Ash & Bramble (35 page)

He lifts his hand and with his fingers traces the line of my cheek. “But you did come back.”

“Yes, I did,” I say. “Now tell me.”

“There wasn't much to it. I'd gotten this requisition for a glass slipper.”

“Glass?” I interrupt.

“Impossible, I know,” he agrees. “I went down to ask the Seamstresses' Overseer if she knew anything about it, and as I was leaving the newest Seamstress gave me a speaking look.”

“Speaking, really?” I ask. “What was I saying?”

“You were planning some kind of trouble.”

“Of course,” I add.

He gives me a wry smile and my stomach does a happy flip. I will never get enough of his smile.

Then he turns sober. “You were brave, Pen. I was afraid—no, terrified—but you led us out. Over the wall and the rest of it.”

“Mm,” I say. “And here we are.” We are silent for a long moment. “I won't be a shopkeeper's wife, Owen,” I say.

“I know you won't.”

“There are no happily-ever-afters,” I add.

He looks me in the eyes, holding my gaze. “I never thought there were,” he says.

I step closer. Then I lean in and brush my lips across his. His arms come around me. “Do you know what true love is, Owen?” I ask him.

“I know that you're about to tell me,” he answers.

“It's this,” I say.

And I kiss him, and he kisses me, and it is the beginning of everything.

The End
.

(
SORT OF
)

T
HANKS, AS ALWAYS, TO MY EDITOR,
A
NTONIA
M
ARKIET,
with whom I am so honored to work. And to her assistant, Abbe Goldberg, and to wonderful senior editor Alyson Day. Go, A-Team! Kate Morgan Jackson, any crispy bacon in this book is for you.

To Greg van Eekhout, Deb Coates, and Jenn Reese. Especially for the guy stuff (Greg) and the dog stuff (Deb) and the title stuff (Jenn). And to Jenn and Deb for the trip to Oregon, which is where the forest came from.

To my agent, Caitlin Blasdell, and the intrepid crew at the Liza Dawson Associates agency, especially Havis and Liza Dawson.

To the rest of my team at Harper, including Joel Tippie, Amy Ryan, Kathryn Silsand, and Ruiko Tokunaga.

To Susan Adrian for a quick read of the first part of the book, Rae Carson for continued support and wise advice, and Sandra McDonald for Corneeeeelius.

Genevieve Valentine and Ingrid Law for help making the dresses sufficiently gowny, and to Jeffery K. Richard for the shoes.

Thanks to my ultra-brother-in-law, Matt Prineas, for describing what it feels like to run (er, shuffle) ridiculously long distances.

To Malinda Lo, whose speech at the Sirens conference (
www.sirensconference.org)
inspired me to start writing this book.

HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

ASH & BRAMBLE
. Copyright © 2015 by Sarah Prineas. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Prineas, Sarah.

   Ash & Bramble / Sarah Prineas. — First edition.

      pages cm

   Summary: After Pin and Shoe escape from servitude in the Godmother's fortress, they learn that she has taken control of Story, which can warp the world around it, forcing people into its shape, and they decide to try to break out and create their own destinies in this tale that features many familiar characters.

   ISBN 978-0-06-233794-8 (hardcover)

   EPub Edition © August 2015 ISBN 9780062337962

   [1. Fairy tales. 2. Fairy godmothers—Fiction. 3. Characters in literature—Fiction. 4. Storytelling—Fiction. 5. Memory—Fiction.] I. Title. II. Title: Ash and Bramble.

15  16  17  18  19    
PC/RRDH
    10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

FIRST EDITION