The Foxglove King (the Nightshade Crown, #1)

The Foxglove King is the first book in the Nightshade Crown series, set in the kingdom of Auverraine, where the body of the dead goddess Nyxara lies buried beneath the Citadel, the seat of royal power in the capital city of Dellaire. Nyxara's corpse leaks Mortem, the magic of death, which is channeled by a monastic order called the Presque Mort to prevent it from overwhelming the city. The Arceneaux royal family claims divine right to rule, appointed by the god Apollius.

Lore is a 23-year-old woman living in Dellaire's Harbor District with her boyfriend Michal, secretly spying on his poison-running crew for Val, one of her two adoptive mothers. Lore carries a dangerous secret: She was born with the ability to channel Mortem, marking her as a necromancer in a society that executes them. She hides a crescent moon-shaped burn scar on her palm and possesses an innate awareness of the catacombs beneath the city. When a routine poison drop goes wrong and Citadel guards kill the crew's cart horse, Lore channels Mortem in desperation, raising the horse from the dead. The reanimation scatters the guards but exposes her power, and a Presque Mort named Gabriel captures her.

Lore wakes bound in a room beneath the Church. Val arrives with Anton Arceneaux, the Priest Exalted and the kingdom's highest church official, whose face is half-covered in burn scars from a holy vision. Val turned Lore over to the Church under threat of her entire crew's execution, and Anton reveals he has been watching Lore since she was 13, when she first raised a dead boy named Cedric. Anton and his twin brother, King August, present their terms: Mysterious overnight deaths have wiped out multiple villages along Auverraine's border with the Kirythean Empire, leaving bodies with no marks of violence. They want Lore to raise the dead and ask them what happened. August also orders her to spy on his son, Bastian, whom he suspects of passing secrets to Kirythea. The alternative is execution or exile.

Lore is installed in the Citadel under the false identity of "Eldelore Remaut," posing as a cousin of Gabriel, who resumes his abandoned title as Duke of Balgia to provide her cover. Gabriel lost his eye as a child when a Kirythean prince killed his father for treason; Anton recruited the orphaned boy into the Presque Mort. At Bastian's Consecration ceremony, Anton departs from tradition by carving a symbol into the prince's palm with a golden knife. Lore feels an inexplicable pull of familiarity toward Bastian and is introduced to Alienor Bellegarde, Gabriel's former betrothed, who welcomes them into court society.

Bastian proves far sharper than his father believes. He leads Lore to the stables, where he reveals "Claude," the horse Lore raised, still walking with its throat gashed open. The test confirms his suspicion that Lore is the necromancer from the market square. When Lore raises a child's corpse from the villages in the Citadel's burial vaults, the body whispers only "They've awakened" before falling silent. That night, Bastian intercepts Lore and Gabriel near the vaults and leads them to a boxing ring on the docks, where he deliberately loses a fight to Michal to confirm Lore's identity. In an alley afterward, he holds her at knifepoint and demands the truth. Lore reveals that August wants her to raise the dead and spy on Bastian.

Lore discovers she cannot channel Mortem while Bastian is near, as if his presence repels death magic. She reveals her true origins: She was born in the catacombs to one of the Night Sisters, remnants of the Buried Watch, an outlawed holy order still guarding Nyxara's tomb. Unlike other channelers, who acquire their abilities through near-death experiences, Lore was born with her power. Bastian shows her that the scar Anton carved into his palm is half a sun, fitting perfectly against her crescent moon scar. Lore shares these truths with Bastian but keeps them from Gabriel, a decision that later fractures their relationship.

A massive Mortem leak erupts in the Southeast Ward. During the channeling, Anton shapes raw Mortem into an intricate knot. When Lore begins to channel, the Mortem surges exclusively toward her, ignoring the other Presque Mort. A disembodied voice calls her "daughter of the dark" and warns that others will use her power. The channeling overwhelms her, turning gardens and farmland to stone, and she collapses into a week-long coma, surfacing only when Bastian's touch chases away the Mortem. Research in the Church library reveals that early translations of the holy texts use the singular "chosen," suggesting only one Arceneaux was meant to channel Spiritum, the magic of life. The group theorizes that August, who is dying of an illness, seeks to become that vessel to heal himself. Lore finds a note reading "75" hidden by Severin Bellegarde, Alienor's father; Bastian identifies the number as the death count of the latest village attacked.

Lore's adoptive mother Mari confirms that mysterious cargo is being moved into the catacombs beneath the Citadel. Lore and Bastian descend through a well in the stone garden and discover a vast chamber filled with hundreds of corpses on stone plinths, each bearing an eclipse symbol carved into their palms. When Lore channels Mortem from one body, all the corpses rise simultaneously, chanting before screaming and advancing. Bastian pulls strands of Mortem from Lore using visible golden Spiritum, and the corpses collapse.

Gabriel, fearing for Lore's safety, betrays them to Anton, who reveals the expedition was exactly what he needed. Anton discloses that his vision from Apollius identified Bastian as the chosen Arceneaux and declared that Bastian, Gabriel, and a child of the Night Sisters must be brought together for Apollius's return. The bodies Lore raised are now permanently reanimated. Anton claims he has been working against August, who plans to kill Lore and Bastian during the eclipse to steal their combined powers. Bellegarde is Anton's ally. Gabriel is devastated to learn both that Anton manipulated him from childhood and that Lore shared her origins with Bastian weeks ago but never with him.

At the eclipse ball, the Presque Mort seize Lore, Bastian, and Gabriel. August carves matching eclipse symbols into their palms and presses their hands together at totality, binding their powers of Mortem and Spiritum. Anton arrives and stabs August, but August throws his knife into Lore's side before dying; Anton crushes his brother's skull. In the stone garden, the Night Priestess, the leader of the Night Sisters and Lore's birth mother, insists Lore must die because her growing power will make her an avatar of Nyxara. Anton admits he dreamwalked into Lore's mind to draw out her power and shaped the extracted Mortem to kill the villages. Lore channels Spiritum for the first time, healing her wound, and reclaims the death magic Anton stole. Bastian fights free. Gabriel holds Anton at knifepoint but cannot bring himself to kill the man who raised him. Bastian uses Spiritum to encase Anton in living rose vines and places August's crown on his own head, declaring himself king.

In the epilogue, Bastian rules with Lore at his side, publicly known and feared as a necromancer. Gabriel is named the new Priest Exalted. Val and Mari receive renewed contracts. But Lore remains trapped in the Citadel, afraid to sleep, aware that her power over both life and death makes her a potential vessel for Nyxara's return.