Winter has reduced Mara's life to a list of dwindling supplies and impossible calculations. She is a widowed mother in an isolated mountain cabin, determined to keep eight-year-old Mira fed and warm until spring. Then Mira begins talking about a stone knight near the ruins, a winged sentinel with broken wings and eyes full of sadness. Mara dismisses it as a lonely child's imagination until the thing in the snow begins moving. Vaelor is ancient, powerful, and bound to the mountain by magic older than the village below. He is also damaged in ways that make him as wary of Mara as she is of him. When danger pushes them together, Mara discovers that the creature everyone would call a monster has been guarding more than forgotten ruins. His fate is linked to the land, to a brutal history the villagers no longer remember clearly, and somehow to Mira. The harshest winter in years closes every escape route while an enemy determined to exploit old magic threatens the fragile family Mara has fought to protect. Vaelor can shield them from cold and violence, but every use of his power carries a price. Mara has survived by trusting no one except herself. Accepting help from a winged sentinel means risking her daughter's safety and her own heart. As Midwinter approaches, an ancient vow begins to awaken beneath the frost. Mara must decide whether home is the cabin where she has barely survived or the strange new family gathering around the creature she was taught to fear. Some guardians are made of stone. The strongest bonds are not.
Winter has reduced Mara's life to a list of dwindling supplies and impossible calculations. She is a widowed mother in an isolated mountain cabin, determined to keep eight-year-old Mira fed and warm until spring. Then Mira begins talking about a stone knight near the ruins, a winged sentinel with...