The Thornbound Crown
Wren Ashgrove knows ink, not intrigue, until the night her father dies and leaves her a failing print shop, a coded map, and a name the empire of Eonan hasn't whispered in twenty years. When a bone talisman surfaces in the shop's lockbox, every faction with a claim to the Thornbound Crown descends on the quiet district of Starling Sons: the regal Lady Veradine Ashcroft with her velvet threats, the silent Enthroned Knight in silvered armor, and a quiet hunter named Rook who asks too many questions about Wren's father. As Wren follows the map's blood-stained trail through abandoned chapels, archmagus archives, and the mist-haunted ruins of a saint's tomb, she discovers her cartographer bloodline was never accidental. Gareth Starling, the press apprentice she has loved since childhood, offers his steady loyalty, but loyalty may be the first thing the crown demands as payment. Hunted, betrayed, and bound to a relic that wakes only for her line, Wren must choose between surrendering the crown to a usurper and becoming the kind of ruler her father never wanted her to be. In a kingdom built on thorn-rooted secrets, every choice draws blood.