Mira has lived on the edges long enough to know the cost peace demands. In the forest, far from the village that never claimed her, survival is hard—but peace is honest, and solitude has become her chosen companion. When an immortal wanderer grants her stewardship of a secluded cottage hidden among the trees, she believes she has finally found all she needs. Until the night she finds a man bleeding across her cottage floor. Vale carries centuries of loss and hope in equal measure. As Mira tends his wounds and shares her quiet life with him, her solitude begins to shift—not because of danger, but because of the slow, irresistible pull of yearning she never meant to welcome. Drawn into a world long dismissed as myth, Mira discovers belonging—and the price it demands. Old forces stir. Loyalties strain. Prophecy whispers of steel and flame. And Mira is faced with a choice she never the quiet life she fought to build… or the aching, beautiful uncertainty of wanting more. In a land cut off from magic’s lifeline, one woman must decide whether she will remain hidden—or step into the fire that has always been calling her name.