Shimmer in the Shadows

She was never meant to survive - let alone carry the one thing that could burn the world.

After the High King's beast razes her home and erases her name, Dapper Volhard vanishes into servitude.

A stable girl.
A shadow.
A girl who speaks to no one and hides what she is.

Because Dapper can feel what others feel - fear, cruelty, hunger - and their emotions echo inside her like an open wound. Knowing more than she should is dangerous. Being different is deadly.

But deep within a ruined castle, a stolen moment uncovers something long forgotten.

A golden egg.
Glowing. Breathing. Alive.
And calling to her.

With its awakening, everything Dapper has buried begins to stir. The skies are no longer safe. The King's Beast hunts without mercy. A prince tied to her past reappears, carrying truths she cannot yet face. And the quiet stranger with wolf-bright eyes and a haunted allegiance may be the greatest danger of all.

As ancient forces rise - forest-bound spirits, shape-shifting warriors, and powers lost to history - the Dark King turns his gaze toward the egg. It is something he failed to destroy. Something he is desperate to control.

Everyone wants the egg.
Everyone fears what will happen if it hatches.

But Dapper is not who they believe her to be. And when the truth rises - in blood, in fire, and in shadow - the world will finally remember her name.

Shimmer in the Shadows is a character-driven adult fantasy with strong romantasy elements, blending emotional intensity with epic stakes. It will appeal to readers of An Ember in the Ashes, The Bear and the Nightingale, and the later Throne of Glass novels - stories where inner reckoning is as powerful as magic, and survival is only the beginning.