An enchantress who swore off love. A dragon-shifter who was never free to choose. A bond that could get them both killed.
Lyra Thornwood has attended seven Solstice Concords and never once been tempted by the festival romances that bloom and wilt like night-flowers. At forty-two, she is a master enchantress with a reputation for precision, a broken engagement behind her, and emotional walls so high she has forgotten what lies on the other side. Love, she has long decided, is a risk she has already taken and lost.
Then the Seventh Concord assigns her to co-lead a fire research project with Zephyr Ignis, a twenty-two-year-old dragon-shifter from the Ember Throne. He is everything she is not: young, open, irreverent, and dangerously charming. She expects a week of tolerating his company and filing her report.
What she does not expect is the way their magic resonates when they stand side by side. The way he looks at her like she is the most fascinating creature in all three realms. The way he brings her enchanted flowers that bloom only in dragon fire, and tells her plainly that it is her he wants, not the dragoness his father has chosen for him.
When a private solstice ceremony becomes a first kiss in a moonlit garden, Lyra knows she should stop. When a night together at the Great Solstice leaves a silver-gold Soul Mark burned into her wrist, she knows it is already too late.
The Soul Mark has been forbidden for three thousand years. The punishment for crossing that line is suppression, exile, or death. Zephyr’s father, Lord Vaelgor Ashclaw, will stop at nothing to sever the bond, and when a forced ritual fails catastrophically, Lyra and Zephyr must choose: surrender to the world that forbids them, or fight for a love that defies every law their realms have ever written.
Fire in the Summer Court is a standalone dark fantasy romance with a forbidden love story, an older heroine, a younger hero, and a soul bond that refuses to be broken. Perfect for readers who love slow-burn tension, magical worlds with real stakes, and couples who choose each other against impossible odds.
