Where the Dark Stands Still

Liska Radost grows up in a village on the edge of the spirit-wood, where she is taught that magic is monstrous and that anyone born with it becomes a monster too. She spends years holding her own power down. When it finally breaks loose, the damage is catastrophic.

She runs into the demon-haunted forest with one aim: to ask the wood for a wish that will take her magic away for good. The Leszy, the forest's ancient warden, catches her before she gets that far. He offers a bargain. If she serves him for a year in his crumbling, half-alive manor, he will grant the wish she came for.

The year gives Liska more than chores. She is drawn into the Leszy's grief, which has lasted centuries, and into the old, buried quarrel that lies between the village and the spirit-wood it fears. A bond forms between the two of them, and neither expected it.

This is young adult fantasy, built from Slavic mythology and Polish folklore. The setting is an eerie, decaying house inside a haunted forest, and the story unfolds across a single year. It reached the finalist list for the 2024 Goodreads Choice Award in the Young Adult Fantasy category.