The battle for the Hollow has only begun. Kaelen, bearer of the Ember Crown, has won a fragile victory but the cost has awakened something older, darker, and far more dangerous. Beneath the Spine of the Hollow stirs the Ashfather, a being of hunger and shadow whose whispers can unravel oaths and twist flame itself into despair. With Ashwyn's fury, Aelira's blade, and the Emberbound sworn together by fire and memory, Kaelen must lead a fractured alliance into the Ashveil-a land where dreams bleed into flesh, and even shadows remember their names. But every step deeper tightens the Ashfather's grip, and every flame burned brings Kaelen closer to breaking under the weight of a thousand forgotten voices. The question is no longer whether Kaelen can master the Crown. It is whether he and all who follow can survive what waits in the dark when the Ashfather finally wakes.