A Pact of Salt and Ash

About this book

In Qadira, every pact sealed in blood-ink binds, and betraying one kills you. Zahra Velasco is the most gifted ink-weaver in the capital, which is a problem, because weaving blood-ink is a hanging crime. For years she has hidden her gift to keep her reckless younger brother alive. Then one desperate night it is discovered, and the man who comes to arrest her is Prince Idris al-Rayan, the feared Ash Prince, heir to the throne and slowly dying of a curse no one can read. He offers her a bargain instead of the gallows: marry him under blood-ink, break his curse, and live. If she fails, they both die. There is one thing Idris must never learn. Two years ago, for a stranger's gold, Zahra wove the binding that killed his brother. And Idris has sworn that whoever wove it will hang.