The Thornbound Vow

The iron key turns in the lock, and Elara Voss inherits her father's curse. Six months after Magistrate Halden sealed Edric Voss's study and told her a grieving girl had no business with her father's papers, Elara finally breaks through. What she finds is no cartographer's legacy, it's a map drawn in thorns, a vow her father swore to something ancient that walks the forest as a stag of moonlight. By the time she understands what she's holding, the bargain's first payment comes due. Seren Draven, the Thorn Envoy, arrives to collect. Recruit Tobin Marsh comes with soldiers and orders to burn the forest, starting with anyone who speaks its name. Fleeing with the exiled cartographer Kieran Ashford, Elara learns that her father mapped the Hollow not to document it, but to contain it. The Queen's wards are failing. The Fae Prince remembers the old promises. And Quartermaster Pell knows more than anyone will admit. Every path her father drew leads back to her. Elara can break the vow and let the bargain fall on her bloodline forever, or she can walk the thorn-line herself and learn whether the stag who comes for her is the monster her father feared, or the only one willing to bargain for her life.