The Bonefire Crown
When the last rune dies in Cassiel Varn's hands, it takes more than light with it, it takes her master's life, her brother's trust, and every certainty she ever held. The dying glyph marks her as the final runesmith of a lineage bound to the Bonefire Crown, a relic of bone and pale fire that crowns or consumes every hand that wears it. Now the Warden sits the throne in iron and silence. Drevan Ashkell's armies gather in the northern passes. Seraphine Voss offers alliances written in old blood. Cassiel's apprentice Maren Thul watches her forge with an apprentice's patience and a spy's steady gaze. Kellan Varn rides toward the capital with sellswords and secrets of his own. In the tunnels beneath the city, Orla serves the Undermother, whose ledgers of debt stretch back to the first killing stroke. To break the Warden's grip, Cassiel must reforge the Bonefire Crown, a work that has killed every smith who attempted it. Each hammer-fall binds her closer to the relic's hunger. Thalos Greymoor swears the crown must never burn again. Lord Vess demands it as the price of his sword. Cassiel has one forging left in her. What she chooses to make of it will decide whether the kingdom rises, burns, or is buried beneath the bones of those who tried to wear it.