The Thorn and the Ember
When Hollowmere burns, Maren Thornweave counts heartbeats in the black of a root cellar, listening to armored boots thunder above her sister Vela's hiding place. The soldiers have come for something, and they will not leave empty-handed. Turnips and old roots fill Maren's mouth with the taste of earth as she waits, and waits, and waits. Fleeing into a countryside choked with ash and rumor, the Thornweave sisters carry a secret they do not fully understand: a thread of blood and prophecy that binds them to Queen Lysande Vaire's contested throne. With Edran Veld and his ruthless faction hunting them across a broken kingdom, every hearth is a potential grave and every stranger a possible ally or executioner. Their only guides are a half-remembered map and dangerous companions: Sable Drennan, a rogue who trades in secrets she herself does not trust, and Asher Blackhollow, a man whose loyalties shift with the wind. Even Cassian Veld, whose name alone makes villages lock their doors, becomes an unavoidable piece on the board. Iona Halewick waits in the shadows with truths none of them are ready to hear. As prophecies sharpen into demands and the queen's enemies close in, Maren must choose what she is willing to sacrifice, her sister's safety, the future of the crown, or the simple truth of who she was before the fire. The wrong choice will not only end her life. It will unmake the realm.