The Stone-Mason's Heart

In the subterranean city of Onyx Ridge, the truth is buried deep. And digging it up is a capital offense.

Kara Volk is a Litho-Forensic Sculptor. In a world where the dead do not rot but turn into gemstones that hold their final secrets, she is the only one skilled enough to chisel the truth from their crystallized remains. Strong, cynical, and suffering from "Dust-Lung," she wants nothing to do with the city's corrupt politics.

But when the King dies and his body turns to useless coal instead of a royal diamond, Kara is blackmailed into service by Torin Kael, the Warden of Bedrock.

Torin is the city's terrifying High Sheriff-a man as immovable and cold as the stone he guards. He needs Kara to forge a fake inheritance stone to prevent a civil war. But as they descend into the Royal Quarry, they discover that the city's geological magic is failing, and the aristocracy is harvesting souls to maintain their power.

Trapped in the glittering, suffocating dark with a man who enforces the very laws she is breaking, Kara finds herself drawn to the Warden's quiet intensity. Torin, cursed with a touch that crushes ordinary flesh, finds in Kara the only thing durable enough to withstand him: a woman slowly turning to diamond herself.

A gritty, atmospheric Dark Romantasy where love is as heavy as stone, and secrets are the only currency that matters.