How many secrets can you collect before you’re crushed under their weight?
The Sunchosen are revered across Altaerra.
Children born with the mark of the sun imprinted on their skin, their souls are said to be predestined for a fate worthy of the Goddesses. They have the will, strength of character, and intelligence it takes to rule the five realms, with unheard of power running through their veins to match. Every 100 years, 20 new Sunchosen are born and taken to the Bronze Palace to train for their imminent future. On the 28th year after their birth, the Sunchosen will compete in the Trials of the Sun in order to determine their place within the Altaerran Council in Solyndra. The 432nd Trials of the Sun commences next year, and only 18 Sunchosen are left. One is dead. One is missing.
Iris Virlana is the lost Sunchosen, and she has no plans of ever returning.
Living in hiding as an apothecary apprentice to the woman who saved her twenty years ago, Iris knows the delicate and safe life they have built relies on remaining quiet, unassuming, and unnoticed. When a debt that could have disastrous consequences if not fulfilled is called in, she has to work with a neighboring realm to find a cure for a plague ravaging their lands.
As the tournament she was destined to compete in looms closer— tensions rise, precarious matters of the heart become entangled, and carefully kept secrets begin to unravel. Away from home, and the only safety she has ever known, will she ever truly escape the power hungry brutality of the life she fled?
