IMPORTANT NOTE: Houses of Bone is the second novel in The Knight Keep trilogy.

New readers are welcome.

If you have not yet read The Knight Keep, I am happy to provide a complimentary EPUB copy so you can experience the story from the beginning before reviewing Houses of Bone. Instructions for requesting your free copy are included at the beginning of the ARC file.

For readers who prefer to begin immediately, the ARC also opens with a comprehensive synopsis of The Knight Keep, covering the essential characters and events needed before starting Houses of Bone.

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The king is dead.

What should have broken the curse that has strangled Aetheria for generations, instead has left something worse in its wake.

With a resurrected woman behind a battlement of bone, the realm begins to fracture beneath the weight of what remains. Witches are called forth, but quickly disappear. Eldritch rules emerge from the wood that must be obeyed, no matter how bloody. Ancient magic stirs, and beyond the reach of even the crown, a house built of grief and secrecy harbors an answer no one wants.

Demetrius Sylverleaf has spent a lifetime surviving what was done to him. Now named Lord, he must decide what kind of man survives the aftermath. Celestia LeFey finds herself drawn ever closer to the truths buried within her bloodline; ones that threaten to reshape everything.

Across Aetheria, grief becomes its own kind of inheritance. The blacksmith dreams of a woman he once rescued; a witch attempting to outrun the fate that has followed her since birth. The dead refuse to stay buried while the living are asked to become what they never wished to be.

Every promise made in the name of survival demands a cost.

Houses of Bone is a dark fantasy about grief, legacy, and the things we sacrifice to escape the stories written for us.