She just wanted a normal life. The universe had other plans.

Ondine is almost sixteen, works in her family's pub, and has exactly enough energy left at the end of the day to fall asleep three minutes after hitting the pillow. Normal. Safe. Hers. But when her witch friend drags her on a midnight astral projection through the rain-soaked streets of Venzelemma, Ondine witnesses something that shatters any hope of ordinary — a scheming lord quietly moving pieces into place, a soul trapped in a vacuum bag, and a powerless body rocking in the corner of an asylum. The most dangerous witch in Brugel is one reunion away from being whole again.



Now Ondine is caught between her mother's strict orders to stay away from the royal family and a secret mission that could determine the future of an entire country. Worse, the boy she loves — Hamish, once cursed into the shape of a ferret and still not entirely free of that magic — is changing in ways neither of them can explain. Silver threads at his temples. A spell that may be unravelling. Time that was never really on their side. Every stolen moment together feels like borrowed time, and every step toward the truth pulls her deeper into a conspiracy she was never supposed to know about.



Can Ondine outmanoeuvre a lord with ambition and no conscience, protect the boy she loves from a curse slowly reclaiming him, and keep Brugel from the edge of chaos — before the forces gathering in the shadows make the choice for her?



Ebony McKenna is the Australian author of the ONDINE series, about a teen who comes home from psychic summercamp with a pet ferret who talks with a Scottish accent. She also writes historical and mostly Regency-era romance as Ebony Oaten. These have a sweet tone but the main characters are adults.