Every seven years, her village gives the sea a bride. Elin Sedge just learned the sea was never the one asking.
Elin Sedge has spent her whole life diving for pearls at the edge of a reef her people are forbidden to cross, and she always believed her sister drowned trying to escape the "honor" of being chosen. Then the village lottery names Elin herself, and she is carried out to Coralkeep to learn exactly what that honor costs.The fae Warden who receives her, Renn Vantide, is not the monster's keeper she expected. He is a man who has spent two centuries enforcing a rite he was never once brave enough to question—right up until the bride bound to him starts feeling wrongness in the walls of his own keep.
The tribute isn't a gift to a hungry sea. It's the newest link in a chain wrapped around a dragon who has been dying of grief for nine generations. And the woman who rigged the lottery that took Elin's sister seven years ago is the very same woman who rigged this one.
To break it, Elin and Renn have to do the one thing nine generations never dared: give back what was taken freely—and ask the dragon what she actually wants.
Perfect for readers who love captive-to-chosen romance, morally grey fae lords, and a dragon who is a person, not a prize.
- 🌊 A tribute bride never meant to survive the truth
🐉 A dragon chained for nine generations by a "mercy" no one ever questioned
🫧 A hidden-power heroine who reads truth from lies the way a diver reads depth in her own blood
⚖️ A beloved village Magistrate who built her power on a lottery that was never random
💍 Standalone romantasy with a full, satisfying HEA
Full-length romantasy (60,000+ words). Standalone love story with a satisfying HEA. Intended for readers 18+.
Genre: Fantasy
Used availability for Sasha Leone's Coralkeep