THORNS & THRONES Series by N. Viktoria

What happens when the shadows don't just take you—they keep you?YARAI wasn't supposed to be here.One minute I was walking home from another soul-crushing day at the office. The next, shadows wrapped around my throat and dragged me into a world that shouldn't exist.Now four fae males are telling me I'm theirs. That they've waited five hundred years for me. That some ancient prophecy says I'm the only one who can save their dying kingdom.They're out of their damn minds... moreWhat happens when the shadows don't just take you—they keep you?YARAI wasn't supposed to be here.One minute I was walking home from another soul-crushing day at the office. The next, shadows wrapped around my throat and dragged me into a world that shouldn't exist.Now four fae males are telling me I'm theirs. That they've waited five hundred years for me. That some ancient prophecy says I'm the only one who can save their dying kingdom.They're out of their damn minds.Kael watches me like I'm something to be conquered. Lysander touches me like I'm something to be worshipped. Sorin sees straight through me, into parts of myself I've never shown anyone. And Thane? Thane looks at me like he'd burn down the world just to keep me warm.They don't want me to choose.They want me to take all of them.I told myself I'd find a way home. That I wouldn't fall for their silver-tongued promises and their hands that know exactly where to touch. That I'm stronger than whatever magic is pulling me toward them.I told myself a lot of things.I was wrong about all of them.KAELFive hundred years.I've ruled the Shadow Court for five hundred years with nothing but duty and darkness for company. I stopped believing in the prophecy. Stopped hoping for a mate. Stopped feeling anything at all.Then she fell through the veil.Yara Okonkwo. Mortal. Defiant. So beautiful it makes my chest ache in ways I'd forgotten were possible. She argues with me. Challenges me. Looks at me like I'm just a man, not a king, and I want to drop to my knees and thank her for it.My brothers feel it too. The bond. The pull. The desperate, clawing need to claim her, protect her, bury ourselves so deep inside her she'll never remember a time we weren't there.She thinks she has a choice. She thinks she can go back to her mortal life and forget us.She's wrong.I've waited five centuries for this woman. I've watched my kingdom crumble, my people suffer, my heart turn to stone. I will not lose her now. Not to the curse. Not to our enemies. Not even to her own stubborn will.She belongs to us.And before these two weeks are over, I'll make sure she knows it—in every way that matters.Four immortals. One fated mate. A love that will either save a kingdom or destroy them all. less

What would you do if four immortal warriors refused to let you die?DESTAI was supposed to die with my unit.Seven soldiers went home in coffins. I went home with a medal, a destroyed shoulder, and nightmares that never stop. Three years of therapy, bourbon, and pretending I'm fine when I'm anything but. Three years of being the Black woman who survived when nobody expected her to—and hating herself for it every single day.Then fire ripped open the sky and I fell through... moreWhat would you do if four immortal warriors refused to let you die?DESTAI was supposed to die with my unit.Seven soldiers went home in coffins. I went home with a medal, a destroyed shoulder, and nightmares that never stop. Three years of therapy, bourbon, and pretending I'm fine when I'm anything but. Three years of being the Black woman who survived when nobody expected her to—and hating herself for it every single day.Then fire ripped open the sky and I fell through.Now I'm in a realm that runs on magic and war. Monsters made of void and ice want me dead. And four fae males—ancient, powerful, pale as moonlight and looking at me like I'm the answer to their prayers—have decided I belong to them.Their High Warlord has commanded armies for six hundred years, but one look at me and all that iron control shatters. Their berserker hasn't smiled in two centuries—now he can't stop. Their strategist calculates everything except how fast I unravel him. And their healer? He fixes everyone but himself, and he's convinced I'm the cure he's been waiting for.They call me the White Flame. Say my fire will save their world from the darkness coming to swallow it whole.I call it impossible.I'm no savior. I'm just a soldier who got really good at not dying. A girl from Oakland who learned early that the world doesn't hand Black women happy endings—we have to fight for every scrap we get, and even then, it can be snatched away in a heartbeat.But their fire calls to mine. Their touch makes me feel things I buried in the sand with my unit. And the bond forming between us doesn't care about the worlds between us, doesn't care that I'm human and they're not, doesn't care that loving people gets them killed.The Hollow King is waking. An army of void is rising. And I'm falling for four males I can't afford to lose.I survived the worst day of my life once.Surviving them might actually break me.ZAREKSix hundred years I've led this court.I buried my first mate. Swore I'd never feel that depth of loss again. Built walls so high nothing could touch me.Then she fell from the sky—human, brown-skinned and beautiful, furious and magnificent—and burned through every defense I had.She doesn't bow. Doesn't beg. She stares down void creatures that slaughter my warriors and asks if that's the best they've got. She carries wounds we can see and deeper ones we can't, and she fights like someone who stopped caring whether she lives or dies.That ends now.Her fire burns white. Hotter than anything in our history. One look at her and the bond I'd given up on roared to life in my chest. My brothers felt it too—Rhain, Caden, Evren. We've shared everything for centuries. Now we'll share her.She belongs to us. We know it in our blood, our fire, our souls.The problem? She's spent three years trying to disappear. She thinks she doesn't deserve to be saved. Thinks caring about people is a death sentence. Thinks those walls around her heart will hold forever.She's wrong.The void is coming. The Hollow King is waking. Our realm is dying. But I will burn down every obstacle between me and her heart. My brothers will stand beside me. And by the time we're done, Desta Amari will know exactly what it means to be claimed by four males who would watch worlds burn before letting her go.She's not just our salvation.She's our everything.And we don't share with anyone but each other. less

What happens when a woman who trusts no one becomes the obsession of four immortal warriors who will stop at nothing to claim her?SANAAI've been running my whole life.From foster homes. From poverty. From a world that looked at a Black girl from New Orleans and saw nothing worth keeping. I learned early that the only person I could count on was myself. Trust gets you hurt. Love gets you destroyed. Survival means wearing masks and never letting anyone see the real you... moreWhat happens when a woman who trusts no one becomes the obsession of four immortal warriors who will stop at nothing to claim her?SANAAI've been running my whole life.From foster homes. From poverty. From a world that looked at a Black girl from New Orleans and saw nothing worth keeping. I learned early that the only person I could count on was myself. Trust gets you hurt. Love gets you destroyed. Survival means wearing masks and never letting anyone see the real you.Then I fell through a mirror and woke up in a frozen kingdom with four devastatingly beautiful fae warriors staring at me like I was their salvation.They call me mate. They call me queen. They call me the prophesied daughter of frost destined to save their realm.I call it the most dangerous con I've ever walked into.Because I'm starting to believe them. Starting to crave their hands on my body, their whispered promises in my ear, the way they look at me like I'm the only woman in any world. Four males who want to worship me, protect me, claim me in ways that make my whole body burn.But there's a queen who wants me dead. A court that wants me gone. And a prophecy that says I'll either save this realm or destroy everything—including myself.I should run. I've always been good at running.So why do I want to stay?KIRANFive hundred years.I have waited five hundred years for her, playing the fool prince while enemies circled and my father faded and hope became a word I no longer believed in. I wore masks to survive. I hid my strength, my hunger, my desperate need for something real in a court built on lies.Then she crashed through the mirror—fierce, terrified, magnificent—and the bond struck like lightning through my chest.Mine.Not just mine. Ours. My brothers felt it too. Four threads binding us to one human woman with skin like burnished earth and eyes that see through every illusion. She thinks we want to cage her. She thinks this is another trap, another con, another pretty lie designed to break her.She has no idea.We don't want to cage her. We want to unleash her. We want to show her the queen she was born to be, the power sleeping in her blood, the pleasure we can give her when she finally stops running and lets us in.My enemies think she's my weakness.They're wrong.She's the weapon I've been waiting for.And I will burn this realm to ash before I let anyone take her from us. less

What happens when the dreams you've been running from are the only thing that can save you? ZARIAI've spent twenty-four years convinced I was losing my mind. The dreams felt too real—the palace of stars, the endless night, the four men who watched me like I was theirs to claim. I built a career studying sleep just to prove my own brain was broken.I should have listened to my grandmother. The dreams weren't madness. They were a summons... moreWhat happens when the dreams you've been running from are the only thing that can save you? ZARIAI've spent twenty-four years convinced I was losing my mind. The dreams felt too real—the palace of stars, the endless night, the four men who watched me like I was theirs to claim. I built a career studying sleep just to prove my own brain was broken.I should have listened to my grandmother. The dreams weren't madness. They were a summons.Now I'm in a world that shouldn't exist, destined to be queen of a court I don't understand, bonded to four ancient fae who say they've waited six hundred years for me. And something dark is rising—something that wants to devour everything I'm supposed to protect.They tell me I'm the Bridge. The only one who can stop it.I tell them they've got the wrong woman.ZEPHYRI watched her star form the night she was conceived. I've memorized her face in the constellations for twenty-nine years. I've loved her longer than she's been alive.Now she's here. Real. Standing in my court with fire in her eyes and doubt in her heart.She doesn't believe she's our queen. She doesn't trust the prophecy. She has no idea that my brothers and I would slaughter gods to keep her safe.But she will.When the Endless Dark comes for her throne, when it tries to tear her from us, she'll learn exactly what four desperate immortals will do for the woman they've claimed.We've waited centuries for her.We'll burn eternity to keep her. less