Forbidden Bloom

She whispers a forbidden lullaby—and a gate that hasn’t opened in centuries answers by burning nightshade into her skin.

Now the Garden of Nightshade wants her name… and the fae lord sworn to keep mortals out might be the only one who can keep her alive.

Seris Elowyn is a botanist, a heretic, and a seeker—drawn by bruised-twilight vines and the last riddles of the grandmother who never truly returned. When Seris crosses the Wildwood’s living gate, she steps into an eternal dusk where flowers bloom and wither in the same breath, and every root listens.

The mark on her arm makes her “chosen.” The garden’s priestess demands she submit to a bond that could turn her into a vessel for something old and hungry. Lord Aric Thorn—oathbound keeper of the realm—should deliver Seris to the laws he protects. Instead, he shields her… and breaks the rules that chained him.

But protection has a cost. The garden drags buried memories to the surface—of a vanished grandmother, a shattered pact, and a power sealed beneath the Heartroot that is starting to wake.  To escape being rewritten, Seris and Aric must chase dangerous relics through twisted groves and living tombs, bargaining with magic that doesn’t care who bleeds—only what it remembers.

In a realm built on thorns, truth, and living hunger, desire is dangerous. The real question is what you’re willing to surrender when the garden finally calls your name.