Bone

"She was the girl they meant to execute. Now, she is the nightmare that will wear their crown." ​Lyra Vale was supposed to die beneath the execution blade. ​Branded a witch. Hunted as the last survivor of a disgraced bloodline... Lyra Vale was supposed to die beneath the execution blade. Branded a witch. Hunted as the last survivor of a disgraced bloodline. Dragged before the kingdom that slaughtered her family, she expects death—not the ancient magic buried inside her to awaken before the entire royal court. Then the prophecy arrives. The Bone Crown has chosen her. Now the kingdom fears her existence, the Church demands her execution, and the shadows beneath the capital are beginning to wake. Worst of all, Crown Prince Cassian Draeven refuses to let her go. Feared across the continent as the king’s ruthless heir, Cassian is as dangerous as the dark magic crawling through the kingdom’s walls. Cold. Violent. Untouchable. The kind of man people obey before he even speaks. And according to the prophecy, he is destined to destroy the world. Forced into the deadly heart of the royal palace, Lyra becomes trapped between assassins, forbidden magic, court betrayals, and a prince whose obsession with her grows more dangerous by the day. But the deeper Lyra falls into the secrets of the Bone Crown, the more horrifying the truth becomes: Her family was never executed for treason. They were murdered to hide what she really is. And the throne of Varethis was built over something ancient that should have never awakened.

One night a young boy unable to cultivate falls into a cave and changes his destiny forever. Orphaned, unable to cultivate, ridiculed by all, the boy who fought with bones has a bone to pick with all those who wronged him and a mystery to uncover.

My mother was the most renowned forensic artist, yet she refused to acknowledge me as her daughter. On my eighteenth birthday, I was kidnapped and called her for help. However, my mother replied impatiently, "Today is Angelina's birthday. Just die if you want attention that badly." Later, all the bones in my body were shattered and scattered everywhere. When my mother reconstructed my face from the bones, she lost her mind.

My boyfriend, Yves Steward, is the head of the orthopedic department. When Julia Henderson and I get into an accident at the same time, he pushes my hands away and shouts, "Stop this nonsense, Summer Simpson! Julia needs to be operated on immediately!" So, I'm the one who deserves to die. The day my skeleton is donated to the orthopedic department, Yves sits in his office for a day and night. Later, the man known as the hospital's genius orthopedist never holds a scalpel ever again.

Three years ago, my fiancé's childhood friends murdered and framed me. They ground my leg bones and turned them into beads to make a bracelet. Then, they gave it to my fiancé after he woke up from an accident. He hated me to the core and wore the bracelet symbolizing his rebirth as he utilized all his resources to find me. He even placed my weak and crazed mother under house arrest to force me to appear. Three years later, during his and his childhood sweetheart's engagement party, a renowned jewel appraiser points out that the bracelet he's had this whole time isn't made of regular bone—it's made of human bone.

In Black Salt, love is a sickness you can’t hide—a slow gnawing beneath the skin that leaves you hollowed, grayed, and eventually gone. No one stays long enough to see it through; they leave before the rot finishes its work. It’s what the town teaches you: when it starts, you run. You look away. You survive by pretending not to feel. But Atlas is tired of pretending. The halls of Black Salt High are full of kids pretending they don’t see each other’s bruised hearts, pretending their bones aren’t already whispering warnings. Still, he can’t forget the weight of a father who stayed—not out of love, but because he never felt it deep enough to decay. That truth lingers in Atlas like a second shadow. And then there’s Nova—the outsider with a storm in her bones. And Wren, all sharpness and fight. Milo, who cracks jokes to keep the silence at bay. Luce, who wears her thorns like jewelry. Together, they don’t know how to stop the rot. But they’re learning how to sit with it, how to name it, how to refuse the small, hollow deaths of pretending not to care. In a town where love is a death sentence, staying might be the bravest thing of all.