The Thornbound Crown
Silver-black vines devour Mireholt's coastline, rotting the cliffs and silencing the foghorns one by one. Apprentice herbalist Elara Veyne tends her dying mentor, Master Orin, in a salt-crusted cottage on the edge of the world, until soldiers come hunting a relic hidden in her cellar. Fleeing with her loyal hound Vesper and a witchmarked amulet she barely understands, Elara carries her master's final command: find the Spectral Dragon before the Obsidian King does. Across a kingdom rotting from within, she is drawn into the orbit of Prince Kaelan Ashworth, whose rebel forces rally against a throne stained by his brother Crown Prince Alaric's murder. The ghost of Alaric will not rest until the truth is unearthed, but the truth lies buried in the Silverblood Council's oldest secrets, and guarded by a mute woman who has forgotten how to speak. As the witchfire in Elara's veins awakens, the Woodwitch Coven begins to hunt her, Captain Sevryn Dace closes in with the king's blade, and Lord Commander Idris Vael's armies sweep toward the capital. To stop the withering, Elara must claim the Thornbound Crown, awaken the Heartwood Dragon Spirit, and choose whether the Silverblood legacy is worth saving, or burning to ash.