Description
SORCERY OF THORNS meets THE NETHERGRIM when a monster wakes in the woods and a librarian takes up her sword to slay it. But these woods aren't just trees, and within their realm it's hard to say who is the hunter and who is the hunted. Princess Enny's birthright is a prophecy: she will slay the monster that rules the Blue Wood. Enny has trained for years at the famed academy of Keleus House for the battle that will define her very existence-and likely will kill her. But her death means her people can finally be free of a curse that's plagued them for generations. She's accepted her fate. Others are not so pragmatic. When deadly creatures emerge from the forest, Enny's father sends her younger brother, armed with a powerful magic which Enny lacks, to fight in Enny's place. Instead of stopping the evil that's haunted her since birth, Enny is sent back to her academy to pick up the pieces of a life she was never meant to survive. Enny is convinced her father put their entire kingdom at risk for the sake of his conscience. The woodland monsters continue their assault until they threaten to spread as far as Keleus House at the northern border. Then the Wood claims Enny's brother as its next victim. Enny won't stand by any longer, and the Wood won't rest until she faces it. But there are secrets in this Wood, challenging everything Enny thought she knew about her world and herself. If Enny wants to save her home, she has to do the one thing she wasn't trained for: stay alive. Photo by Saffu on Unsplash Author Note: this story was originally published in a rough draft form under the title "Dark and Deep". It has since been heavily revised.
Chapter One
