Melodies of the Damned (Crowns of Gods and Monsters Book 1)

When Princess Lyra Meridian chooses death over another day of captivity, she never expects the cursed ocean to choose her back.

Lyra has spent her entire life imprisoned within a kingdom that bleeds her—literally—under the pretense of keeping her safe. Suffocated by golden chains and whispered lies, she volunteers for the Ascension, a brutal sacrificial rite designed to offer mortal bodies to estranged gods. It should be the end. Instead, it's the beginning of something far more terrifying.

The moment the dark waters recognize her, an ancient power stirs awake inside her bones—and every monster crawling out of the Hells suddenly wants her dead.

Enter the Commander of Death: ruthless, cold, and the kingdom's most feared nightmare. When he captures Lyra and binds her to him through an unbreakable blood bargain, she tells herself he is simply her next cage. But the Commander's motives run deeper than dominion, and the shadows surrounding him hold secrets that could shatter everything Lyra believes about her world, her blood, and herself.

This gothic romantasy pulls readers into a kingdom rotting beneath its own beauty, where dark prophecies curl through the air like smoke and trust is the most dangerous luxury. Lyra and the Commander circle each other with venom and fascination in equal measure—two people who should be enemies discovering that fate has written something far more complicated for them.

Some bargains change everything. *Melodies of the Damned* is not a love story. Not yet.