Crown of CindersA Twisted Cinderella Retelling

To save her family, a scullery girl accepts a midnight bargain, and the Crown of Cinders demands ash, obedience, and desire.

In the soot-choked kitchens beneath a glittering palace, Mara Ashvale lives under a ledger of debts and bruises. Her stepmother sells beauty to the highest bidder, her stepsisters wear borrowed silk, and Mara scrubs blood from stone after every royal feast.

Then the palace announces the Cinder Masque, a season of public pageants where a prince chooses his queen by law, hunger, and spectacle. Attendance costs more than a coin. Attendance costs a name.

A witch in white lace offers Mara a deal sealed in cinders and glass. One night in the ballroom. One gown spun from smoke. One slipper that fits like a glove. In return, the Crown of Cinders marks Mara as chosen and marks her family as protected.

Mara plans to take the bargain, steal one night of safety, and vanish before dawn. The palace runs on cruel rules. The mirrors remember. The prince hunts beauty with a curse behind his eyes, and every dance turns into a test.

Desire sparks under every threat. Each midnight toll tightens the Crown’s hold. When the court learns Mara’s face, the game turns lethal. Mara must decide who pays the final price: the family who raised her in ashes, the prince who wants her in chains, or the part of Mara that wants the crown to choose her back.

Crown of Cinders is Book Five in Wicked Ever After, a standalone adult dark romantasy retelling with gothic atmosphere, high heat, and story magic that bites.