Bury Your Reflection Before the Frost

von Antonio

168 Seiten, Taschenbuch

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

In the frost-bitten realm of Aethelwood, winter is not merely a season-it is a tyrant. High above the starving slums towers the Glass Spire, a glacial citadel lined with endless silver mirrors, where human reflections are harvested to fuel the hearths of an unaging, aristocratic court. Within its vitrified corridors, warmth is the ultimate luxury, and the poor slowly calcify into sub-zero stillness.For apothecary Mara Mercer, survival means keeping her ten-year-old brother, Isaac, alive as he succumbs to the terminal shiver-wasting. When royal wardens demand an apothecary capable of treating King Edward Stone-a monarch petrifying into solid ice upon the Throne of Shards-Mara accepts a perilous contract. But the court's promise is a gilded trap. Isaac is seized as a hostage within the palace vaults, and Mara is thrust into the deadly northern taiga to harvest the solar heart of the legendary Sun-Stag to melt the King's stasis.Guided by Caleb Donovan, a disgraced ranger seeking vengeance against the Spire, Mara braves the howling rime-wastes. Yet the journey exposes terrifying anomalies within Mara herself: her fingers never numb, her chest knows no heartbeat, and a blade cut yields no crimson blood, only a viscous glass-flux that instantly vitrifies in the wind. The horror deepens when they corner the Sun-Stag: the radiant beast weeps molten amber and speaks with Isaac's voice. His primordial soul is the beast's solar core, torn from his cradle years ago to anchor the kingdom's cryogenic boundary.Refusing to murder her brother, Mara captures only an ember and retreats to the Spire, stepping into an insidious conspiracy. King Edward willingly froze himself to seal away a fatal botanical plague, while the coven schemes to plunge the continent into permanent permafrost to preserve their perpetual youth. Even more shattering, an ancient, blind glass-smith reveals Mara's true nature: the mortal apothecary was harvested long ago. Her walking body is merely an unfeeling glass simulacrum-and the shadowy figure pounding against every mirror she passes is her own trapped soul.With the Solstice Eclipse looming, Mara must shatter her artificial programming. Centuries of natural time are dammed within the Spire's glass engine. Unleashing the truth means choosing between the sudden decay of a preserved kingdom and the perpetual living death of the boy she swore to save. Mara must confront her reflection, reclaim her spirit, and burn the crystalline court down from the inside out.Visceral, chilling, and poignant, Bury Your Reflection Before the Frost is a masterclass in gothic dark fantasy and emotional storytelling. Perfect for fans of Katherine Arden and Naomi Novik, this breathtaking reimagining of the winter fairy tale proves that love is the only flame fierce enough to shatter centuries of ice.

• Themen: Belletristik Fantasyliteratur Dark Fantasy
• ISBN: 9798182782340
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 15.09.2026
• Größe: 229 x 152 mm
• Verlag: JEFFREY BRASSELL SAN ANTONIO