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Three days later, we were standing on my grandfather’s porch, waiting for the moment to bury his ashes. I didn’t know how my parents had him cremated so quickly, and I didn’t ask.

He unfolded a wrinkled yellow paper, the lined kind from a legal pad. Sloppy, scrawled handwriting showed through the back of the page as he read it aloud. “I, Alpheus Salvador, do hereby bequeath my full estate—including my house, land, and all my possessions therein, to my granddaughter, Nadia Amante. Nadia, the inheritance is fully yours, upon the following conditions...”

I entered the study to find my parents seated on the plush couch by the window, and some random person at Gramps’ desk.

I sat outside for a solid twenty minutes, fighting with myself over whether I wanted to go back in.

My driver and I arrived at my grandfather’s property ten minutes later, and it surprised me how close he lived to campus. It had been so long since I visited him, I hadn’t realized the proximity. My parents lived farther than he did, twenty minutes in the opposite direction, and I visited them every other weekend, but I hadn’t been here in years.

The girl’s high eyebrows drew down and her perfect smile curved into a frown. “Oh, boo. Next time!” She sashayed away, and Mav’s eyes turned back to me.

The empress raised her arm, her cold eyes glaring out across the—

Lena’s mother stared at me. “Your mother was a Selkblood, yes? And your father a LeyGuard?”

After Kian made the statement about his missing friend and how his whole village had been destroyed, the mood in the room shifted.

The Earthside air was cool tonight, sharp with ozone, the pavement slick with remnants of rain.

The woman leading this conversation—Mara, or Lorie, or whoever she really was—didn’t seem very trustworthy to me.

I awoke in a dim room on a cold, hard floor.

An expectant silence fell over the room, awaiting my mother’s explanation.

I ended up not having to argue with anyone. Hart left the door to the meeting room open until Pops, Rake, and I were inside, then shut it behind us.

Blurb for Torn Fate: Guardians of Miralore Nadia Amante is a C-average college student whose only bright spots in life are her best friend Mav and her writing. That is, until her estranged, insane grandfather bequeaths her everything he owns, on two conditions: Nadia must never sell his home, and must live there alone until married. Nadia soon discovers Gramps wasn't crazy, he was a writer—of a very particular kind. Now, the fate of the magical realm he protected rests in Nad

Torn Fate: Guardians of Miralore a standalone YA fantasy serial full of magic, adventure, & sweet romance Crystal Crawford © 2024 Crystal Crawford All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and cer

The woman who must have been my mother turned wide, shocked eyes on me.

“There’s nothing here.” I looked up from the blank journal to Rake. “Chairman Hart said she couldn’t read it, but she thought my mom had probably warded it to be read only by her own bloodline… to me.”

Rake’s face relaxed. “I made a promise, though,” I reminded him.

The wall of tension between Rake and I was as solid as a slab of concrete. We were still glaring at each other in silence when a knock sounded on the door, then it slid open.