Bride of the Thorned King: A Twisted Hans My Hedgehog Retelling

She vowed herself to a thorn-crowned king to pay a blood debt, then learned his curse wanted her skin as payment.

To save her family, she offers herself to a thorn-crowned monster, and the bargain demands blood, obedience, and a kiss drawn from pain.

A poor woodcutter’s daughter walks into the Ironwood to settle a debt her father swore in secret. The road ends at a palace grown from iron trees, where the branches ring like blades in the wind.

The ruler waiting inside is no gentle prince.

The Thorned King wears his curse in his body. Spines along his jaw. Bristles beneath his gloves. A crown of living thorns fused to bone. He keeps his court behind locked gates because the forest obeys him, and it eats anyone who tries to leave.

He offers her a single deal.

One season as his bride. One vow spoken under the Ironwood boughs. In return, her family lives, and the men hunting them turn away.

She plans to endure the marriage, keep her heart shut, and count the days. The palace has other rules. The servants watch for weakness. The forest listens for lies. Each time she bleeds on his thorns, the curse shifts, and the king grows more dangerous, more human, more hungry.

Desire sharpens alongside fear. Night visits turn into tests of control. The more she wants him, the deeper the thorns sink into the life she meant to escape.

When a rival court comes to harvest the Ironwood for war, she faces the truth behind the curse. The Thorned King does not need a bride to break his spell. He needs one to survive what he becomes when the Story Law tightens.

Bride of the Thorned King is Book Four in Wicked Ever After, an adult dark romantasy fairy tale retelling with gothic atmosphere, high heat, and a curse written in flesh.