A Garden of Snakes

Callen Rusk escaped Lithina with the princess at his side.That does not mean he is free.Three days after fleeing the kingdom that branded him, Callen is wounded, hunted, and carrying a Black Mark that no longer obeys the rules Lithina built around it. What once burned as punishment now answers in impossible ways, leaving Callen with more questions than safety and drawing the attention of powers far beyond the city walls.Princess Elowin Johito has left behind her crown, her family, and the only life she has ever known. To Lithina, she is not missing. She is ill, hidden safely in the palace while the crown struggles to keep the truth from spreading. But Elowin knows the lie cannot hold forever, and every step away from home turns her choice into something more dangerous than disobedience.With Lucio Berathen guiding them through the roads beyond Lithina, Callen and Elowin flee north toward Floria, a kingdom of living gardens, gentle magic, and the woman Elowin has trusted like family.Queen Mersailles Hanswood may be their best hope.Floria may be their safest refuge.But Lithina is not the only kingdom watching.As soldiers, scholars, princes, and old powers move in the wake of their escape, Callen and Elowin are pulled deeper into a continent shaped by secrets, alliances, buried history, and magic no one fully understands. The farther they travel from Lithina's walls, the more they begin to realize that freedom is not a place. It is a choice that may cost them everything.A Garden of Snakes is the second book in Songs of Estana, a dark epic fantasy series of court politics, rebellion, inherited curses, buried history, forbidden love, war, magic, and dangerous hope.

Pages: 448, Paperback, Independently published