The Aethra's Heir

Centuries ago, the Aethra tore the world in two.

A living wound split across the continent, poisoning everything caught between its edges. To contain it, six Pillars were raised across Erynthia, anchoring the Aethra in place and keeping its corruption from spreading.

For centuries, they held.

Until they didn't.

Those born the night the Aethra first tore open were marked by its power. The Drakovarre Highbloods called them Aethren-and hunted them to extinction.

Every last one was killed.

Except Serai Aris Nydrian.

She has spent her entire life making sure no one discovers what she is.

Now, Serai survives in Lumeris as an assassin, taking contracts and keeping her head down, refusing to touch the power that once made her bloodline a death sentence.

Then Lumeris' Pillar fractures.

And Serai feels it.

The Aethra is waking.

The cracks spreading through the Pillars aren't accidents. Something is feeding on them, and if the Pillars fall, the Aethra won't simply break free.

It will spread.

And the first person sent to stop it is the last person Serai ever wanted to see.

Kaivren Drakovarre.

General of the Highbloods.

Heir to the family that ordered the Purge.

The son of the man responsible for killing her parents and everyone else born that night.

Now Serai must work with the man whose family destroyed hers, while the power she has spent her entire life hiding begins to return.

Because the Pillars are falling.

And this time, the Aethra isn't stopping.