A Crown of Hollow Stars
In the archive-city of Ashenmere, Master Tobin has spent forty years guarding a single secret: the location of a Hollow Star, an ancient relic whose broken light once crowned emperors and now bleeds a corrupting magic into the world. With his final breath, he entrusts his last map to Sera Vane, the sharpest pupil he has ever trained, and the burden passes to her in a single night of ink and dying light. Queen Thessaly Ardrin will stop at nothing to claim the star's power for her bloodline. Lord Harren Solis is just as determined to bury the relic forever, along with everyone who knows it exists. Between them stands Kael Ardrin, a royal heir hiding treason in his veins, and Captain Iros, a soldier whose loyalty has already been tested once and may not survive a second war. As Sera follows the cartographer's trail through crumbling keeps, sealed archives, and the shadows of Ashenmere's oldest towers, Court Herald Aldric circles with questions no one wants answered, while Healer Bron quietly tends wounds that are not entirely of the flesh. Every step toward the star draws enemies closer, and every revelation costs someone Sera loves. The map has only one ending, and the kingdom she is trying to save may not survive what she finds at its center. To protect the realm, she may have to become the very power she was taught to fear.