Liora Valen wants none of it—no court, no crown, no prophecy spoken like a sentence. But the mark makes her the Echo, a force the nobles of Seyvara would rather cage than understand. They dress their demands as honor: titles, ceremonies, a “role” beside Prince Thane… and a quiet expectation that she will kneel.
Winter doesn’t wait for politics. Villages go unnaturally still, magic twists, and the Hollow Crown stirs beyond the veil—along with the legend of an ice-entombed queen who was never truly gone. To stop a war that will freeze the world or burn it clean, Liora must step into enemy cold as an emissary, dig up the name the court tried to erase, and learn what the Flame is actually asking of her.
Because if she chooses wrong, she won’t just lose a throne.
She’ll lose the future.
A sweeping, high-stakes romantasy of fire and frost, court intrigue, ancient rites, and a fierce heroine who refuses to be ruled.