Tallied Vows of Blood

Calla Duskane has spent sixteen years in the caves of the Under-City, certain that House Duskane's fall from the cliffside halls of High Reach was the crown's cold justice for her father's failure.

When her younger brother's hand begins to turn the same grey that took her mother, she learns the debt consuming him was never her family's to carry, but a lie built to hide a secret no one in High Reach will speak aloud.

The only way to clear it is the Tally of Vows, a brutal tournament held once every twelve years, where blood-sealed magic judges trials of silence, sacrifice, and truth, and only the victor may cancel a single debt.

Prince Ademar Ashvane, heir to the crown and son of the family whose silence made her ruin, has guarded a truth of his own for four years, one that could burn the crown if it reached the wrong ears.

A trial meant to break Calla's silence instead forces his confession into the open, and the rival she came to defeat becomes the one person willing to risk everything to help her win, and the one she cannot let go.

On the Sundered Coast of Ilyra, where every promise is blood-sealed law, the man who still holds the Concord's authority will protect his secret even if an innocent child's life is the price.