He was made of winter. She was meant to thaw it. The villagers of Hollowmere call her witch, though Katria Vale's only sin is knowing how to heal. When the fragile truce between mortals and fae begins to crack, Hollowmere offers her up as tribute-one life to keep the Winter Court at bay. But the frost does not forgive bargains, and the fae do not honor them. Prince Kaelith of Winter was never meant to rule. Born of ice and oath, he serves the court as its heir and its weapon, bound to find the missing Dreamstone before the Veil between worlds collapses. The mortal envoy delivered to his gates is supposed to be expendable-another mortal sacrifice to cold politics. Instead, she unsettles everything he thought immutable. Katria's defiance is a spark in the frozen silence of his world. Her wit cuts through his restraint. And when her compassion awakens something in him that even frost cannot contain, the lines between duty and desire blur into perilous warmth. But warmth is deadly in the Winter Court. As the Veil weakens and ancient forces stir, Katria must decide whether peace is worth her freedom-and Kaelith must choose between the realm he swore to protect and the mortal who threatens to melt his frozen heart. The beginning of The Shattered Veil Saga, The Frostbound Heir is a sweeping romantasy of forbidden love, dangerous magic, and a world on the edge of ruin.