The Girl who Rode the Unihorn

With full-color illustrations! "Dubh is a writer of great imagination." (Kirkus Reviews) "The book's intense world-building is worth the price of admission." (Kirkus Reviews) "A sprawling, linguistically playful dystopian novel." (Kirkus Reviews) To save the planet, they must risk the one thing left alive truly alive -- each other. On the last green highland of the world, the Wayp, Ròna guards a living forest bound to the Mother. Far below in the scorched DownBlow, Cuilean fights as a gladiator to survive the Monstrato Corps and their PieceTakers. They were children together once -- friends, then rivals, then lost to one another -- until fate and prophecy pull their paths tight again. When Monstrato's newest onslaught threatens the Wayp, Ròna must ride Dìleas, her enchanting unihorn, into forbidden territories where love is a weakness and loyalty is a weapon. Cuilean, the boy she remembers and the warrior he has become, stands between her and the storms to come. Together they face saber-tooth horrors and the bull-monster mìneotarbh, outwit corporate hunters, and uncover the long-buried vows that bind their hearts as surely as the forest binds its roots. This is a story of yearning in a dying world -- a slow-burn, friends-to-enemies-to-lovers arc set against epic adventure. As Ròna and Cuilean fight to save the Wayp from the ruin left by the Great Melt, their bond deepens from shared danger into a fierce, fate-marked love. Magic hums in leaf and horn, steel rings in the arenas of the DownBlow, and every choice tests whether passion can thrive where empires plunder and hope grows thin. The Girl Who Rode the Unihorn is romantasy with thorns and starlight -- an adventure of prophecy and peril, where a guardian of the forest and a branded champion risk everything to heal a broken earth and claim the one thing the corps can never own: each other. For romantasy readers who loveFriends to enemies to lovers Guardian x gladiator Slow-burn yearning with high-stakes adventure Sacred nature magic and a mythical mount Found family among the Children of the Mother Corporate empire vs. prophecy and fate