Before she was hired to kill the King’s Shadow, Seraphine Volaire learned what a needle could do.
Seraphine was raised to use the forbidden Threaded Art for gentle things.
A whisper of comfort in a mourning hem.
A charm for sleep stitched into a quilt.
A little warmth hidden in cloth for those the city had forgotten.
Never harm.
That was her mother’s rule.
But Atheria is not gentle. Seraphine’s family has been ruined, her mother is dead, and her little sister Orla is coughing her life away in the soot-choked air of the Ash Warren. The medicine that might save her costs more than Seraphine can earn with honest stitches.
Then a desperate woman brings her a commission no lawful court will touch.
A cruel man.
A death-woven garment.
A chance to save a child.
To take the job, Seraphine must break the only rule her mother left her. To finish it, she must pay in blood, breath, and whatever remains of her soul.
The first stitch is always the hardest.
After that, the thread remembers.
The First Stitch is a dark gothic romantasy prequel to The Poison Seamstress, perfect for readers who love forbidden magic, morally gray heroines, impossible choices, sister bonds, and beautiful things with teeth.
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The kingdom thinks the Shadow is dead. The weaver knows better.
Seraphine Volaire has been taken by the man who means to rule Atheria from behind a stolen crown. Locked inside a gilded atelier, with her little sister held hostage behind glass, Seraphine is ordered to do the impossible: weave a coronation regalia powerful enough to turn a king into a puppet. Duke Finch believes he has finally trapped the last master of the forbidden Threaded Art. He should have looked more closely at her stitches. Because Seraphine is not merely sewing a robe. She is hiding a rebellion in the warp.
Ronan Vale was left for dead in the river, saved only by the desperate working Seraphine stitched into his failing heart. Now the former King’s Shadow has one priceless advantage: the whole court believes him gone. Stripped of his title, his fortress, and his fearsome name, Ronan must build a new kind of army from the forgotten people beneath the city. Not spies. Not servants. People who choose to fight.
But Finch is patient, brilliant, and cruel. He has Orla. He has the court. He has a plan a century in the making. And when the coronation begins, Seraphine and Ronan will have only one chance to cut the strings before the kingdom kneels forever.
Darkly romantic, lushly gothic, and threaded with danger, Needle & Thorn is the second and final book in The Atherian Threads duology, perfect for readers who love forbidden magic, morally grey spymasters, clever heroines, sister bonds, court conspiracies, and love stories sharp enough to draw blood.
She stitched death into his gloves. He made her his prisoner. Neither of them expected the thread to pull tight.
Seraphine Volaire knows what a needle can do.
In the fog-drowned city of Atheria, the forbidden Threaded Art can stitch comfort into a quilt, secrets into seams, and death into silk. Seraphine uses it carefully, quietly, and only when desperation leaves her no other choice.
Then she’s hired to kill Ronan Vale.
The King’s Shadow. The spymaster every noble fears. A low-born monster in black gloves who can unpick a lie from across a ballroom.
Seraphine weaves his death perfectly.
Ronan survives.
Now she’s trapped inside the Rookery, his black granite fortress of spies and secrets, forced to help him hunt the conspiracy murdering the King’s council. Ronan should send her to the gallows. Instead, he offers her a bargain: her magic for her sister’s life.
He is ruthless, brilliant, and far too perceptive. He sees every hidden stitch Seraphine has tried to bury. And the longer she works beside him, the harder it becomes to believe he is the monster everyone named him.
But someone in the court is still pulling threads.
And Seraphine may be the only weapon sharp enough to stop them.
Unless Ronan Vale becomes the one weakness she cannot afford.
The Poison Seamstress is a dark gothic romantasy for readers who love enemies to lovers, captive romance, morally gray spymasters, forbidden magic, court intrigue, and heroines with blood on their hands. Available in Kindle Unlimited.
