Harbinger

Harbinger is a romantasy novel set in the kingdom of Antares, where five noble bloodlines govern branches of nochtimetry, the sacred art of harnessing the Stars' magic. Each bloodline is tied to a patron constellation: Icaros oversees agriculture, Marius controls the military, Velesont manages commerce and shipping, Calix imbues magical goods, and Leontia practices healing. A sixth order, Ravenell, was destroyed 500 years ago when the Stars turned against them, leaving a void in the night sky called the Night's Scar.

Arden Icaros, the 25-year-old daughter of the late patron of Order Icaros, travels to the royal capital of Wintour for the Quincentennial. Before receiving their magical birthright at a ceremony called the Kindling, each initiate undergoes the Petition, a private ritual at the Royal Astrolatory, the kingdom's observatory for star rites. A vesper, a cloistered scholar-priestess, hands Arden a ceremonial dagger and presents a caged oscen, a large black bird tied to witchcraft in old legends. Arden must sacrifice the bird to prove she is ready, but she refuses and releases it. A bishop of Order Marius, the military order's highest-ranked officer, observes alongside his knights, Vessica and Taliesin.

Arden's family is in crisis. Her older brother Broderic, the new patron, plans to marry for money to save their indebted estate. Kieren, a non-noble ward raised alongside the siblings, serves as their guard and is Arden's closest friend. While exploring Wintour, Arden stumbles into a bookshop and hides among forbidden texts about Order Ravenell when Bishop enters to collect a book. Later, a thief attacks Arden. Bishop kills the man and escorts her back to the palace.

At the Kindling, Arden learns Bishop's full identity: He is Bishop Marius, the youngest patron in Antares, who sits at the king's left hand. Each initiate drops blood into a basin to receive a mark from their patron constellation. When Arden's blood falls, the ground trembles, every star goes dark, and a single star blazes to life in the Night's Scar. Red light sears the mark of Ravenell across her chest, and someone screams that she is a harbinger.

That same night, King Ophelian is assassinated, his heart cut out. Bishop brings Arden before Queen Selestina and the other patrons. Some argue for Arden's execution, but the high vesper declares no cycle has begun, and the queen rules that Arden will be protected. To shield her family, Arden deliberately alienates Broderic, telling him she never wanted to be an Icaros, knowing his protective instincts would endanger them all if she returned home.

Bishop smuggles Arden out of Wintour during the king's funeral using a portable postern, a rare magical portal. Kieren begs Arden to flee with him to the Lost Continent, a distant land beyond Antares, but she refuses, asking him to stay and protect her younger siblings. Bishop takes Arden to Miradores, his ancestral estate in Vennaro. The estate is deteriorating because Bishop secretly funds the care of orphans at the Bellatorum, the nearby military training complex, using his personal wealth.

Tensions build at Miradores. Taliesin tests Arden at sword point before Bishop intervenes. A mob in a nearby village attacks Arden, calling her a harbinger, before Vessica drives them off. A cold letter from Kieren leaves Arden feeling abandoned. One evening, she and Bishop share wine on his private balcony. He calls Arden his temptation but insists his vow keeps them apart. Arden accuses him of dressing up fear as virtue.

Weeks later, Kieren enlists at the Bellatorum to rescue Arden. He arranges passage to the Lost Continent and gives Arden until midnight to decide. In Bishop's study, Arden discovers his travel log places him at every recent heart collector murder. Suspecting Bishop is the killer, she flees with Kieren.

The escape ends in catastrophe. Attackers ambush them at the docks. Arden surrenders to save Kieren, but the men stab him. They tie Arden to a tree and set it ablaze, declaring that war is profitable. Bishop arrives and pulls Arden from the fire but is mortally wounded. He guides her hand to drive his dagger into his throat, dying in her arms. Kieren is already dead.

That night, Bishop walks into Arden's bedroom, alive. He is a scion, an immortal being whose soul is tied to the Stars; when scions die, they resurrect.

Arden retreats into grief before forcing herself into the neglected garden, finding solace in physical labor. Hadrian, a scholar living in Bishop's library, reveals himself as a scion over 500 years old. He explains that scions absorb the powers of other scions they kill, gaining silver marks called vestiges, and that in ancient times, scions fought in cycles of fury to claim the Eternal Throne, causing devastating wars. Hadrian and Bishop are searching for the revello, an artifact from Ravenell's forbidden work called the Ars Astra, which may prevent a new cycle from beginning. When Arden asks Bishop whether he is the heart collector, he says no. She breaks down, realizing Kieren died because she could not trust Bishop.

Bishop trains Arden in combat. Their physical proximity generates escalating tension. During the midwinter holiday of Twelvetide, Bishop closes the Bellatorum's mineral baths for Arden's exclusive use so no one will see her mark. He joins her, and they sleep together for the first time.

At the Twelvetide party, Shea, a conscript Arden has befriended, collapses from bellanotte, a deadly poison. Bishop reveals Shea is also a scion. Arden, who drank some of the same poisoned wine, nearly dies as well. After weeks of avoidance, Arden and Bishop reconcile. He reveals his full history: His twin brother Cassiel was sent to survey the Lost Continent, and while Cassiel was away, a scion murdered their family. Bishop was killed and resurrected. Consumed by grief, he hunted every scion he could find before Hadrian taught him control. He shares his real name, Endymion, and asks Arden to promise that if the fury overtakes him, she will stop him by any means necessary.

At Journey's End, the Icaros family estate in Damalis, Broderic has become engaged to Laurel, niece of Patron Velesont. During a dinner, Laurel reveals she has poisoned the food and offers Arden a trade: surrender in exchange for the antidote. Her bodyguard Stefan, a scion and heart collector, fights Arden in the Cinderwald, the ash forest bordering Ravenell's ruined territory. A horned wolf intervenes but is killed. As Arden watches the orphaned pup try to rouse its dead mother, her Ravenell magic ignites for the first time, and she kills Stefan. Broderic delivers the antidote while Laurel escapes.

Arden brings the wolf pup, named Hero, back to Miradores. Queen Selestina summons Arden to Wintour, addressing her as Patron Ravenell. Before Arden and Bishop can respond, Cassiel arrives at Miradores posing as Bishop. Long believed dead, Cassiel reveals he orchestrated his family's murder and has obtained the ceremonial dagger from Arden's Kindling, which is the revello. The artifact steals a scion's powers when used to kill them. Cassiel intends to start a new cycle and claim the Eternal Throne. He overpowers Arden and drives the revello into her heart as Bishop bursts in.

In a final section from Bishop's perspective, Arden dies in his arms. Bishop's most dangerous power surges free, disintegrating Cassiel's sword, but Cassiel escapes. Then Arden's heart begins to beat again. Vestiges map themselves across her skin, her star blazes in the Night's Scar, and the void splits open to reveal thousands of hidden stars. Arden gasps back to life as a scion, but the fury grips her. She points her sword at Bishop, sobbing that she cannot stop. He catches the blade and knocks her unconscious, then carries her inside, accepting that the cycle has begun.