For eighty-five years now, Electra has been celebrating Holytide with the royals from Daryatla, alternating each year whether they meet in their palace or hers. It has always been her favorite night–first, as a child, when her older brother would sneak her out of whichever holiday party they’d been commanded to attend, to tell her the real reason they celebrate, despite how faithless the court has become. He told her of the virgin birth, the shepherds, the choir of angels. Eventually, she would help tell the story. And they’d wonder, as they watched the jellyfish dance through the red and green lights, what it would have been like to be there. Though Librus is long gone, Electra still sneaks out at midnight on Holy Eve…and she wonders.

And for the last forty years, she’s had company.

Come celebrate Christmas under the sea with Perla and her guests…where love must contend with prejudice and ambition before it can bloom full.

But her father is aging, which means the Crown of Daryatla will soon pass to her. Desperate for advice from someone who understands the burden of ruling, she takes an unscheduled trip to visit her cousin, queen of the mer…only to find herself caught up in an uprising.

And of course, the guard she can never stop thinking about—Atlas, who decades ago chose to serve the mer kingdom beneath the waves instead of Daryatla—is there to frown and insist she leave…when all she wants is to be seen and understood.

But unrest is brewing in the Sunken Kingdom, and to avoid being caught up in the would-be coup, Atlas and Brenn must make a quick escape to the surface…which isn’t as easy as it should be.

Taryn has spent most of her 83 years in solitude, with only the Triada for company. She has learned to hear his voice, to practice her magic while being careful not to touch the sea that the evil king controls. And she yearns for a world where her people, the mer, can live freely. A world where they can rule themselves and not be subject to the whims of the tyrannical king. How, though, can she convince her two warrior parents that there should be a peaceful way forward?

When he first wrestled the sea enough to allow the mer to build their domes, when he controlled the tempestuous tides and brought clean water forth again for land-dwellers, the people were happy to crown him king. He gave up his very name when he took the throne, swearing he would be nothing but their servant. The Sea King.

As the centuries have passed, though, Alaric continued to fall prey to his own weaknesses, and the deep faith in the Triada that once underscored his every move has turned into a chafing, a constant reminder of his every failure. For five centuries, he has ruled. But it seems the people don’t remember all he did to create the strong kingdom they now enjoy.

All they remember are his sins.

Tyrant. Monster. Heartless.

This is what they call them now. So this is what he’ll be.

Brayden, once tutored by the Sea King himself when he was Awakened to great magic, is now the leader of a group of revolutionaries dubbed the Black Tails by the mer…and the Death Demons by the unfortunate land-dwellers who get in his way.

Norinne was once a Guardian to the Sea King, but she faked her own death and went into hiding in the Sunken Cities to escape him. She married Brayden when the priests urged her to, for the sole purpose of creating a powerful child.

Taryn, who is everything they could have asked for.

Norinne is aging now, which means her days are numbered. But Brayden could still have decades or centuries to see his daughter on the new mer throne he intends to create.

A bitter enemy

Silvanus, the Master of the Guardians and hence Alaric’s most trusted guard, would sooner see Taryn killed than let her get her claws in the king.

The Black Tails will do anything
to reclaim their would-be queen…

But the longer Taryn is in Daryatla, the more she wonders if anything is quite what she’d been taught. If perhaps the king isn’t so much a tyrant…if the mer aren’t quite as oppressed…and if anyone can be trusted when those she loves most threaten the thing she most craves.

And the longer Taryn is in Daryatla, the more Alaric wonders if there’s hope that he’ll yet outrun the sins that have so long stood between him and the Triada. But the cost of salvation may prove too high for his timeworn heart, and Alaric may be doomed to be nothing but a cautionary tale for those to come.

The origin story of the First Sea King, 
Foretold,
will be coming soon!

Valkyrja, known as Kyrja (KEER-ya), is the thirdborn child and second daughter of the reigning king, Isidor. In her father’s eyes she’s nothing but “Mamma’s pet,” the extra child her mother petitioned him for after already giving him an heir and a spare. Or as her sister likes to call her, “pretty and useless.” Though beloved by the people for her frequent trips into the capitol, Reykstoll, to give aid to the commoners, called thanes, the ruling body of magically Blessed considers her weak of magic and far too emotional. In a world ruled by ice, passion and emotion and faith are considered destructive to the logic needed to guide the land.

Born and raised beneath the greenhouse dome of Harroby, Nik should have been a farmer like everyone else…but he didn’t mind when his revolutionary father sold their plot of land, because Nik never wanted to farm. What he wants is to learn. To study. In Fjordlandi, only sixty men at a time are allowed to join the church, so his heart’s desire to study the Words is forbidden…but he finds a way. To learn the scriptures, and to study the law—as if a thane would ever be allowed to do that either.

But when he and his best friend, Raf, travel to Reykstoll to join Nik’s father for what he thinks is a summit requesting more resources for the thanes beneath the domes, a horrific attack shakes his world…and sends him on a course that redefines everything he thought he knew about himself, his family, and the Giver of All who he’s always sought with all his heart.

But Fjordlandi has a secret that no one but the king knows…a secret they call the Curse, which stands in opposition to the Blessing of magic over snow and ice. A century and a half ago, a new magic was discovered, one that gives its holders control over lava and flame.

Daemon was the first, and for many years he was the only man living in the heart of Helviti, Fjordlandi’s biggest and most ferocious volcano. He is now the head of a small family of Cursed…but it’s Elianne, the newest member, who he tries not to be too intrigued by. In the years since she joined them in Helviti, a mountain once thought to be the gate to the underworld, she has resisted his training, always holding back, and she seems to have some tie to the king Daemon despises, the one holding his family in the mountain as slaves.

They are glad to help their land, to control the ring of volcanoes encircling the island nation…but what would it be like to taste fresh air again? To see the sun, to mark the passage of time? To feel the wind cool their brows?

And another unexpected visitor arrives…

from the ever-warring land of Ellas.

Thrown together by chance…or the Giver?

It seems to be only happenstance that put Kyrja and Nik together when the attack shakes Reykstoll, but as they work together to save whoever they can, a bond is forged…one that only deepens as her father’s desire for revenge on the revolutionaries who orchestrated the attack focuses on Nik in the weeks to come.

Do they have a hope of changing their land, though? Can anything better come? Or are all their hopes for a fair Fjordlandi bound to go up in flames?

Book 2 of the Awakened Series, 
Aflame,
will be coming in 2026!