Lithina

In Lithina, beauty is law, class is destiny, and rebellion is burned into the skin.

Callen Rusk was born with the Black Mark, a cursed brand passed down through bloodlines as punishment for a rebellion he never fought. As a Disen, the lowest class in the kingdom, he is forbidden from most of the city, forced to sell his labor for scraps, and taught that survival means keeping his head down.

Princess Elowin Johito was born on the other side of the walls. Beloved by the kingdom and bound by duty, she has spent her life smiling for a court built on polished lies. But during her Nameday celebration, she sees Callen humiliated in the streets, and for the first time, the cruelty of Lithina is no longer distant, hidden, or easy to ignore.

Then Callen finds a strange gold ring beneath the roots of an ancient willow tree.

The ring is tied to a forbidden love story Lithina tried to bury, but its true danger is far greater than romance or myth. When it protects Callen from the Black Mark's magic, he becomes living proof of a dangerous truth: Lithina's cruelest curse was not fate. It was created. And what was created can be undone.

As Callen searches for answers and Elowin begins questioning the kingdom she was raised to represent, their choices pull them into a web of royal secrets, false histories, brutal laws, and enemies who would rather burn the truth than let it spread.

Because Lithina does not forgive defiance.

And a boy whose mark refuses to burn may be the first crack in an empire built on pain.

Lithina: The First Song is the opening book in Songs of Estana, a sweeping fantasy series with romantic elements, court politics, rebellion, inherited curses, buried history, war, and dangerous hope.