Veiled Court

The first book in the Legacy of Avalon series is set in a world where the Fey, a powerful magical race, have recently waged war against humanity. The tyrannical Fey King Auberon is believed dead, but in post-war London, mortal paramilitaries called the Iron Legion hunt and murder any remaining Fey with iron weapons, the Fey's lethal weakness.

Syn Malleore, a demi-Fey (part Fey, part human) and former child assassin, catches her boyfriend Owain cheating through his flat window. He reveals he plans to take his new lover, a mortal life coach named Vicky, through a portal into the Fey realm of Brocéliande, using the escape plan Syn arranged. Syn's urgency to leave London extends beyond personal betrayal: Her younger sister Vero is dying from the River-Ague, a poison Auberon released years ago to kill demi-Fey.

Syn meets Vero and Vero's best friend Balin at a medieval London church and opens a portal with a borrowed silver key. She watches them step through into Brocéliande, then sets out to return the key to Tristan, her childhood best friend and a spy for Avalon Tower, a Fey intelligence agency headquartered in the city of Camelot. Syn and Tristan were both raised in the Undercroft, King Auberon's underground academy, where they were trained as child assassins.

En route, Syn rescues Baroness Alis of Listenoise, a Fey telepath from an isolated kingdom called the Waste Land, from an Iron Legion attack. Alis overhears Syn's thoughts about killing Auberon, declares Syn a traitor who could "destroy the world," and attacks her. In self-defense, Syn kills Alis. A golden halo, a magical beacon marking noble status, transfers to Syn.

When Syn reaches Tristan, he explains the halo's significance. A priestess named Niniane has summoned Fey aristocrats to the Veiled Court, a hidden fortress in Brocéliande, to choose the next monarch through lethal trials. The halo serves as both invitation and portal key. Anyone bearing it outside the court will be hunted by the cugol, hooded spirit-guardians who burn trespassers alive. Syn proposes impersonating the dead baroness, since no one has seen Alis from the sealed-off Waste Land. Her real motive is to find the grail of King Bran, a relic said to heal any illness, which could save Vero. Tristan agrees, planning to infiltrate as a servant.

Inside the Veiled Court, Syn befriends Countess Elizabeth de Benoic, a warm, long-isolated noblewoman. Elizabeth identifies key figures: Rion du Lac, a warlord called the Ruthless Knight who conquered the island of Tintagol centuries ago, Duke Mabon, a volatile noble with necromantic powers, and Countess Igraine, another Tintagol noble who views Rion as her destined partner. Niniane announces that the 181 nobles will compete in deadly trials judged by a Council of Nobles watching through enchanted mirrors. At a heraldic ceremony, each contender must be claimed by a magical creature or face incineration by the court's red dragon, Goch. When Syn's turn comes, ravens circle her protectively, declaring her "Kissed by the Morrigan," referencing the divine combat power Syn once wielded. She survives and is assigned to the Gloaming Tower.

Over the following week, Tristan trains Syn in a crypt while she searches for grail clues, discovering inscriptions that point to a later trial involving a bridge of swords over flames. In the Rhiannon Garden, Rion tells Syn her swordsmanship is technically perfect but mechanical, advising her to reconnect with her Fey instincts.

In the first combat trial, Rion selects Syn as an opponent, judging her the weakest. Sir Dagonet, a fellow noble contender who possesses the Song of the Morrigan, a power of godlike speed, fights on Syn's side. Dagonet initially holds his own against Rion's dread magic, which forces victims to experience their worst fears, but the power eventually overwhelms him and Rion decapitates him. When Syn faces Rion, she manages several parries but he disarms her and pins her to a wall. Cornered, Syn leaps onto him and declares to the watching nobles that she came seeking love. The crowd roars approval, Rion plays along, and the noble houses vote to spare her. Syn bonds with Elizabeth and the bookish Lord Aneirin of Castle Catreath, forming a close friendship. Countess Igraine ambushes Syn and warns her to stay away from Rion. At a festival that evening, Mabon tries to poison Syn, but Rion intercepts the attempt.

On a secret mission, Tristan flies Syn to Avalon Tower, where a diviner named Tana confirms through tarot that Syn will "destroy the world" but insists this destruction will lead to rebirth. Raphael, the young Seneschal, reveals that Prince Talan and his betrothed Nia, the Lady of the Lake, have been abducted, likely by someone connected to the Veiled Court and a suspected secret order called the Order of the Green Knight. Syn is tasked with identifying the kidnapper. On the return, Iron Legion gunmen ambush them; both Syn and Raphael are shot. Back at the Veiled Court, Lord Cador, the Squire of the Veil, catches Syn emerging from a portal and threatens her family. She kills him. Rion discovers the murder and offers a deal: He will conceal the evidence if Syn publicly plays his lover to boost his standing. While in Rion's quarters, Syn finds a royal family tree bearing a Green Man symbol and a book by the missing prince, deepening her suspicion that Rion is connected to the kidnapping.

In the second trial, contenders race across a valley to find the grail. Igraine kicks Syn off a cliff; Rion pulls her from the river below and heals her shattered body with amoromancy, a magic fueled by desire. The questing beast, a creature whose cry forces victims to relive their worst guilt, traps Syn in her most horrific memory: the execution of two hooded prisoners in the Undercroft who she may have recognized at the last moment as her own parents, killed on Auberon's orders before she could be certain. Rion's magic pulls her free. At the trial's end, Syn crosses a razor-thin sword-blade barefoot over a fiery chasm, understanding the grail demands the abandonment of violence, and touches the skull chalice just ahead of Rion.

Working with Tristan, Syn smuggles the grail out through the dungeons. At a seaside cottage, she pours water into the chalice and tips it into Vero's mouth. Within moments, color returns to Vero's cheeks and she breathes freely for the first time since childhood. On the rain-soaked return, Syn and Tristan share their first kiss. Back in her room, Syn tells him they should remain friends, fearing he only pursues unattainable women and that losing his friendship would be worse than never being lovers. Tristan accepts but reveals that the idyllic childhood Syn remembers was one of starvation and violence, a golden past she invented to survive.

Before Syn can surrender the grail to Rion as he demands, Aneirin blackmails Syn with a lock of Vero's hair and steals the grail using shadow magic, revealing he was hired by the Order of the Green Knight. Syn and Tristan fly to Aneirin's ruined castle and find him brutally beaten. He confesses: King Auberon is alive and took the grail. Rion du Lac is actually Prince Lothyr, Auberon's son long believed dead, living under a false identity for centuries. Auberon plans to reclaim the throne using the sacred relics. Aneirin then uses his shadow magic to hang himself.

In the library, Syn discovers a hidden book revealing that ancient Fey monarchs ruled for one year, empowered by three relics: the sword, the grail, and the golden bough. At the year's end, the monarch was ritually killed, their blood returned to the soil. This is what Auberon seeks. The cugol pursue Syn, nearly burning her alive, but Tristan rescues her. Niniane confronts Syn for losing the grail and banishes her from the court.

Syn settles in her parents' abandoned cottage near Vero, finding her mother's shadow-puppet figures, including one of the Ruthless Knight with golden tattoos on his cheeks. Rion eventually appears at her door, having tracked her down through Vicky and learned Syn's real name. He has convinced the nobles to reinstate her by framing Aneirin for Cador's murder. The nobles now require any prospective monarch to find a fated consort to prove worthiness, and Rion needs Syn to play that role. The story ends with Syn facing the prospect of reentering the Veiled Court alongside the man she now knows is Auberon's heir, while secretly working to prevent the return of the monarchy.