Trial of the Sun Queen

A prison fight sends Lor into a death pit for two weeks

Twelve years inside Nostraza—the most notorious prison in Ouranos—have hardened Lor into a survivor who trades her body to wardens for soap and shields her siblings Tristan and Willow, whose family connection they keep secret.

A prison fight sends Lor into a death pit for two weeks

Twelve years inside Nostraza—the most notorious prison in Ouranos—have hardened Lor into a survivor who trades her body to wardens for soap and shields her siblings Tristan and Willow, whose family connection they keep secret. When her nemesis Jude steals a hard-won bar of soap, Lor snaps, attacking her in the mess hall and breaking her wrist. Warden Kelava sentences her to two weeks in the Hollow—a punishment pit dug into the monster-infested forest surrounding the prison. Inside, Lor nearly drowns in rising rainwater, goes days without food, and barely escapes a shadowy creature that lunges from the dark. On the brink of death, she hears distant sounds of a prison riot. Then hands—gentle but firm—lift her from the pit, and she loses consciousness.

A dying prisoner wakes in a palace she never imagined

She opens her eyes to blue sky, silk sheets, and a mortal servant named Mag pressing buttered pancakes into her hands. Lor is in Aphelion, a southern kingdom of sunshine and golden splendor—the polar opposite of The Aurora's perpetual dark. Mag bathes her, covers her scars with makeup, and pours her into a golden gown, chattering about something called the Tribute Ceremony. A winged Fae soldier named Gabriel arrives to escort her, identifying himself as the captain of the king's guard and her assigned warder. He refuses every question, threatens force if she resists, and marches her through gilded hallways toward a throne room where her fate will be announced. The brand of Nostraza still burns on her shoulder, hidden under golden fabric.

Gabriel reveals the Final Tribute's eight-thousand-year death record Ten women stand before the Sun King Atlas—nine flawless Fae beauties and Lor, gaunt and scarred, planted at the end of the line. A herald announces the Sun Queen Trials: a centuries-old competition to choose the king's bonded queen. One mortal from The Umbra—Aphelion's slum—competes alongside the Fae as proof anyone can change their fate. Afterward, Gabriel drags Lor aside and drops the truth: Atlas himself arranged her extraction from Nostraza. She must pretend she's from The Umbra, not a northern prison. If she fails the Trials, she returns to her cell. And in eight thousand years, no Final Tribute has ever survived. But if she wins, she'd ascend to Imperial Fae with magic, a crown, and the power to free Tristan and Willow. That promise…