Thorns of the Crimson Moon

A crimson-waxed seal and a stag's skull pierced by a thorn are the only things that carry Lyra Ashford through the gates of Thornwood, an invitation no outsider has received in living memory, and one her missing sister Mira never returned to answer. Inside the Crimson Court's equinox gathering, Lyra is drawn to Severin Vale, the guarded heir whose family has been locked in a generations-old feud with the Vanes, and watched by the calculating Lord Maren, whose kindness hides sharper teeth. Elder Nyla warns her that the Court's games always end in blood, while the proud Lord Aldric Vane treats her arrival as an insult to be answered. As the equinox advances, Lyra learns that Mira was not merely a guest at Thornwood, she was bound to its secrets, and that the invitation in her hands may have been a summons, a trap, or a test. With every alliance she forges comes a price, and every truth she uncovers pulls her deeper into a rivalry older than the houses themselves. By the time the crimson moon rises, Lyra will have to choose between the vengeance she rode in to claim, the man she did not mean to fall for, and the sister whose shadow may already have swallowed her whole.