Of Ashes

"Ashra, fiery and restless, has craved freedom for as long as she can remember. She used to feel it in the fields when her dearest friend, Matthias, would sing her songs and weave her fine crowns of wildflowers. But she is not a child anymore, and Matthias is gone. Now at seventeen, she is arranged to marry Aacro. Though beautiful and familiar, he is beginning to resemble the very man she longs to escape--her own father. Just as the walls cave in, Ashra stumbles into a copper shop during a trip to the sea. As the coppersmith raises his face, her heart stills. For he looks very much like a boy she once knew. A boy who sang her songs in the field. A boy who made her wildflower crowns... A boy who was supposed to be gone."--back cover