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Thorne walked into a rupturing veil to save us. That was how I found out what I was worth.
The resistance thought we had time. We didn't. Someone beat us to the sacred site, the fragment we came for is already gone, and the man who knew the most about what I'm supposed to become just sacrificed himself so I could live.
What he left me: an access badge. A crown that isn't one piece. And a war that's been running for twenty years without me.
I'm Mara. Orphan. Former nobody. Apparently the last heir of House Vaelthorne — a bloodline everyone thought Cassian's massacre erased. The Crown my mother hid before she died wasn't whole when she hid it. It was never whole. Three anchoring fragments, deliberately separated during a civil war, designed so no single ruler could hold absolute power.
She hid her piece. She trusted two others to hide theirs.
I've recovered one. The base is in my hands. And somewhere out there, a woman named Aldren — my mother's closest friend, her most trusted aide, the person who helped design the hiding plan — has been working for twenty years to make sure no one ever puts it back together.
Then there's Kael.
Captain Kael Blackwater, who ran the most dangerous intelligence operation in this conflict for eighteen months with a target on his back. Who filed deliberately inaccurate reports to keep me safe before I knew I needed protecting. Who was assigned to assess whether I was a threat — and chose, alone and without telling anyone, to lie.
He is not an easy thing to trust. I'm doing it anyway. Not because he's earned it. Because I looked at the evidence and decided.
The resistance is scattered. The military knows how to hit us where it hurts — through our bond-partners, not through us. Ashford has an embedded advisor feeding him intelligence designed specifically to break sovereign bonds. And the Hollowmaw that keep finding us aren't random. Neither is the Compact faction opening portals across the veil.
I've made contact with something ancient and vast that has been trying to reach my bloodline for twenty years. I have a Vaelthorne cousin who's been working alone in the dark longer than I've known any of this was real. I have a team of people who chose this fight because of me, specifically — and I've had to learn what that means.
The crown requires three anchors and a base.
I have two pieces. The third is with a woman who doesn't trust organizations. The counter-piece — an artifact designed to unmake everything I'm trying to build — is with the architect of my family's destruction.
And the window the Compact gave me isn't permanent. I'm not ready. I stopped waiting to be.
About Brenda:
A USA Today bestselling author, Brenda loves everything paranormal. She has co-authored over twenty-five books in the best-selling Dark Warrior Alliance series, as well as the Hollow Rock Shifters series. She also has best-selling solo titles readers are raving about.
Brenda created worlds that feature dangerously handsome heroes and feisty heroines. With the help of popcorn and candy, she takes dragons, fairies, witches, vampires, and so much more and brings them to life. She lives in Texas with her husband and three kids who fuel not only her heart but her life.
If she's not writing, she's reading, traveling, or knee-deep in projects with her husband and five sisters. She encourages readers to Dream Big. If your dreams don't terrify and electrify you then they aren't big enough!
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