Queen of Frost and Ruin

A noble is found ritually murdered on the eve of a treaty between Winter and Autumn, killed by a blood-rite that was outlawed for a reason.

Lady Morrigan Thornbloom crosses the frozen ceremonial bridge into the Winter Court that taught her to survive by never letting anyone close. She has come to secure a treaty between Winter and Autumn, the latest of the negotiations that followed Queen Wren and King Kael’s reforms, and Queen Isolde is watching every move she makes.

When the summit is threatened by a ritual killing, Morrigan is ordered to keep the talks alive while she quietly investigates. Her unwanted partner is Commander Adrian Valewynn, a Thorn War veteran sent as Autumn’s security liaison, who distrusts nobles on principle and Morrigan most of all. He thinks she treats suffering as strategy. She thinks he sees exactly what he expects to see.

The killings are not random. Someone is trying to restore an old Winter succession, and they are using Morrigan’s reputation as their cover. If the treaty fails, the Winter hardliners win, the reforms unravel, and the courts go back to war.

The fourth Fae Bargain Chronicle opens a colder, sharper court and a new couple: enemies to lovers, politically dangerous, and hard-won.