Dead & Blooming

The Ashen Plains are not a place you visit for the scenery.

They are a place you go when you need to find something that only exists where beauty and death have been living together long enough to stop pretending they're different things. Luna knows the Plains the way she knows Ironspire — by instinct, by the particular frequency of the air, by the way Cinder's gait changes when they cross into that territory and he stops looking around and starts looking ahead. She's been going there since before she could explain why. She goes there still.

She came back this time with a box. No label. No note. Folded in black tissue inside it: thirteen tees.

She lifted the first one out and held it up. The print stopped her cold.

Roses. Skulls. The two things wound together so completely that you couldn't tell where one ended and the other began — petals curling out of eye sockets, thorns tracing the line of a jaw, a bloom so full and red it looked like it was still breathing. She turned it toward the light. The colors deepened rather than washed out — the kind of print that's been done right, not just done. She ran her thumb across the graphic. Smooth. Flat. Locked in. Not the kind that cracks after two washes and starts looking like a mistake.

She pulled it on over her head. The fabric settled against her skin lighter than she expected — breathable, the kind that moves with you rather than against you. She looked down at the roses climbing the skulls climbing her.

Yeah, she thought. That's exactly right.

She kept the darkest colorway for herself. When Chelle came in an hour later and saw her wearing it, she stopped in the doorway.

"Where did that come from?"

"The Ashen Plains," Luna said.

Chelle looked at the roses. Looked at the skulls. Looked at the way they were the same thing. She nodded once — the nod of a woman who has been to enough places on the other side of the portal to understand that some locations leave their mark on everything that comes out of them.

"Put the rest out," she said. "Someone's been waiting for these."

About This Tee — Ashen Plains Series

• All-over 3D rose and skull graphic — vivid, layered detail that deepens in the light rather than washing out; the kind of print that looks different every time you look at it
• Print is built to last — smooth, flat, locked in; machine washable and holds its color and detail wash after wash, not just for the first wear
• Oversized relaxed fit — O-neck, short sleeves, drapes beautifully; wear it loose or tucked, it works either way
• Lightweight, breathable fabric — softer against the skin than it looks; comfortable all day, not just for the photo
• 13 colorways — each one a different conversation between the roses and the dark
• Sizes XXS through XXXL — true to size, built for real bodies

From the Ashen Plains, to the one who already knew.