Chapters (9)

With the fate of the kingdom at stake, Alyrra is caught between two worlds and ultimately must decide who she is, and what she stands for.

Find Thorn at your preferred retailer and add it to Goodreads here.

Also by Intisar:

The cover for “Sunbolt,” featuring a flower / sun like symbol composed as follows: the center is a small blue knot surrounded by a second interwoven / never ending knot of yellows and oranges. A red circle with jagged inserts surrounds this, and the petals are composed of flame-like lotus flowers first in oranges and reds and the, further back, in blues. The overall background is a smoky blue. Beneath the emblem, the word SUNBOLT is written with a glowing yellow-orange lettering, over a glowing flourish. At the bottom are the words, “Book One of the Sunbolt Chronicles” followed by the author’s name, “Intisar Khanani.”

The winding streets and narrow alleys of Karolene hide many secrets, and Hitomi is one of them. Orphaned at a young age, Hitomi has learned to hide her magical aptitude and who her parents really were. Most of all, she must conceal her role in the Shadow League, an underground movement working to undermine the powerful and corrupt Arch Mage Wilhelm Blackflame.

When the League gets word that Blackflame intends to detain—and execute—a leading political family, Hitomi volunteers to help the family escape. But there are more secrets at play than Hitomi’s, and much worse fates than execution. When Hitomi finds herself captured along with her charges, it will take everything she can summon to escape with her life.

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Acknowledgments

This story would never have come into existence without the interest and support of my editor at Hot Key, Fliss Alexander. Thank you so much for believing in Alyrra, and for asking for a story about her preceding the events of Thorn. I’ve known the gist of this story for years and it was such a treat (bittersweet though the tale may be) to get to write it. Many thanks also to the whole team over at Hot Key, including Talya Baker and Anna Bowles, for all your work to help bring this story into the world. I am so grateful to you all!

Thanks also to my agent Emmanuelle Morgen, for being my champion and support, in all things big and small. Thorn, and this story, would not have reached so many readers without your faith and hard work. Thank you.

This story owes much of its early growth to the beta readers who heroically returned comments within a very tight timeframe. Rachel Dugdale, Shy Eager, Marielle Kaifer, Tia Michaud, Annemieke Oosterling, and Sara Umer thank you for being the first line of defense and helping me to kick this story into shape! Thanks also to authors Anela Deen, W.R. Gingell, and A.C. Spahn, for your invaluable input. And finally, thanks to Laurel Garver for her careful line edit at the eleventh hour to help put the final polish on this story.

As always, I am grateful to my family—my husband, my wonderful girls, my parents, my brother and his wife—for their support as I continue this amazing adventure that is writing.

And finally, I am grateful to God for granting me these stories to write, the opportunity to share them, and such an amazing cadre of people to support me.

Acknowledgments

About the Author