She was born to serve the crown. She never imagined she would take it. Elisa of Ispan is educated, sharp, and invisible - exactly how noblewomen are expected to be. But when Prince Josh requests her by name for a royal delegation, everything changes. In a kingdom torn between powerful empires, corrupt lords, and political wars, Elisa must navigate love, loyalty, and survival. But the girl who enters the palace innocent will not be the woman who leaves it. Some queens are born. Others are made - by betrayal, by suffering, and by the terrible choices that love demands. Crowns don't fall from the sky. They are taken.

There is no night in the Everburning City. There can never be. ***** For four hundred years the Everburning City has withstood the advance of the life-strangling fog known as the Gloam. Its walls have held back five invasions, but on the eve of the sixth, the city's inhabitants know things have changed. Golems are coming out of the mist, and the bodies of the dead are rising at the Gloam's bidding. The city's last and most desperate line of defence comes in the form of the Crafters, individuals who can channel the power of fire, though they risk their sanity each time they do. The brightest of these valiant heroes are Tabitha a'Loria and her apprentice Gerald Reath. Risking their lives, they mount their airships, determined to save the last bastion of humanity - the Everburning City. [[word count: 100,000-150,000 words]]