Forbidden Magic

The forest does not forget.

As a child, Lilliarna Vardarianna Héri-called Li by those who love her-ventures too deep into the woods in search of healing herbs for her dying mother and is saved from the monsters of dusk by a fae with antlers crowned in glowing runes. He vanishes before dawn, but the forest never releases its claim on her.

Years pass. Li grows, and so does the feeling of being watched. Gifts left at the forest's edge are taken. Whispers coil through her dreams. When she finally confronts the fae who has haunted her life, he reveals the truth: magic stirs within her-wild, ancient, and forbidden.

Under his guidance, Lilliarna learns to touch a power that answers desire rather than intent. But when she tries to use it to save her mother, her greatest wish twists into tragedy, turning love into stone. Branded a demon and a witch by her own people, she is cast out and driven into the forest's embrace-and into a love already steeped in secrets.

When the fae's true identity is revealed and wild magic spirals beyond control, Lilliarna dies beneath the trees that once sheltered her.

The forest refuses to let her stay dead.

Reborn as something neither living nor fae, Lilliarna awakens years later to a world reshaped by conquest, blood, and lies. The wild magic inside her now answers the moon, transforming her into a beast that hunts those who harm the forest. As the fae court celebrates new alliances and buries old sins beneath silk and song, Li steps from the shadows to reclaim what was stolen from her-her power, her name, and her vengeance.

Because when the forest makes a monster, it does not do so without reason.