The Thornbound Queen

Sera Vale has spent seven years burying her name among the hedgerows, learning to grind roots and mix simples in the cottage where the valley fog clings like mourning crepe. Then a boy arrives at her gate leading a black mare stamped with the hawk of House Ashworth, and the quiet life ends with a single pale-green seal. She is Sera Ashworth, last of a bloodline the Thorn Queen has spent a decade hunting to extinction, and the dead queen's dark magic is already reaching for her from the roots of the Heart-Tree. To claim the poisoned throne of Eldraeven, Sera must take up Vowbreaker, a cursed blade that has shattered the minds of every Ashworth who bore it before her, while the ghost of the Thorn Queen whispers through her own blood, offering power at the price of her soul. Her only allies are letters from her dead mother, the dangerous wisdom of Maren the Witch, and Caelan Ashworth, a prince whose loyalties run as thorn-tangled as the kingdom itself. As the Thorn Court stirs and the wraith-bride Lyssia rises to reclaim what was taken from her, Sera discovers that the throne does not want a ruler. It wants a vessel. With the Heart-Tree cracking open and the Thorn Queen's shadow pressing harder against her own, Sera must choose whether to break the curse that has devoured her family for generations or let it consume her whole.