The Shackled Serpent
K. M. Lister2023

“Know the truth, Maeve. Embrace the truth. Speak the truth.”

Maeve Wyndell lives by these words. The last words her mother spoke to her before everything changed…before she changed. They shaped Maeve into who she is and what she stands by. The truth is all she has, but in Galfei Thalor, it feels as if the truth isn’t always what it seems.

Burdened by her people’s past after the Last War, Maeve must answer to the four kingdoms—Nythfaedell, the kingdom of the elves; Amphitea, the merfolk’s realm; Fiermoor, home of the tieflings; and Phandolus, the land of the changelings—and complete the trials to determine which monsters she will serve for the next ten rotations.

What happens, though, when she’s chosen for a role she never expected and feels as if she’s becoming a monster herself?

Now an assassin, tasked to kill for those she resents most, Maeve finds herself drowning in inner darkness. Despite that, she still fights for what she has always believed in—finding her freedom from those who took everything from her. Is embracing the monster Maeve fears she’s becoming the only way for her to bring them all to justice?

Titre original : The Shackled Serpent (2023)