The Gilded Thorn
The funeral pyre of House Crowhurst was meant to bury a lineage of smiths, not ignite a war for the throne. As dawn breaks over her father's burning workshop, Aviva Crowhurst pulls a golden mask from the embers, a relic of the legendary Golden Assassin, bound to her bloodline and a destiny she never chose. With the kingdom of Aldric the Just watching, and her brother Tomas hunted for a crime he did not commit, Aviva has no choice but to run. Her only allies are Cael Ravenscar, a fallen knight whose honor is a lie, and the old grandmother who first gave her the silver dagger she now keeps close. Pursued by Lord Dorian Ashvale's ravens, the foreign designs of Lord Varn Drahkmar, and the shadow of the Golden Assassin himself, Aviva learns that the queen's court hides more knives than the workrooms of her father's forge. The mask is a key. The key opens a door long sealed. And behind that door waits the truth of what her family died to protect, and what she must now become to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. In a kingdom where every banner hides a blade, the only safety lies in becoming sharper than them all.