The Bone Mask

The Bone Mask is a high-heat snowed-in romantasy.

The Bear stalks the woods beyond the village. They have lived in fear of him for five years, ever since he snapped and killed his fellow warriors. But for Devon, the danger does not come from the forest. It comes from inside her own home.

Her husband accuses her of being a witch. Her marriage is annulled, her lips are sewn shut to silence her and she is marched up the icy mountain trail where she is bound to a stone to be judged by their god.

But he does not come for her. The Bear does.

When he approaches Devon in his bear skull mask and with a knife in his hand, she thinks she’s done for. But he cuts the ropes that bind her and offers to let her stay with him for a week or two while her scars heal. She should be terrified of him. She should be aching for her old life, back in the village. But in the Bear’s cabin, hidden deep in the woods, that isn’t why she aches.

The snows come early, stranding them together, and Devon finds in herself the bravery to ask for what she actually wants, not what she had always been told she should want. With the Bear, the worst horse in the world, and a mysterious cat for company, Devon’s heart thaws enough to unlock her own mysteries. And when the villagers who scarred them both come hunting for them, they will discover the only thing scarier than a bear is the witch who loves him.