Crowned in Ruin

Forged Cycle, Book 2

By: Mellisa Parrott

Narrated by: Jackson Garlington

The third tremor split the square like a seam.

Cobblestones shifted under Elara’s boots; the old well groaned, stones grinding as if the earth were chewing its history. Far-off, doors slammed and prayers tripped over panicked tongues. The smell of ash still lived in the timber, the memory of rope in her skin. She did not look at the blackened splinters where they’d tried to hang her. She kept her eyes on the shadow that had stepped out of the smoke.

“Choose, little flame,” the vampire lord had said. “Burn alone…or burn with me.”

Elara hadn’t moved then. Not out of courage. Out of fear that whatever she chose would tip the world the wrong way.

Now the ground shook again.

“Enough talk,” she said, because if she let him frame the world, she would already be inside it. “If you want my fire, name your terms. If you want my blood, try and take it.”

©2025 Mellisa Parrott (P)2025 Mellisa Parrott