The Hollow Hearth

When the mail-coach rattles into Thornwold on the heels of her aunt's funeral, Wren Hollowquill expects grief, paperwork, and a quiet return to her city life. She does not expect to inherit Hollow Hearth, a crumbling waystation perched at the edge of the realm's most treacherous mountain pass, and a centuries-old magical system called HOLLOW that binds the building, the land, and the keeper into one living contract. The Hollow was supposed to pass to her cousin. Instead, it has chosen her. Guided only by Gilda's letters and a ledger full of coded recipes, Wren must feed the Hearth's fire, shelter the travelers the Crown's roads have abandoned, and survive the system's escalating trials, all while keeping one step ahead of Mayor Aldric Vane, Crown Inspector Halvor Dreft, and the unseen battle-mage they've brought to audit the waystation. Storm-stranded wanderers crowd the common room. A shadow-branded traveler named Hollis asks questions no keeper should answer. A stranger called Rune arrives bearing news that could shatter the Hollow's oldest compact. And through it all, Gilda's voice echoes from ink and memory, warning of a choice that must be made before the first snow falls: surrender the Hearth to the Crown, or feed the Hollow something it has never asked for before.