The Girl and the Pit (Chronicles of the Betrayer’s Embrace - Book 1)

For centuries, the island of Lathrill was the jewel of the kingdom — its grand temple serving as both palace and sanctum to rulers who shaped the fate of the realm. But time, war, and the sea claimed it. Now only ruins remain, half‑devoured by the waves, and beneath them a labyrinth of caverns where ancient rituals once scarred the stone. Most believe the place cursed. Some say it still breathes.

Risten Vayne and his crew never meant to be drawn into its shadow. Their hunt began far from Lathrill, on the island of Pal Ortheen, where they found a village burned to its bones and the few survivors half‑mad with terror. Among the wreckage they learned of Serella, a young girl taken by the sorcerer Darrus Kelthane — a man whose indulgence has rotted him from the inside, yet whose power remains dangerous and unpredictable. His mercenaries had torched the village, leaving only ash, screams, and a trail of fear behind.

Rumours carried Risten’s crew across islands and taverns, through frightened whispers and reluctant confessions. Every tale pointed toward Lathrill — toward the tunnels beneath the ruined temple, where Kelthane had begun a ritual older than the kingdom itself. In a cavern deep below the stone, a massive brass ring encircles a gaping pit, pulsing with unnatural life. Symbols glow sickly blue. The ground groans. Something long dormant stirs.

Kelthane sits slumped in his throne, a ruin of excess and obsession, forcing his breath into a steady rhythm as though terrified of what might answer if he falters. The ritual drains him, yet he clings to it, convinced that whatever lies beneath the pit will grant him power beyond mortal reach. Serella is the key — though no one yet understands why.

As Risten and his companions close in, they face more than a sorcerer and his hired blades. Lathrill itself seems to watch them. Sailors speak of omens: shadows bending toward the earth, wind dying without warning, the ground breathing slow and hungry beneath one’s feet. Those who linger too long are said to leave without their souls intact.

The crew must navigate the island’s cursed history, the treacherous tunnels, and the growing dread that Kelthane’s ritual is awakening something that should have remained forgotten. Their search for Serella becomes a race against a force older than the kingdom — a force that remembers every soul that steps upon Lathrill’s shores.

And beneath the temple, the pit waits.