They wrapped her in funeral flowers and walked her down to the god whose touch is death.
In the gold‑drunk city of Thrya, Ianthe eases the dying for bread the living resent giving her, and hides the ash that floods her eyes when she does it. The sky‑god's priests call her work a low one. They also call for a sacrifice every autumn - and the year the lot falls on her younger sister, Ianthe offers herself instead.
What waits below is not the horror the priests preach. It is a cold, beautiful realm, a court of the forgotten, and Erebos - the Ferryless King, cursed so that his touch kills everything he loves. Ianthe is bound to his side to hold a dying door between the living and the dead. Forbidden the one nearness they both want. Spent, like every bride before her, until she wears through.
Except Ianthe was never an ordinary bride. The cold does not kill her. It crowns her.
And the god who built the world's cruelty is about to learn what happens when the gentlest thing in creation finally refuses to fold her hands.
The Asphodel Vow is a standalone dark Hades‑and‑Persephone fantasy romance: a touch‑her‑and‑die slow burn with a morally grey shadow king, a found family of monsters, an open‑door spice level, and an earned happily‑ever‑after. For readers of Scarlett St. Clair, Katee Robert, and Carissa Broadbent. Adult readers - see content note inside.
Hades & Persephone · touch‑her‑and‑die · forced proximity · morally grey death god · found family of monsters · standalone with a HEA
