The Songbird & the Heart of Stone: The Shadowborn Duet, Book One (Crowns of Nyaxia, 3) by Carissa Broadbent

A dark, mythic romantasy about faith shattered by violence—and the dangerous pull of the very darkness you’re told to fear. The Songbird & the Heart follows a woman who lost everything when she was forcibly Turned into a vampire, then gets pulled into an underworld mission where salvation and damnation are separated by one impossible choice.

Mische lost her home, her humanity, and the love of the sun god she devoted her life to when she was forcibly Turned into a vampire. Now she’s sentenced to death for murdering the vampire prince who did it, and redemption feels out of reach—until she’s saved by Asar, the scarred bastard prince of the House of Shadow, whose past is as brutal as the marks on his skin.

Asar doesn’t rescue her out of kindness—he drags her into a mission worse than execution: a journey to the underworld to resurrect the god of death himself. And just when Mische thinks she can’t be more trapped, her sun god gives her a command in secret: help Asar succeed… then betray him by killing the death god she brings back.

Together, Mische and Asar trek through trials, beasts, and the vengeful ghosts of their pasts, while the underworld tightens around them. But the most dangerous threat isn’t the monsters—it’s the alluring call of the darkness, and Mische’s forbidden attraction to Asar, a bond that could ignite the wrath of gods. With betrayal looming and divine anger rising, Mische must choose: the redemption of the sun… or the damnation of the dark.

Crown of Nyaxia Series Order

• The Serpent and the WIngs of Night (Book 1)
• The Ashes and the Star Crused King (Book 2)
• The Songbird and the Heart of Stone (Book 3)
• The Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk (Book 4)
• The Lion and the Deathless Dark (Book 5)

Crowns of Nyaxia Standalones:

• Six Scorched Roses (short novel)
• Slaying the Vampire Conqueror