She was taken as a tithe. She became their ruin.
Liora has survived eleven tithe years by staying invisible. On the twelfth, she steps forward — not for herself, but for her sister. One act of love. One fae cart. No way back.
The Thorn Court is everything the warning tales promised — beautiful, lethal, and ruled by a prince who calculates every move three steps in advance. Rhydian chose Liora as his tournament bride deliberately: a powerless human, easy to manage, simple to discard. He was wrong about all three.
The tournament’s rules are simple: seven trials, seven fae champions, one bride as prize. The bride has no agency. The bride cannot compete.
Liora finds the loophole on the first day.
What begins as a fake courtship — a strategic arrangement that suits them both — becomes something neither of them planned for. He trains her in secret. She catalogues his almost-reactions. The vine-marks on her wrists run warm every time he’s near, and cold every time he’s not.
But the tournament is a trap inside a trap. The prince’s uncle has been building his endgame for twenty years, and the Founding Rite he’s about to invoke has only one variable he didn’t account for:
He has never fought a human who stopped treating her humanity like a wound.
Thorns of the Fae Court is a slow-burn dark gothic fae romance featuring forced proximity, a fake courtship with very real feelings, a touch-her-and-die prince who doesn’t understand what’s happening to him, thorn magic, a mate bond neither of them asked for, and a heroine who outsmarts an entire court using nothing but her inconvenient humanity.
Tropes include: stolen/captive heroine, fake courtship to real feelings, forced proximity, slow burn, touch-her-and-die, fae mate bond, enemies to lovers, morally grey love interest, tournament arc, dual POV.
Intended for readers 18+. Contains mature themes and explicit content.
