ASHVEIL

Seconds. That's all it took. One heartbeat to shatter everything Flora believed about herself.

A thousand years ago, humanity fled a dying Earth through magical gateways into Aquatis, a world of endless oceans, fractured kingdoms, and sea serpents older than history itself. The price of their survival was never paid.

Branded the "Cursed Womb" of her tribe, Flora has spent her life believing she is broken. When she becomes the only witness to the truth behind a chief's son's death beyond the forbidden Border, she is silenced through a political marriage to Axel, the feared vampire prince of Hárheimr.

She expects a monster.

Instead, she finds a man whose scars mirror her own.

Their unwilling union awakens an ancient sacred tether, igniting phoenix fire within Flora and restoring the dragon blood long buried within Axel. As kingdoms prepare for war, forgotten powers begin to awaken, and the child they create becomes a miracle to some, and an unforgivable threat to others.

Hunted by those who covet the Queen's lost power and betrayed by the people she trusts most, Flora must decide whether the flames consuming her are a curse... or the only force capable of saving a world built upon an unpaid debt.

"Every time you slice me open with your words, I come back. Like a lost poppy searching for its owner. And I hate myself for it. Hate that I keep handing you the leash."

His battle-worn hand settled over hers, hesitant.

"If this is a game," he whispered, "it's a cruel one."

"You're not a game to me."

Some bargains are sealed in blood.
Some gates were sealed for a reason.
And some souls refuse to let either stand between them.