Tale of the Heart Queen

Lor's uncontrolled magic stops Nadir's heart on the battlefield

After the Aurora King captures them outside Aphelion, Lor unleashes her lightning magic at Rion's soldiers—but the blast has no edges.

Lor's uncontrolled magic stops Nadir's heart on the battlefield

After the Aurora King captures them outside Aphelion, Lor unleashes her lightning magic at Rion's soldiers—but the blast has no edges. Red lightning spears the clearing indiscriminately, and when the light fades, Nadir lies motionless beneath her. Her healing magic grasps at nothing inside his chest. She screams into the sky, begging any god who will listen. Rion had taunted that Nadir betrayed her location—she refuses to believe it, but the damage is done regardless. She killed her mate with the power she spent years craving. His skin grows cold under her fingers as color drains from his face. Lor clutches his body, sobbing until her soul feels hollow, her magic still crackling beneath skin that has become a weapon she cannot put down.

Five days to steal an ark or her mate dies forever

A sharp voice breaks through Lor's grief, and she finds herself transported to the Evanescence—the realm between worlds—with Nadir's body beside her. The goddess Zerra stands over them, blonde and coldly amused. She can suspend him between life and death, she explains, but only if Lor retrieves a relic called the ark of Alluvion from King Cyan's palace. Five days. Lor begs for Nadir to be revived now so he can help, but Zerra refuses, citing distrust. Before Lor can argue further, white light swallows her and she crashes facedown onto a burning beach within sight of the Crystal Palace—barefoot, filthy, wearing the livery of a kingdom that isn't hers. The goddess didn't even grant her clean clothes. Just an impossible deadline and the specter of permanent loss.

Serce's granddaughter finds poison in every kingdom's welcome

Lor talks her way past the Alluvion guards by naming her grandmother Serce—and is promptly thrown in the dungeon. The female guard captain, Linden, turns out to be Lor's own great-aunt, a former Woodlands princess who blames Serce for her brother Wolf's death. Cyan, the pale-skinned Alluvion King, eventually summons Lor to dinner alongside Linden and his consort Anemone, a mysterious woman with dyed turquoise hair. Lor spins a web of half-truths about escaping the Aurora King, concealing her true mission entirely. But Cyan is perceptive, and Linden's hatred runs marrow-deep. Lor is granted guest status under heavy guard, every courtesy laced with suspicion. Each hour in this glass-walled palace burns away at the five-day clock ticking over Nadir's suspended life.