vandoodle
Exiled as a child for a crime she never chose, a young elf has built a new life in the slums of Asterdale. Now called Nova, she runs with a crew of outcast thieves, stealing from the rich to keep the city's poorest alive.
But when a heist in a merchant's vault reveals a forbidden stone carved with the same rune that once marked her for exile, the past she's buried claws its way back. The stone hums in her bones. The city's wards twist around her. And a stranger with dark hair and a familiar crest on his shoulder starts hunting through Asterdale's streets.
Caught between a brutal guild, a crew she's starting to call family, and a magic that makes her a living boundary between worlds, Nova must decide what she's willing to betray: her new life, her old secrets...or the city that will crumble if she walks away.
Enemies-to-lovers. Found family. An in-between hero who refuses to stay where she's put.
Welcome to Asterdale, where the rich live at the shining center, the poor survive on the edge, and Nova walks the thin line between them all.