Fire Breathes Stone and Storm: Book One of the Shell Born Series

Sekya has spent her whole life making herself small.

Raised in an orphanage with Khala, Riva and Lio, she has done whatever it takes to keep the four of them together, even if that means working in Silk House, a pleasure house on the shore of Lake Eratari. In a world where power belongs to the Taniva, rare shapeshifters descended from the first elemental creatures, staying unseen is how a girl like Sekya survives.

Then, at dawn on the balcony, she watches the Queen of Fire fly home across the lake in her phoenix-drake form, her wounded son on her back.

And the world stops.

The smoke hangs. The lake holds still. The Queen's wings freeze mid-beat. And on her back, dying, Prince Kairon lifts his head and looks straight at Sekya, as if he knows exactly who stopped it.

Within days, the four are locked inside the palace of White Hold with a strangeness in their blood no one can name, and a King who gives them seven days to prove they are worth keeping alive.

Khala holds fire.
Riva holds water.
Lio holds stone.
And Sekya can hold time itself.

But a quake has shaken all four dominions, a peace is being signed that nobody trusts, and the King of Stone has come to the table with a grievance he will not let go. And the thread between Sekya and Kairon runs deeper than either of them knows how to name.

Some connections cannot be undone.
Some costs cannot be survived.