THE HOLLOW VEIN

Elara Veyne is an Empathic Siphon—a healer who takes the wounds of others into her own body. Every life she saves leaves a silver scar on her skin. After years of giving everything and receiving nothing, she believes her betrothal to Kaelen Drost, the King's Spymaster, is finally her turn to be loved. On their wedding night, he paralyzes her with drugged wine and sells her unconscious body to a dying warlord who needs to study her magic. Kaelen holds her hand through the violation and calls it sacrifice. She wakes to fresh flowers and a thank-you note. But her magic is broken. She can no longer choose when to heal—she involuntarily absorbs the pain of anyone near her. Hunted, exhausted, and unable to touch another person without draining them, she flees to the lawless Grey Marches. There she meets Rhys Ander, a disgraced physician who teaches her a brutal truth: before she can heal anyone else, she must learn how to say no. To watch suffering and do nothing. To let her own wounds exist without turning them into currency for love. But the warlord who stole her magic has weaponized it into a plague. To stop it, she must take back every stolen piece of herself—even if it costs her the ability to feel anything at all. The Hollow Vein is a dark fantasy about what happens when a woman who gave everything finally learns to keep something for herself.