A Pact of Ash and Thorn

The dead tell Bryn Ashvale everything. Their wounds, their final hours, the violence written on their skin. She reads bodies the way other people read books. Precision, detachment, and the clinical distance of a woman who chose mortality over an eternity of collecting the slain.

But the latest body on her table bears a mark she has not seen in centuries. A symbol from the Unmarked Courts, the hidden fae judiciary she abandoned when she gave up her Valkyrie mantle.

When more marked bodies appear across London, Bryn’s carefully constructed human life begins to crack. The courts are stirring. Something old is hunting. And the only person who might understand why is Kern, the Lord of the Wild Hunt, who has his own reasons for wanting the killing to stop. Reasons he has no intention of sharing.

Their alliance is a necessity, not a choice. The slow burn between them is a complication neither can afford. And the truth waiting at the heart of the Unmarked Courts will force Bryn to confront what she really gave up, and what she might have to become again to survive.