Echoes of The Lunthra by Tala Khalil

The Law of Haelen is absolute. Bind your soul by the twenty-first solstice or be claimed by the Veythar, shadow-wrought reapers who feast on the essence of the unbound.

Kaelia Vaser has watched too many people choose safe, loveless bonds just to survive. The High Court calls it protection. She calls it surrender. When her own solstice arrives, Kaelia swears she will not trade her soul for a signature on a ledger.
But as the day draws closer, her soul awakens, and it does not reach for any mortal suitor. It screams for the one being she was raised to fear.
Talon Veyr is Master of the Veythar, a lethal bridge between realms and the very reaper meant to claim Kaelia if she fails. He is shadow, power, and ruin made flesh, and the one being her soul recognizes as its equal.
Their connection is not merely forbidden. It is impossible.
Because if a child of Haelen binds themselves to a reaper, the truth buried beneath centuries of doctrine will surface. The High Court’s authority will fracture. The barrier between realms will weaken.
And the Veythar will no longer remain in the dark.

Now Kaelia must decide whether to secure a loveless bond and preserve the lie, or step into Umbral at Talon’s side and risk igniting a reckoning that could tear both worlds apart.