For Helen of Mortain

Beltane knows the forest and the forge, the songs of birds and the rush of the brook. He has lived apart from the world of men, content in his solitude, innocent of war and women alike.Then she finds him.Helen of Mortain rides into his clearing like something from a dream—flame-red hair unbound, eyes full of secrets, a laugh sweeter than any stream. She awakens in him a love so fierce it frightens him. But she is a duchess, and he is nobody. When she leaves, he tells himself to forget her.He cannot.A scarred knight reveals the truth of his birth: Beltane is son to the rightful Duke of Pentavalon, a kingdom now crushed beneath a tyrant's heel. His father's sword is placed in his hands, inscribed with the words I shall arise. And so he does—not for glory, not for a throne, but because the land Helen rules lies in the shadow of the same darkness. Because every village burned, every innocent hanged, every woman brutalized brings that darkness closer to her door.One by one, unlikely companions find him: a hangman seeking redemption, an archer who prays and curses in the same breath, a woodsman whose family lies in unmarked graves. Together they are few against many, hunted men waging an impossible war.But Beltane fights with something his enemies cannot match. Not just righteousness. Not just his father's blade.He fights for Helen of Mortain. Read more