T. G. Clark

The emperor is dead, the crown prince lies poisoned, and a second Diet of Blood is coming. Suspicion falls on the prince's own brother, Warwick, forcing the lords of the realm to choose sides as alliances fracture, blades are drawn, and strange priests arrive to pass judgment—while the bodies keep piling up and the question of who deserves the crown grows darker by the day. Beyond the Crownhold, the world burns just as hot. Laewyn drives her people south of the Hearthsea in a war of vengeance, calling every clan and centaur to her banner to claim the title of War Maker, and risking a civil war of her own making. In the south, Jae inherits a city in ruin, beset by backstabbing and murder plots—and by a horde marching through the Scorch Grass behind a mythic minotaur called the Ghost Bull. And Josephina, hunted by her own mother and the Reisonic Knights, flees straight into the army of Gothonia, dragged before a king and promised a crown she never wanted, with a two-headed beast at her side that grows larger and more dangerous by the day. The kindling is in place. War banners rise. New threats press in from the far east. All that's missing is the match.