The chain has awakened. The crown is waiting. And the dead are listening.

Mariselle never asked to be a queen of shadows. Hunted by wraiths, betrayed by blood, and haunted by fragments of a past she cannot remember, she carries a chain that hums with power—and a prophecy that marks her as the Ash Queen. But every gift is a curse. Each time she calls the dead, she feels the chains binding tighter around her soul.

As her sister Seraphine rises with armies of her own, the Coven Council whispers of war. Old alliances fracture, secrets long buried claw their way to the surface, and Mariselle must choose: deny the darkness and be consumed by it, or wield it and risk becoming the very monster they fear.

In a world where blood is stronger than loyalty and shadows answer only to her, Mariselle will discover that crowns are not given—they are taken.