Penelope Danvers

Zadeya Feraoui is a street-smart scavenger living on the frozen edges of the Qas Bani Court, making a meager living by surviving the ice. She possesses a rare gift: whenever she touches a shattered object, she sees exactly what it was and how it was used before it broke. When the once-in-a-generation Winter Gates open, drawing outsiders to the isolated citadel for a season of brutal trade and lethal politics, Zadeya is conscripted to assess the ruins of a collapsed tower. There, she uncovers the shattered fragments of a high-profile murder weapon—a blade that proves the court’s most infamous execution was a sham. Now caught in the crosshairs of the powerful factions who profited from the lie, she must forge an uneasy alliance with Talib, a relentless enforcer of the court. As they navigate deadly games and an intense, dangerous attraction, Zadeya’s ability to read the past becomes the only weapon that might shatter the entrenched conspiracy—or get them both killed.

The gates of Yukisa, the hidden Winter Court, only open to the outside world once every generation. Miya is a sharp-eyed bookkeeper who reads human debts, obligations, and lies as glowing ledger lines—a gift balanced by her absolute inability to lie. When her sister and mentor Hisa goes missing inside the frost-locked gates, Miya must secure a rare entry token to pull her out before the court seals for another thirty years. Inside is Sano, a high-ranking enforcer bound by the court's rigid laws, tasked with hunting down infiltrators. As Miya navigates a deadly rescue that exacts a heavier toll with every step, Sano follows her trail of exposed secrets and disrupted debts. Separated by the court’s vast rings but linked by the chaos Miya leaves behind, the two are solitary strategists on a collision course—living ledgers in a court that demands to be paid in blood.