By the time she was brought to the hospital, her limbs were blue with cold. Ī passerby discovered a toddler sitting on the chilly concrete of an alley, playing with the wrapper of a cat-food container. By the time she was eight, she could lift bags of groceries that her adoptive mother struggled with.īy the time she was nine, she was gone. And she could play in the snow for hours, constructing elaborate tunnels and mock-fighting with icicles, coming inside only when called.Īlthough she appeared bony and anemic, she was strong. Her lip color changed like a mood ring, staying bluish and purple even in summer, turning pink only when close to a fire. Her foster parents bundled her up in jackets and coats and mittens and gloves, but unlike her sister, she was never cold. She was a wizened little thing, too thin, made of sticks.Īs she grew, her skin retained a slight bluish cast, resembling skimmed milk. But if she agrees, it will mean guarding her heart against the boy she once knew and a prince she cannot trust, as well as confronting all the horrors she thought she left behind.Ī passerby discovered a toddler sitting on the chilly concrete of an alley, playing with the wrapper of a cat-food container. He’s on a mission that will lead him into the north, and he wants Suren’s help. Now seventeen, Oak is charming, beautiful, and manipulative. Suren is saved by none other than Prince Oak, heir to Elfhame, to whom she was once promised in marriage and who she has resented for years. She believes herself forgotten until the storm hag, Bogdana chases her through the night streets. Lonely, and still haunted by the merciless torments she endured in the Court of Teeth, she bides her time by releasing mortals from foolish bargains. Suren, child queen of the Court of Teeth, and the one person with power over her mother, fled to the human world. There, she is using an ancient relic to create monsters of stick and snow who will do her bidding and exact her revenge. But in the icy north, Lady Nore of the Court of Teeth has reclaimed the Ice Needle Citadel. DescriptionĮight years have passed since the Battle of the Serpent.

The stolen heir by holly black