Kest Wynn has two rules: keep her head down, and keep her sister breathing.

As a human slave in a Mountain Troll labor camp, Kest survives on forgeries, stolen coins, and careful math. Every breath is calculated. Every forged ledger line is a gamble. And the crystal gem fused to her wrist, the mark of the Attuned, is wrapped so tight she can barely feel her own pulse.

Then the warlord Korrak imports a chained elven prisoner, and everything Kest has carefully built begins to unravel.

The elf knows what she is. And he's not the only one.

With the Sundering Rite closing in, a ceremony that will put Kest's power on display and break everything she's been hiding, she has days to forge a plan, file a key, and get her sister out alive. But escaping a troll warlord's stronghold means trusting an elf with secrets of his own, relying on allies who may not survive the morning, and using the very power she's spent years concealing.

One wrong move and the brand goes on. One wrong night and Mara pays for it.

The Crystal Born is a pulse-pounding young adult fantasy about a girl who turned survival into a science, and must now bet everything on a single, perfect escape with a sister she refuses to leave behind and the most unlikely of allies.

For fans of fierce heroines, intricate heists, and fantasy worlds where freedom is earned one breath at a time.