Firstwalker

In the frozen north of Freyareth, TalMarin—an aloof snow-elf ranger with a winter eagle for her only companion—tracks a legendary Shalogan through blinding storms for one impossible prize: the beast’s heart, needed for a forbidden spell that could save her best friend’s mortal lover from time itself. But the Shalogan is not a natural creature, and Tal’s hunt turns with terrifying speed from pursuit to slaughter. She wakes injured in a remote cabin with her weapons gone, her secrets exposed, and a stranger watching her with eyes like banked flame: DaRithnial “Rith,” a dangerously beautiful woman who claims to be something older than elves—something made of fire, sworn to hold back a darkness that wants to bleed into the world. As Tal recovers, attraction becomes its own kind of peril, and the night outside the cabin grows teeth. When a strange light-stone drags Tal into a realm of living shadow and fear, she learns that Rith’s war is real—and that the price of stepping into it may be her courage, her mission… and her heart.