Winter's Gift

What if Beauty and the Beast were both victims of the same crime? The Beast was never a man. Beauty is, because of the crime, part beast. The real monsters are the people they should trust most.

Tavarielle, estranged daughter of the elven king, has spent decades harrying the forces of the Sorcerer. On a desolate northern moor, she encounters the Sorcerer’s proudest achievement — Isilmhîr, a massive, intelligent white wolf. A primal magic awakens, entwining them in a bond so deep it feels like his heart beats in her chest. For a culture that has already cast her out, loving this wolf may be her final transgression. Together, can they overcome the king who would destroy them, and the sorcerer who bound them and craves the power her soul contains?

Written in wide third, Winter's Gift is an epic fantasy romance exploring themes of identity, fate and choice.

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WARNING: If you want the full synopsis, read on, but it does contain plot spoilers.

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Synopsis: Winter's Gift

Tavarielle, the youngest daughter of the wood-elf king, was born "Winter's Gift". Her Song, her magical energy, promised once-in-an-age power. At twelve she seemingly broke that Song herself, an act her people call the Sundering. Blamed, shunned, and disowned by her own parents, she is an outcast. With her fierce half-elven friend and shield-maiden, Turiel, she has spent decades harrying the forces of the unseen Sorcerer.

On a desolate northern moor, she encounters the Sorcerer's intelligent white wolf, Isilmhîr, and an inexplicable bond ignites between them. Reading the bond as her working magic on him, he traps her — but the act diminishes her. Ashamed, he sets her free and flees, leaving behind the Sorcerer's magically bound notebook.

Tavarielle cannot stop thinking of the wolf. After her family cruelly and publicly humiliate her at her nephew's coming-of-age, she renounces her title and walks away from her people. That cruelty, and a magical oath, reconcile her with her elder sister Arameth — the one person able to unseal the notebook, and under oath not to reveal its secrets.

Isilmhîr returns, and the two accept their bond is real. Alone, Arameth unlocks the notebook and discovers a horror. The Sorcerer is no stranger: he is their own uncle, Lareon. He spent centuries learning to cut and steal fragments of living Songs, engineered his way back into the royal family, groomed the child Tavarielle for twelve years, and stole the Notes of her Song — sealing them into a wolf he bred specifically. Each carries part of the Song of the other. Such bound beings share a single fate: they will live together and die together.

The king – Eureon – sends a patrol to hunt and kill the white wolf for his hide. Meanwhile, the Sorcerer's commander sets a trap — a decoy fire whose smoke draws both the patrol and Tavarielle's small group to the same ground. In the battle that follows, Tavarielle's trio save the very hunters sent to kill Isilmhîr, the wolf shielding her nephew with his own body. Honour-bound, the young warrior brings Isilmhîr to the elven court alive and under his protection.

King Eureon rigs a council to condemn Isilmhîr to death as an agent of the Sorcerer. Distrusting the king, Tavarielle has Arameth enchant an amulet to redirect the killing wound onto herself — but at the execution Arameth secretly swaps herself into the enchantment, knowing that if Tavarielle takes the wound, both bonded beings would perish. As Arameth bleeds, Isilmhîr lays his head against Tavarielle, and her Song-shard within him awakens. For the first time her whole Song rings true, frost blooming around them. Their combined power lets the healers pull Arameth back from death. Turiel reads Arameth's letter aloud to the assembled kingdom — exposing Lareon as the true instigator of the Sundering.

In public, the king relents. Isilmhîr is pardoned; the ache Tavarielle has carried since childhood lifts; her Song, through him, is whole. Reclaiming her birth name, whole and free, she realises that even though she is compelled to be with Isilmhîr, she would freely choose to be. Then, choosing peace over vengeance, she walks away with Isilmhîr — the Lord of Winter and Winter's Gift together — while the Sorcerer remains at large.

Please note: the author refuses permission for any use of this work to train, augment, inform or educate any technology, including but not limited to AI & LLMs