Anathema: Standard Edition (Eating Woods, 1) by Keri Lake

A spellbinding gothic dark fantasy where the forest itself is a death sentence—and crossing its boundary drops you into a realm of cursed souls and grotesque creatures. Anathema launches The Eating Woods with a shunned heroine forced beyond the forbidden line, and the cold, lethal lord tasked with keeping her alive… even as fate makes her the key to his curse—and the target of a prophecy.

There are whispers about Witch Knell, the forest where sinners go to die. The villagers call it The Eating Woods because what it takes is never returned. No one goes near it—unless they’ve lost their senses.

Or unless they’ve been banished.

Maevyth Bronwick knows better than to breach the misty labyrinth of trees, but tragedy forces her past the archway of bones and beyond a boundary no mortal has crossed before. On the other side is a dark, fantastical world—dangerous, alluring, and crawling with cursed things.

It’s there she meets Zevander Rydainn, the cursed lord of Eidolon—an assassin so cold and calculated he’s known as The Scorpion. He’s tasked with keeping Maevyth hidden from the magehood that wants to crucify her in the name of an arcane prophecy… and he’d rather toss his feisty ward to a pack of fyredrakes than play protector.

If only he could.

Because Maevyth’s blood may be the key to breaking Zevander’s despised curse—and vanquishing the slumbering evil in Witch Knell. But fate has plans, and Zevander’s growing obsession with the “irresistible little enchantress” threatens to destroy everything… including himself.

Series note: Book 1 in The Eating Woods series.