The Thirteenth Child

Hazel Trépas is the thirteenth child in her family, promised from birth to one of the gods. She grows up waiting for her godfather, Merrick, the Dreaded End, to come for her. When he arrives, he has already mapped out her future: she will become a healer known across the kingdom for her precision and skill.

Merrick gives her a gift to match. Hazel can instantly work out the exact cure any sick person needs. The gift has a price, though. She can also see when Death has claimed a patient and no hope remains, and it falls to her to end that person's suffering for good.

The ghosts of those she has killed follow her, and she wants to run. Instead her path leads to the royal court, where she meets Leo, a rakish prince who holds everyone and everything in contempt. There she faces her hardest decision: whether to save a king who has been marked to die.

Hazel knows what Death expects of her, and she knows where her heart pulls her. Defying Death carries a cost she cannot guess.

The book retells the Grimm tale Godfather Death as dark fantasy with romance in it. It is a saga built on choices and their consequences, by the author of House of Salt and Sorrows.