The Frostbound Vow
An early frost touches the hem of Lirien Vael's gown as she descends into the gardens of Asterhold, and the season has only just begun. Something is wrong. The rime comes too thick, too hungry, and the sky bruises with a violet that has no place in autumn. When Lirien witnesses a vision of Young Kael Ashborne bleeding silver in a forgotten courtyard, she learns that the Wintersworn, ancient, merciless, and bound by a generations-old pact, are stirring beneath the northern reaches. The vow that sealed them was sworn by her ancestors in blood, and the debt is about to come due. Caught between the secrets of her mother, Queen Thessaly Vael, and the warnings of High Warden Edric, Lirien must turn to her brother Oren, the blade-steady Captain Dreya, and the exiled knight Kael Ashborne himself. Lord Halloran's treacherous counsel shapes the court from the shadows, while Bindwright Colm guards magical truths the crown has long buried. As frost consumes the outer holds and Lord Brindle's territories fall silent, Lirien uncovers the true cost of the vow, and what it demands of the Vael bloodline. To save her kingdom, she must decide whether the pact can be broken, or whether defying it will unleash a winter that never ends.