A fae queen wants their children.

The mountains want them back.

Magic keeps the score.

They told themselves the danger had passed.
That the Queen’s Box was closed.
That love was enough to hold the truth at bay.

But secrets don’t stay buried—not in Hemridge, and not in Willow Braselton’s heart.

When Cole uncovers an orphanage raising street children as magical stand-ins for the babies of the wealthy, he and Willow intervene—taking in a strange, bright-eyed boy named Gage He’s gentle. Curious. A little too knowing. And tucked deep in his pocket is a duskwyrm no one expected to survive.

As Gage bonds with the creature and begins whispering strange truths—about venom, tobacco, and a cure buried in the mortal world—Willow’s lies begin to unravel. She’s been keeping a terrible secret: Cole’s little brother, Micah, isn’t dead.

He’s alive. Renamed. Rewritten.
And wearing a crown that was never meant for him.