The Withered Crown - Tegan Lleuad

In a world that punishes integrity, defiance becomes sacred.

Magic still endures in the Blue Ridge Mountains, tucked behind the church bells and gossip of Briar Gap, North Carolina. Mara Hollis runs the local occult shop where spells are sold in mason jars and wrapped in brown paper. But when a protection spell meant to banish her obsessive ex goes wrong, it calls something ancient across the Veil, and a cursed fae guardian answers.

Eiranthiel is bound, beautiful and dangerous. He owes Mara protection until she's "safe." Trouble is, nothing in Briar Gap is safe anymore. Her ex refuses to let go, an authoritarian president has begun targeting those who don't fit his vision of order, and the magic Mara used to defend herself begins to unravel the thin places around her home, drawing forgotten powers back into the world.

As zealotry spreads through the hills and old magic stirs in answer, Mara must decide who she is willing to become to survive. With her coven, her watchful cat, and the reluctant guardian she never meant to summon, she must choose whether to hide, fight, or reclaim the mountain's memory before it devours its own.

A story of witches and weather, sovereignty and control, The Withered Crown is about the cost of safety, the defiance of remembrance, and the dangerous grace of being truly seen.