Faebound

The first installment of a fantasy trilogy, the story is set in a world shaped by three gods: Asase made humans, Ewia made fae, and Bosome made elves. Each race received a form of magic, including the elves' ability to consult the Fates, prophetic forces that reveal the future through divination. After centuries of conflict, the last surviving human, Afa, cursed the fae and banished them underground to a realm called Mosima. Over a millennium, elves came to believe the fae were extinct, and both fae and humans faded into myth.

In the present, the Elven Lands are divided into four tribes locked in the Forever War over mines of fraedia crystal, a gemstone that mimics sunlight and can grow crops and warm homes. Yeeran, the youngest colonel in the Waning tribe's army, prepares for her first day of command in the city of Gural. Her lover, Salawa, the Waning chieftain, gifts her a drum made from obeah skin; obeah are magical feline creatures hunted nearly to extinction because their hide powers drumfire, a form of weaponized sound magic. Yeeran's younger sister, Lettle, a diviner training to lead her sect, delivers a prophecy: Seek your glory to the east.

Influenced by the prophecy and encouraged by her captain and close friend Rayan, Yeeran diverts her regiment east against orders. They stumble into an ambush by the Crescent tribe, whose soldiers are shielded by mysterious magic that deflects all attacks. In the disastrous retreat, 376 soldiers die. Salawa sentences Yeeran to permanent exile, slashing her ears to mark the dismissal, a punishment Yeeran considers worse than death because it strips her of tribal identity.

Dumped in the forest, Yeeran spots an enormous obeah elder and begins hunting it, hoping its hide can reverse her exile. Lettle and Rayan set out after her. During the journey, Rayan reveals he defected from the Crescent tribe after Chieftain Akomido, the Two-Bladed Tyrant, murdered his mother, a diviner whose prophecy enraged the chieftain. Lettle performs divination on an obeah cub she accidentally kills and receives an enigmatic prophecy about two people dying by poison, which she dismisses.

The sisters reunite, and Yeeran kills the obeah. Before she can skin it, Furi, Commander of Mosima's military faeguard, appears and bares sharpened canines, revealing herself as fae, a race the elves believed extinct. Furi arrests Yeeran for the murder of the prince of Mosima: The obeah was faebound to Furi's brother, and killing it killed him. The fae capture all three elves with magic that effortlessly overpowers drumfire.

The fae march their prisoners into Mosima, an underground cavern lit by an immense deposit of fraedia crystal. Mosima is a lush city with farmland, a river, and a sea, though Yeeran notices blighted, blackened fields. Yeeran is imprisoned, where she meets Komi, a Crescent tribe elf held captive for 10 years. Furi confronts Yeeran with the horror that every obeah drum costs a fae life, making centuries of elven hunting tantamount to mass murder.

Queens Vyce and Chall, co-rulers of the Jani dynasty whose bloodline sustains the land, sentence Yeeran to death. During the public execution, Pila, a young obeah not bonded to any fae, bonds with Yeeran in an unprecedented event. Because killing Yeeran would now kill an innocent obeah, the execution is halted.

Yeeran negotiates: The charge is reduced to theft, earning five years of service to the faeguard. Lettle, Rayan, and Komi receive freedom within Mosima. Furi must train Yeeran for three months before an initiation designed to kill her: 12 days under the actual sun without food or water. Yeeran secretly plans to escape when the initiation takes them above ground.

Over weeks, the group settles in. Furi's brutal training softens as Yeeran volunteers alongside her in the fields. Nerad, Furi's cousin and Queen Chall's son, teaches Yeeran about the Tree of Souls, a sacred baobab whose branches bind to reigning monarchs: If all Jani dynasty members die, Mosima collapses. Lettle discovers magesight, the ability to see magic in a meditative state. To learn the fae language, she becomes an apprentice to Golan, a Lightless fae stylist who lacks magic, fae speech, and social standing. She also studies under Seer Sahar, a banished fae diviner who teaches her to craft divination talismans, restoring her prophetic abilities without killing obeah.

At the binding banquet celebrating Yeeran and Pila, Rayan gives Lettle a handmade necklace and they nearly kiss. When Rayan explains his mother called him "fathered by the storm's mist," Lettle recognizes the wording of a prophecy given by the aging diviner Imna: "The one born of a storm's mist shall be your beloved. But when the waning moon turns, you will grant them their death" (40). Terrified, she pushes Rayan away without explaining why.

Yeeran unlocks her fae magic by combining drumfire technique with magesight. The group survives an ambush by vengeful fae, with Furi arriving to rescue them. At the Flare Feast, a major fae festival, Yeeran and Furi consummate their attraction. That same night, Lettle realizes her poison prophecy refers to the queens' crowns and races to find them already dead, poisoned through the ceremonial chalice. In the aftermath, Lettle and Rayan finally kiss, accepting their love despite the prophecy.

At the coronation, the Tree of Souls bypasses Nerad and binds Rayan as king. Rayan is half-fae: His father was Prince Najma, the dead prince whose obeah Yeeran killed. "Najma" means "the mist before a storm" in fae. Lettle deduces the blight was caused by a Jani bloodline member living outside Mosima and ended when Rayan arrived.

Lettle overhears Nerad confessing to Golan, his secret lover, that he murdered the queens to take the throne and continue a secret military alliance with the Crescent tribe. The fae have been providing magic to Crescent's army, including the shield at Yeeran's disastrous battle, in exchange for recognition of the Bleeding Field as Lorhan, the ancient fae capital. When Nerad discovers Lettle, he attacks her, collapsing her lung. Yeeran and Furi chase Nerad to the boundary, where Furi kills him.

The group identifies Komi as Chieftain Akomido, the Two-Bladed Tyrant, who brokered the fae-Crescent alliance from within Mosima. Rayan kills him by encasing him in stone with his new land-magic, fulfilling the prophecy his mother gave before Akomido murdered her. Lettle confesses to Yeeran that she euthanized their father by increasing doses of a sedative when his deteriorating mind turned him violent; Yeeran forgives her.

Lettle stays in Mosima with Rayan, who cannot leave without reigniting the blight. Furi asks Yeeran to stay as her consort, but Yeeran must warn the Waning tribe about the alliance. As Yeeran steps through the boundary with Pila, Furi fills the sky with thousands of star gliders—small bioluminescent winged lizards that are drawn to Jani royalty—as a final gesture of love. Yeeran departs carrying an intelligence journal and stashed fraedia crystals, hoping to broker peace. In an epilogue, Rayan reads a letter from his father revealing that a grimoire containing human magic exists in Afa's tomb. Rayan resolves to find his father's research and break Mosima's curse, setting up the next book.