Ash of Our Fathers: In The Ashes Of Their Fathers‘ Sins, Two Kings Meet A Healer Who Will Bind Their Hearts (The Heartbound Trinity Series, #1)

The eclipse has returned-an omen the valley was promised would never rise again. Under its half-light, the old lattice wakes beneath the earth, whispering for what it has always demanded: a willing heart. Aurel, a healer of broken bodies and forbidden faith, is the first to hear it call. He finds the codex buried in the barrow, its ink older than scripture, its margins full of erased prayers. The text speaks of the "lattice of mercy," a structure once used to seal the boundary between worlds. To restore balance, it demands a heart freely given-not taken, not burned, not broken by force. But the heart it asks for may be his own. Taren is a king born of iron and regret, raised beneath banners that mistake obedience for virtue. He leads his armies with a blade that never trembles, yet cannot wash the blood of his father‘s bargains from his hands. When Aurel‘s discovery threatens to expose the truth of those ancient sins, Taren must choose between loyalty to his kingdom and loyalty to the man who has learned how to look past his crown. Saelis, the southern prince turned soldier, once walked through fire to forget what faith cost him. Now the same fire stirs beneath his skin each time Aurel breathes his name. He believes in duty, in pain, in surviving-until the lattice names him witness to the hinge between sacrifice and salvation. Three men bound by an oath none of them chose. One curse older than both their thrones. Each believes he can bear the cost alone. But as kingdoms fracture and the eclipse bleeds the sky of color, their choices begin to mirror the sins they swore to undo. The lattice awakens not for justice, but for symmetry-it hungers to repeat what history calls holy. When love becomes indistinguishable from mercy, and mercy from surrender, Aurel, Taren, and Saelis must decide whether redemption lies in defiance or in the quiet offering of a single, willing heart. "To close the door," the codex says, "a heart must unseat itself and be given-not for faith, but for forgiveness." Beneath the dying moon, three hearts will learn that forgiveness is a slower kind of fire, and that not all sacrifices are meant to end in death. Ash of Our Fathers opens the tale of The Heartbound Trinity - a dark romantasy of vows, mercy, and the dangerous intimacy between kings and the man who teaches them how to heal.