When the Sky Breaks

By: Grace Hughes

Sorcha wasn’t meant to inherit the Outer Court like this. One moment, the day was calm. The next, a portal tore open—light, sound, wrongness—and an eldritch creature killed her father where he stood. By dawn, Iksura of the Inner Court had already begun her coup. With rivals closing in and portals appearing across the continent, Sorcha is forced into the one alliance she never expected to need: a strategic marriage to Neal, her father’s steward. Their union was meant to secure her claim. Instead, it becomes the first crack in everything holding her world together. Neal is loyal to a fault—steady hands, steady heart, and a devotion he refuses to name. But even he can’t shield them from what waits beyond their borders: cults worshiping the abominations, creatures slipping through the seams of the world, and magic bending in ways it never should. Sorcha and Neal flee across nations and oceans in search of answers, joined by Ansel, the Outer Court’s monster-hunter—sharp-eyed, unflinching, and far too acquainted with the things that crawl out of the dark. From desert roads to storm-lashed ships and haunted cities, each stop reveals another piece of a threat older and far more sinister than they imagined. And with every mile traveled, one truth becomes clearer: It isn’t the monsters they should fear. It’s what they’re becoming to each other.