A Kingdom Built on Ash

She was never meant to survive.

Now she moves through the forest like something half-forgotten, carrying hunger in her bones and silence in her throat, with only a direwolf at her side and a past she refuses to name. Trust is not something she can afford, and people are something she has learned to avoid.

But the world does not leave her alone.
One path turns into another.
One encounter becomes something harder to walk away from.

And slowly-against every instinct she has-she finds herself no longer alone.
The woods are not empty.
The world beyond them is shifting.
And the more she tries to disappear, the more something begins to pull her back.

Not all bonds are chosen.
Not all connections are safe.
And the people who find her... may begin to want more than she's willing to give.