Thorns of the Eternal

Snow falls in slow curtains across the Thornwood's edge, and Elara Venn is running out of time. Her sister Mara is fading, her spirit claimed by the ancient, hungry forest that has already taken their father, their neighbors, and every man who dared its shadows. Desperate, Elara ventures into the pines to find Caelum Ashworth, the reclusive nobleman whispered to be the forest's immortal guardian in human form. What she finds is a man as cold and thorn-wrapped as the wood he protects, and a bargain more devastating than she imagined. He will give Mara back, but only if Elara binds herself to the Thornwood for one year, walking its haunted paths at his side, learning the secrets of a curse older than the village itself. As the seasons turn and the forest closes in, Elara discovers the tragedy at the heart of Caelum's endless vigil: a lost love whose ghost feeds the thorns, and a choice that could either shatter the curse forever or pull everyone she loves into the wood's eternal embrace. With Father Aldric's warnings ringing in her ears and the enigmatic Seraphine watching from the edges of the forest, Elara must decide what she is willing to sacrifice, and whether loving the monster is the only way to save her sister from becoming one.