A Heart of Spice and Stars

She has poured tea for half of Zahrat. Now a prince wants her tongue. Yusra runs a tea stall in Zahrat's Spice Souk. She knows everyone's secrets and has never had one of her own, until a bride's wedding cord drops into her hand, an omen says she'll marry by the next spring moon, and she wakes up kindled with the rarest gift in Qaryssa: she can taste what anything truly is. Exiled Prince Zayan has escaped the salt mines with the heart-stone of the Ember Crown, a relic that wakes only on a taster's tongue and can steal every gift in the kingdom. And the spymistress has lodged Kenan of the Black Sands in the room above Yusra's stall: the grave desert rider who once handed his own kindled sister to a monster, and the last man she should trust with what she is. Twelve days until Queen Mira's crowning. One stone that must never wake. And a tea-seller who refuses to be anyone's secret. Grumpy-sunshine • Forced proximity • Redemption arc • Hidden gift • He learns to swim for her • She chooses him • The final book of the Ember Crown, with a happy ending The text and cover art of this book were generated with Hark, an AI system, then directed, reviewed and edited by the author, who takes full responsibility for its content.