claim this chance all their lives—including clan leader Rush Vega. Rush Vega is the Crown’s favorite, devastatingly charming and dangerously tempting. His combat skills and dark secrets will be my undoing. With my survival on the line, my heart must resist his pull and those intriguing moonlight eyes. He’s the queen’s spy, and that makes him my number one enemy. My life might have become a game of savage brutality, but the Queen of Embermere underestimated me. I was born a fighter. And I intend to win. For my magical daughters and beloved, always ♥ Never reveal a weakness to your enemy, or you’ll give them a weapon to use against you. ZAKO SHADE CONTENTS 1. A Naughty Dragon and Bad Men 2. Assholes from the Court of Screw You 3. Sleep with One Eye Open, Buddy 4. As Safe Within the Palace as in a Hungry Dragon’s Den 5. Appearances Are Nearly as Important as the Truth 6. A Girl in Their World 7. A Champion of the People, Yada Yada 8. The Walls Have Ears 9. Run, Run, or off Go the Heads 10. A Little Pig and Bullies in Fancy Buttercream 11. Don’t Trust Anyone 12. So Long as the Queen Wills It 13. There’s a First for Everything 14. Something Like That 15. This Little Piggy is Very Satisfied 16. Does It Wear a Crown upon its Precious Head? 17. A Dangerous Time in Embermere 18. Blood Oaths and Enchanting Illusions 19. A Poisoned Bloodline and a Mirror World 20. The Queen Trumps the King 21. The Fanciful Hall of Mirrors 22. Nothing is Guaranteed and Everything Comes With a Price 23. Can’t Isn’t the Same as Won’t 24. Restraint is Frowned Upon by the Fae 25. Savagery and Victory, a Long Convoluted Game 26. Take Me to the Weapons 27. The Gladius Probatio 28. Bloodlust and Head Games 29. How Quickly the Tides Turn 30. Two Can Play This Game 31. The Forbidden Fruit 32. The Fortune of Dragons 33. A Message Received, a Message Delivered Read the Next Book Sneak Peek of Fae Champion Get a Free Book Now Also by Lucía Acknowledgments About the Author 1 A NAUGHTY DRAGON AND BAD MEN The sun’s dwindling rays glinted off swords and daggers as they clinked against each other, their clatter muted by the glass that separated me from them. I clutched my cutting knife and forced myself to dice more potatoes. Already, a large bowl overflowed with them. Before the hour was up, I’d fill a few more. Dragon shifters, whose shadows plummeted our town into sudden darkness whenever they swooped overhead, had appetites as sizable as the dragons themselves. A dragonling, whom I’d nicknamed Saffron for the rich golden yellow of his scales, planted himself at my feet and gazed up at me, his rough tongue lolling out of his mouth. He whined. I scowled down at him. “I already fed you, and begging doesn’t suit you.” That last bit was a lie, of course. With his big, dark eyes, wagging tail, and mouth curled into an endearing smile, exposing some of his needle-sharp teeth, he was cuter than was reasonable. It was an unfair advantage he pressed at every opportunity. Again, he whined deep in his throat, making my heart clench despite my determination not to spoil him. I’d be the one to pay the price for that softness later. “I mean it. No more for you, not tonight.” The knife clacked against the cutting board with a dull, repetitive sound that had been known to infiltrate my dreams. Or did that make them nightmares? Saffron inched closer as my attention drifted to the courtyard beyond the kitchen, where Xeno had promised we would spar once I’d finished my chores for the day. Though that had been motivation enough to rush through my many duties, I still wouldn’t be free before nightfall, when the already cold air of the high mountains practically turned arctic. As he always did, Xeno drew my eye. If I had a true friend in this frigid place where the sun only shone above the steep peaks for a few hours a day, he was it. Though recently he wanted to be more than friends, a fact that surely hadn’t escaped the notice of Malessa. The woman was big enough to block a doorway and in charge whenever the bigger fish were away. I saw him less and less as she found new mind-numbing tasks to assign me far from him. Given that the town, coined Nightguard for the mountains that loomed above it, could be traversed on foot from one end to the other in fifteen minutes, this was no small feat. But I was the only non-shifter here now that my father Zako was gone. If not for his insistence that he wouldn’t always be here to protect me, no one would have taught me how to defend myself at all. There was only one purpose to Nightguard: to protect the dragons’ stronghold. Despite the fact that I could fight as well as any of them, I was delegated to the role of cook