In Nor, a Veyn is spirit made flesh-memory and love carried in the skin. To be named an AshVeyn is a curse-a soul burned to cinder.
The people of Nor have survived war, captivity, and loss. At last, families are rebuilding, old wounds are healing, and ordinary mornings have begun to feel possible again.
Then Helena arrives in Nor carrying a poison unlike any they have ever known.
Some poisons kill.
This one demands obedience.
Fed by a daily medicine, it grants another sunrise while quietly demanding another day of submission. It was never created to end lives-only to own them.
Worse still, the poison has been erased from history. Its name has vanished from every record. Its origins have been buried. The knowledge to break its hold is believed lost, leaving only a rumor of an elusive apothecary who may be the last person alive to remember the truth.
To reach him, those who love Helena must leave the safety of Nor and cross a world where mercenaries hunt them, old enemies close in, and every step toward hope demands another sacrifice.
Yet their journey becomes far more than a race against time. Long-lost families find one another. Forgotten histories come to light. Those who have spent their lives hiding discover that a future of peace may still be possible. Along the way, each traveler must confront a simple but profound question:
What is one life worth?
Elsewhere, others have already answered that question. They believe power grants them the right to decide whose lives matter-and whose do not.
It is a terrible mistake.
Because no life exists alone. One absence can leave a wound that changes everyone around it. Some will break beneath that grief. Some will harden. And some will answer with a vengeance beyond anything the powerful could have imagined.
Thorncleave is Book Four of the AshVeyn Series, an epic fantasy of perilous journeys, unexpected family, sacrifice, and the enduring truth that every soul-no matter how humble-has the power to change the world.