The Fractured Spiral · Book one

Where the
Stone Opens

You don't get to choose what notices you.
But you do get to choose what you become.

Rowan is a sarcastic human running from a toxic home life who accidentally stumbles into Faerie — a realm where names hold power, the magic has teeth, and truth is a weapon. Marked as the "Key" to an ancient magical lock, she is thrust into the deadly politics of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts — and into the company of a morally grey assassin who is, inconveniently, magically incapable of lying.

Together with Nuala, a fierce bodyguard with ghosts of her own, four spectacularly unhinged gnomes, and a fiercely protective ember-fox named Flicker, Rowan must navigate a fracturing world while something ancient hides in her reflection and tries to unmake reality from the inside out.

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What kind of book is this

Dark, chaotic, and
swoony in equal measure.

Genre

Dark portal fantasy with romantasy elements. High stakes, high feelings, morally complicated everything.

The vibe

Cinematic and moody, undercut by laugh-out-loud magical absurdity. Cosmic horror meets enchanted breakfast pastries that try to flirt with you.

Comp titles

Holly Black's The Cruel Prince for the dark whimsy. T.J. Klune for the found family chaos. Sarah J. Maas for the romantic tension.

Tropes

Slow-burn enemies-to-lovers with a morally grey assassin who literally cannot lie
One bed. At an aggressively enchanted inn.
A chaotic, ride-or-die found family who make everything worse and then somehow better
A devastating high-stakes sapphic romance subplot
An ember-fox animal companion who absolutely steals every scene she's in

A taste of the world

Where the stone opens, silence will bleed.
The one with two names and one fate will choose.
Not all locks hold doors.
Not all wounds forget.

Content notes

What to know
before you read.

Where the Stone Opens explores dark themes within its magical setting. Here's what sensitive readers should know going in.

Family & mental health

The early chapters feature a toxic, emotionally abusive parent struggling with alcoholism. Themes of grief, dissociation, and the psychological fear of losing one's identity run throughout — including the horror of being possessed by an external entity.

Violence & horror

Moderate magical combat, sword and dagger violence, and blood. Cosmic and eldritch horror elements — shadow entities, monsters with too many mouths, shifting and stolen reflections, the horror of being unmade. Character death, including a sudden execution where a character is turned to ash.

Relationship content

Slow-burn M/F romance and a secondary F/F romance. High-angst, high-tension, and swoony — but explicitly fade-to-black throughout.

Notably absent

No explicit on-page sexual content. No sexual assault.

Where theStone Opens

Dark, chaotic, andswoony in equal measure.

What to knowbefore you read.

Continue the series.

Where the
Stone Opens

Dark, chaotic, and
swoony in equal measure.

What to know
before you read.