A Reign of Rose

Thirteen years before the war, young Arwen follows her brother Ryder and his friend Halden into their stepfather's locked work shed on a dark night.

Thirteen years before the war, young Arwen follows her brother Ryder and his friend Halden into their stepfather's locked work shed on a dark night. Halden slashes his hand on a saw. Ryder bolts. Arwen stays. She presses trembling fingers to the wound and watches a pale dawn-colored glow stitch the flesh closed — the first eruption of healing power she cannot explain. She wraps the evidence in cloth, tells Halden it will be better by morning, and spends the next hour returning every scattered screw to its proper place. When he thanks her for not running like Ryder did, she answers simply: he was hurt, and she couldn't leave. The moment crystallizes who Arwen is — someone who sprints toward suffering rather than away from it.

A dishwasher reveals himself as something far older

Kane has spent months hurling himself at an icy mountain in the Pearl Kingdom, trying to reach the sorcerer called the White Crow. Each ascent ends in shattered bones; his lighte won't work within the sorcerer's wards. He grieves Arwen, whom he believes dead. A tavern dishwasher named Len befriends him over meat pies, asking what Kane would sacrifice to bring someone back. Then Len kills a rat and resurrects it with a bare hand — not a sorcerer but a banished Fae God. He forces Kane to drink lilium, stripping every Fae power and leaving him mortal. The blade cannot be destroyed, the God explains. It waits with Lazarus in Solaris. One touch will make Kane full-blooded — capable of fulfilling the death prophecy in Arwen's place. But he must survive the journey first, fragile as any human.

Lazarus drains the only full-blooded Fae woman alive

Two guards bookend Arwen's captivity atop Solaris's highest tower: Maddox, who relishes cruelty, and Wyn, who offers quiet compassion despite his role. The court witch Octavia drains Arwen's lighte through tubes every few days — a violation more psychological than physical. Lazarus intends to use Arwen as breeding stock for a new race of pure Fae, though he cannot yet conceive because harvesting prevents conception. She learns Octavia coveted the queen's role, that the realm beyond Solaris's walls is a wasteland of stolen lighte, and that Lazarus's greed has poisoned the very land. Each time her power regenerates, hope flickers — and each time Octavia comes, that hope is efficiently extinguished. She survives by conjuring Kane's voice inside her own mind.